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Agatha BarbaraAgatha Barbara (March 11, 1923 – February 4, 2002) was the first woman president of Malta. Barbara was born in Zabbar, Malta, and was educated at the grammar school in Valletta. During the Second World War, she worked as an air raid warden. She was a schoolteacher from the early 1940s until 1947, when she became the first woman elected to the Maltese parliament; she was the only woman to be returned in these elections. She was a member of parliament until 1981, by which time she had contested and been elected in ten consecutive elections. She served as education minister of Malta in the Labour Party government of Dom Mintoff from 1955 to 1958 and instituted compulsory full-time education in Malta for children, leading to the hiring of hundreds of new teachers. In 1958 she served 43 days in prison "with hard labour", for picketing during a national strike following the resignation of Mintoff. In a subsequent Labour government, she was once again Minister for Education, between 1971 and 1974, after which she became Minister for Labour, Culture and Welfare and eventually Deputy Prime Minister. On 16 February 1982, she was appointed the third President of the Republic and the first, and only, woman to hold this post. Barbara was elected President for a 5-year term in 1982. She served as President until 1987. She then retired to Zabbar, where she died.
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