These three women from Guinea-Bissau became the first black women in Portugal’s parliament

Beatriz Gomes Dias

The former high school biology teacher who ran with the far-left Left Bloc party is the president of Djass, an anti-racism association whose mission is “to defend the rights of black and African descendants in Portugal and to combat racism.” The organization in 2018 campaigned for the construction of a monument to honor victims of slavery. “I remember being a child, looking at the majority of Portuguese people and not being like them, and not having a place for me and people like me,” 49-year-old Dias said in an interview.

Authorities later agreed to the establishment of the monument, saying it will overlook Lisbon’s port, where slaves were taken before being transported to the Americas on Portuguese ships.

Dias, last October, agreed that her election is a sign of a new moment in politics: “I think so, there are transformations that are contagious. The struggle that the movements made in the street, the anti-racist movements, the black movement in the street, had an impact on political parties.”