Femke Halsema

(Haarlem, NL, 1966) earned her stripes with her strongly independent and intellectual stance. As a politician she was a staunch advocate of human rights, women's rights, and civil liberties. Since 2011 she has worked as an author, broadcaster, and producer (including the TV series The Political Party). In 2014 she made the documentary series Seks en de zonde (Sex and Sin) with Hassnae Bouazza, about women in the Islamic world. A series on terror with the working title Fout na der oorlog (On the Wrong Side After the War) is in production. In recent years she has been associated with the universities of Tilburg and Utrecht as a guest lecturer. At the request of the government, she led two commissions of inquiry into the state of the semi-public sector, and one into financial irregularities at the University of Amsterdam. She also holds various management positions, including chair of the Supervisory Board of the Weekly Press Group, of the Board of the Dutch Refugee Foundation, and of the 3rd international conference on women's shelters. Since November 2015 she has been president of the Dutch Association of the Disabled. Her autobiography Pluche (Plush), about her years in national politics, will be published in February 2016.