Wan Azizah Wan Ismail

Wan Azizah binti Wan Ismail (born 3 December 1952) is a Malaysian politician and the current spouse of the prime minister of Malaysia as the wife of Anwar Ibrahim. She first entered parliament in 1999, and has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bandar Tun Razak since 2022 as a member of the People's Justice Party. She is the first woman to serve as deputy prime minister of Malaysia, a position she held from 2018 to 2020.

Born in the Colony of Singapore, Wan Azizah graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. She practised medicine, specialised in ophthalmology, and served as a government doctor for 14 years before leaving in 1993. Entering politics in 1998 after her husband's dismissal as the 7th deputy prime minister of Malaysia, she led the Reformasi movement and founded the National Justice Party (PKN), later People's Justice Party (PKR), becoming the second woman to lead a parliamentary party in Malaysia. She won the Permatang Pauh seat in 1999, retained it in 2004, and briefly stepped aside in 2008 for her husband's return, but continued to lead PKR as it grew into an opposition force.

Wan Azizah became Malaysia's first female leader of the Opposition in April 2008, but resigned later that year to allow her husband to succeed her. During her time in opposition, she spoke out on human rights issues, and was active in domestic debates on Malay supremacy, governance, and land issues. She continued her political career, winning the Kajang by-election in 2014 and later reclaiming Permatang Pauh in 2015. She won the Pandan seat in 2018 and became Malaysia's first female deputy prime minister, while also serving as minister of women, family and community development. She left office during the 2020 political crisis but returned to the Dewan Rakyat in 2022 after winning the Bandar Tun Razak seat. Following her husband's appointment as prime minister that year, she became the spouse of the prime minister.