Ferial Ashraff

Ferial Ismail Ashraff (born August 20, 1953) is a Sri Lankan politician. She was the wife of M. H. M. Ashraff, the deceased leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and the National Unity Alliance. She was the Minister of Housing and Common Amenities under President Chandrika Kumaratunga. She was a representative of Ampara District for the United People's Freedom Alliance in the Parliament of Sri Lanka. She resides in Colombo.

After contesting at General Elections in 2000, she was able to win the Digamadulla seat at the Parliament, and later went onto hold the position of the Minister of Housing and Common Amenities. 2010, she was appointed to the board of the National Institute of Education. In 2011 she was appointed to the position of Sri Lanka High Commissioner to Singapore.

Political career
The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, which was founded by M.H.M. Ashraff in 1981, facilitated for the entry of Ferial Ashraff into politics upon the death of her husband for a brief period of time, which led to a power struggle for a new, charismatic leader from the East, a position that both Ferial Ashroff and the SLMC Deputy Leader at the time, Rauff Hakeem contested for. Upon her failure, she broke away from the group and formulated the National Unity Alliance (NUA), a multiethnic political party that sought to center itself upon more than the Muslim Majority Identity.