{{Short description|Albanian politician (1921–2008)}} {{Infobox officeholder | image = Naxhije Dumi.jpg | image_size = 200px | office1 = Minister of Education | term1 = 6 February 1948 – 22 November 1948 | predecessor1 = Sejfulla Malëshova | successor1 = Kahreman Ylli | office2 = Member of the Parliament | term2 = 1945–1950 | constituency2 = Korça | birth_date = 3 January 1921 | birth_place = Lubonjë, Albania | death_date = {{death date and age|2008|9|29|1921|1|3|df=y}} | death_place = Tirana, Albania | spouse = Nesti Kerenxhi | children = 3 }}
'''Naxhije Dume''' (3 January 1921 – 29 September 2008)<ref>Kastriot Dervishi (2012) ''Kryeministrat dhe ministrat e shtetit shqiptar në 100 vjet : anëtarët e Këshillit të Ministrave në vitet 1912-2012, jetëshkrimet e tyre dhe veprimtaria e ekzekutivit shqiptar'', pp120–121</ref> was an Albanian politician. She was one of the first group of female members of the Albanian parliament and the first female minister, serving briefly as Minister of Education in 1948.
==Biography== Dume was born in Lubonjë in January 1921, the daughter of Vezirja and Dume Dumja.<ref name=TO>[https://web.archive.org/web/20151102042612/http://www.tiranaobserver.al/naxhije-dume-ministrja-e-pare-shqiptare-qe-u-persekutua-tere-jeten/ Naxhije Dume, ministrja e parë shqiptare, që u persekutua tërë jetën] Tirana Observer, 1 November 2015</ref> The family moved regularly due to her father's work and between 1933 and 1941 she was educated at the Queen Mother Pedagogical Institute.<ref name=TO/> She subsequently became a teacher at the Avni Rustemi school in Tirana.<ref name=TO/>
She attended the first conference of the Communist Party of Albania in 1943 and became a member of its central committee.<ref name=TO/> During the Congress of Përmet in May 1944 she was elected to the Anti-Fascist National Liberation Council alongside her husband Nesti Kerenxhi.<ref name=P>[https://www.parlament.al/Files/sKuvendi/LigjvenesitNeVite.pdf Ligjvënësit Shqiptarë në Vite] Parliament of Albania</ref> Dume contested the December 1945 parliamentary elections in the Korça constituency, and was one of three women elected to the Constituent Assembly alongside Liri Gega and Ollga Plumbi.<ref>Sonila Boçi [https://digilib.phil.muni.cz/bitstream/handle/11222.digilib/135432/2_PortaBalkanica_7-2015-2_5.pdf?sequence=1 The December 2nd, 1945 Albanian Elections: Legitimization, or Mere Formalization for Communist Power?]</ref> In 1948 she was appointed Minister of Education, becoming the first female minister in Albania.<ref name=BF>Blendi Fevziu (2016) [https://books.google.com/books?id=lbeKDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA266 ''Enver Hoxha: The Iron Fist of Albania''] p266</ref> However, later in the year she was criticised by Enver Hoxha at a party congress and removed from her positions.
Between 1951 and 1953 she served as a director of the Archaeological-Ethnographic Museum. In 1956 she became a director of the National Library in 1956, a role she held foe three years.<ref name=TO/> However, in 1959 she was forced to move to Cërrik and lost her job.<ref name=TO/> She later found employment as director of a library in Elbasan, before becoming a teacher in the city.<ref name=TO/> Her husband became director of a mine in Selenicë and the family moved to the town.<ref name=TO/>
Dume retired in 1972. However, after her husband was imprisoned from 1982 to 1983, the couple were interned. She remained in internment until the fall of the People's Socialist Republic in 1992,<ref name=BF/> and returned to Tirana in 1996.<ref name=TO/> She died in September 2008 following a long illness.<ref name=TO/>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dume, Naxhije}} Category:1921 births Category:Albanian communists Category:Party of Labour of Albania politicians Category:Members of the Parliament of Albania Category:Women members of the Parliament of Albania Category:Education ministers of Albania Category:20th-century Albanian educators Category:2008 deaths Category:20th-century Albanian women politicians Category:20th-century women educators Category:Government ministers of Albania Category:Women government ministers of Albania