The Story of Ilhan Omar!

written by Emma Bartley

Ilhan Omar. You probably haven’t heard of her name. But this woman is one of the most inspirational women I have ever learned about.

Ilhan Omar was born in 1982 in Mogadishu, Somalia. She was the youngest of seven children, and her mother died when she was a child; she was raised by her father and grandfather. She lived a peaceful eight years until 1991 when the civil war in Somalia began.

She and her family were forced to flee the country and spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya. After that, Ilhan and her family emigrated to the US, initially settling in Virginia but moving later to Minneapolis. Within three months, Ilhan had learned English, and at fourteen, she began to attend caucus meetings with her grandfather to serve as his interpreter.

Ilhan attended Edison High School and volunteered as a student organizer. After high school, she attended North Dakota State University, where she participated in the Muslim Student Association. From there, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science and international studies.

Throughout all this, she struggled with who she was, especially when coming to the United States. She says,

“Somalia is a majority black Muslim country and so is the camp in Kenya. When you’re growing up in an environment where your faith and your race are not topics of conversation, it’s really hard to come to an environment where all of that means something. Being black in the U.S. means something. There’s a history. Being an immigrant, a refugee, Muslim—all of those things represent an otherness that is not typical or easily confined into the social fabric of this country. As someone who grew up never really having to feel less than, it’s a hard reality to wake up to when you’re 12. I had to figure out what it meant to be a bridge builder-—what it meant to forge relationships that really never existed becomes the backstory to how I ended up where I am.”

Ilhan Omar began her professional career as a Community Nutrition Educator with the University of Minnesota. She worked in this position for three years before serving as the Campaign Manager for Kari Dziedzic for Minnesota State Senate. After that, she was a Child Nutrition Outreach Coordinator with the Minnesota Department of Education.

From 2013 to 2015, Omar served as the Senior Policy Aide in Andrew Johnson’s office. In February 2014, in a caucus turned violent, she was attacked by five people and was injured.

In September 2015, Omar became the Director of Policy and Initiatives of the Women Organizing Women Network, advocating for women from East Africa to take on political leadership roles.

But what makes Ilhan Omar so special, though, is that now, she is the first Somali-American lawmaker in the United States. When elected into office, her husband sat in the front row alongside their three kids, beaming and waiting for her to speak.

Ilhan Omar accomplished what people thought wasn’t possible. She proved, through persistence, that even though she is a refugee, a woman, a minority Muslim in the United States, she could achieve her goal and serve for Minnesota.

Omar Giama, a former Somali ambassador to the European Commission, says about Ilhan,

“I never thought a Somali lady, a refugee, can get through all this hardship and difficulties to get elected to Minnesota parliament. It’s wonderful, just wonderful.”