Badran was born 12 November 1961 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia to Helga and Frederick Badran.^[8] Her father was born in Lebanon and has emigrated to Australia in the 1920s. Her mother was Swiss and met him at Baur au Lac in Zürich, while he was on a business trip. She followed him to Australia where two daughters were born.^[9] Frederick Badran was a textile manufacturer who owned Badran's of Wollongong.^[10] In 1966, the family relocated to Zürich, where they resided in District 7.^[11] After her parents divorced, her father moved back to Lebanon and her mother married Count Gian Franco Fabbricotti, nobility that originated in Livorno, Italy.^[12]

Badran attended the local schools in Zürich and then spent two gap years traveling and exercising. She then studied Biology at the University of Zürich.^[13] She then completed a licentiate in Economics and Political Sciences at the University of St. Gallen.^[13] At the University of St.Gallen she was also involved in the environmental student initiative OIKOS.^[14]

During her studies she taught others how to ski or was employed at the counter of a cinema.^[15] In 2000 she founded Zeix AG with two partners^[16] and since 2004 she is the CEO^[17] of the software company.^[18]

In 1991 she joined the Social Democratic Party (SP)^[19] for which she was elected to the municipal council in of Zurich 2002 in which she stayed until 2011.^[13] She was elected to the Swiss National Council in the Swiss parliamentary elections in 2011^[20] and re-elected in the parliamentary elections in 2015 and 2019.^[20] In January 2020, she announced her candidacy for the vice presidency of the SP, but under the pre-condition that Mattea Meyer and Cedric Wermuth would become the Co-Presidents.^[21] Since December 2020, she is the vice-president of the SP. Following an exhaustive, but successful campaign against the abolishment of the Issuance Tax, she announced a pause from politics for a few months.^[22]

Political positions edit

She became known nationally as a local politician in Zurich through her consistent and successful fight against the abolition of the Lex Koller, which permitted non-residents of Switzerland, to own land in Switzerland.^[18] On several occasions she has been strongly committed to working out counter-proposals to popular initiatives.^[15]

She is married to Victor Badran (né Kemper), a Dutch bicycle-messenger who adopted the surname of his wife.^[15] She is a dual Australian-Swiss citizen.^[23] Badran survived serious disasters twice.^[24] In 1993, she was buried by an avalanche in the Engadin.^[25] On November 24, 2001, she survived an airplane crash near Bassersdorf, which killed 24 people.^[26] She has no children.