Appointed to the NSW Legislative Council in 2013, Mehreen Faruqi was the first Muslim woman to be a member of Australian parliament. In 2018 she was sworn in as a Senator, becoming the first Muslim senator in Australia. Since June 2022, Mahreen has served as Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens. Mehreen was born in Pakistan in 1963 and graduated from the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) in Lahore with a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) in 1988. In 1992 she moved to Sydney, earning a Master of Engineering Science from UNSW in 1994 followed by a Doctorate in Environmental Engineering, in 2000. Before parliament, Mehreen had a 25-year career as a professional engineer and academic.