Abir Al-Sahlani (born 18 May 1976) is an Iraqi-born

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

and since July 2019 a member of the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

, representing the Centre Party. She lives in

Hägersten Hägersten (''Heronstone'') is an urban district Urban district may refer to: * District * Urban area * Quarter (urban subdivision) * Neighbourhood Specific subdivisions in some countries: * Urban districts of Denmark * Urban districts of Germany * ...

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

Biography

Al Sahlani was born in

Basra Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is hand ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

in 1976 to a middle class Iraqi family. Her father, Faisal Sahlani was a leading opposition politician. He was member of the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

, which at that time, was banned by Saddams Hussein's Baath regime. She left Iraq with her mother, fleeing the brutality of the former regime, leaving behind her father, a political prisoner in

Abu Ghraib prison Abu Ghraib prison ( ar, سجن أبو غريب, ''Sijn Abū Ghurayb'') was a prison complex in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, located west of Baghdad. Abu Ghraib prison was opened in the 1950s and served as a maximum-security prison with torture, weekly exe ...

. Al Sahlani arrived in Sweden alone at the age of 15 and began her political career soon afterwards.

Education

Al-Sahlani studied at the

Mid Sweden University Mid Sweden University (''Mittuniversitetet'') is a Swedish state university located in the region around the geographical center of Sweden, with two campuses in the cities of Östersund and Sundsvall. The university closed a third campus in Hä ...

(''Mittuniversitetet)'' in Sundsvall. She holds a master's degree from

Stockholm University Stockholm University ( sv, Stockholms universitet) is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, so ...

. In 2002–2003 she was a volunteer with Nacka School (Internationella Engelska Skolan) in Stockholm.

Political career

In 2004 Al-Sahlani was appointed to the Secretary General of the Iraqi

National Democratic Alliance National Democratic Alliance (NDA) () is a Centre-right politics, centre-right to Right-wing politics, right-wing and Conservatism, conservative Indian big tent political alliance led by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was foun ...

(DNA) position. In February 2007 Al-Sahlani became a member of Sweden's Center Party. In May 2019, Al-Sahlani was elected to the European Parliament. She has since been serving on the

Committee on Employment and Social Affairs The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) is a committee of the European Parliament. It is responsible for issues of employment and social policy, including labour rights, social security, inclusion, free movement for workers and pensio ...

. In addition to her committee assignments, she is a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Disability, the

European Parliament Intergroup on LGBT Rights The European Parliament Intergroup on LGBTI Rights is an intergroup Intergroups are formed of Members of the European Parliament from any political group and any committee, with a view to holding informal exchanges of views on particular subjects ...

and the European Parliament Intergroup on Seas, Rivers, Islands and Coastal Areas. Since 2021 Al-Sahlani has been part of the Parliament's delegation to the

Conference on the Future of Europe The Conference on the Future of Europe was a proposal of the European Commission and the European Parliament, announced at the end of 2019, with the aim of looking at the medium to long term future of the EU and what reforms should be made to i ...

Time-out

In November 2013 Al-Sahlani took a time-out from the Swedish parliament due to alleged deficiencies in the reporting of an aid project in Iraq. According to the

Swedish radio Sveriges Radio AB (, "Sweden's Radio") is Sweden's national publicly funded radio broadcaster. Sveriges Radio is a public limited company, owned by an independent foundation, previously funded through a licensing fee, the level of which is ...

300 000 Euro had not been reported correctly. Half a year later she was cleared from all charges and made a comeback in the Swedish Parliament.

Mahsa Amini protests

In October 2022, Al-Sahlani cut her hair in the middle of a speech at

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

, France, whilst intoning the popular Kurdish YPJ women's resistance slogan, " Jin, Jiyan, Azadi" in Kurdish which translates to 'woman, life, freedom' to affirm her support for Iranian women and the

Mahsa Amini protests Civil unrest and protests against the government of Iran associated with the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini ( fa, مهسا امینی) began on 16 September 2022 and are ongoing as of December 2022. Amini had been arrested by the Guida ...

and to call on Europe to act.

References