The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

(bbc.com) Lawyer Rachida Dati, named as French justice minister by President Sarkozy, is the first person of North African origin to hold a top government post in Paris.

She was born in 1965 to an Moroccan mason father and an Algerian mother, one of 12 children raised in humble circumstances.

At the age of 16, she started working as a carer in a private clinic.

The premature death of her mother forced her to look after her younger sisters and brothers.

“My mother was the light of my life. When I lost her, I thought I had been punished,” she says. (more..)