Tofik Dibi

Tovek "Tofik" Dibi (born November 19, 1980 in Vlissingen) is a former Dutch politician for GreenLeft (GroenLinks). He was a Member of Parliament from November 30, 2006 till September 19, 2012. He focused on matters of criminal law, safety, youth, family, and integration.

Biography

Dibi is of Moroccan descent. He has studied Media and Culture at the University of Amsterdam, specializing in cinema. He combined his study with activities in the Marxist Turkish Workers' Union in the Netherlands (Turkish: Hollanda Türkiyeli Isçiler Birligi (HTIB), Dutch: Turkse Arbeidersvereniging in Nederland), and in his own neighborhood Bos en Lommer in Amsterdam. Together with the Trotskyist International Socialists, he initiated the national demonstration Stop Bush! organizing protests when George W. Bush visited the Netherlands in 2005, and the national action committee Enough is Enough, which focused on the discrimination against Muslims.

In September 2006 Dibi unexpectedly came in seventh on the list of GreenLeft for the 2006 general elections and was chosen in the House of Representatives in November 2006. The GreenLeft screening commission called him "a political talent", to Dibi's own amazement, for he had not considered his candidacy all that seriously. At the time he was the youngest member of parliament. Because of his background he concentrated on improving opportunities for young allochtoon (migrant) people in the larger cities.