Jump to content

Ilhan Omar

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ilhan Omar
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Minnesota's 5th district
Assumed office
January 3, 2019
Preceded byKeith Ellison
Member of the Minnesota House of Representatives
from the 60B district
In office
January 2, 2017 – January 3, 2019
Preceded byPhyllis Kahn
Succeeded byMohamud Noor
Personal details
Born
Ilhan Abdullahi Omar

(1982-10-04) October 4, 1982 (age 43)
Mogadishu, Somalia
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse(s)
Ahmed Nur Said Elmi[a]
​
​
(m. 2009; div. 2017)​
Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi[b]
​
​
(m. 2018; div. 2019)​
Tim Mynett
​
​
(m. 2020)​
RelationsSahra Noor (sister)
Children3; including Isra Hirsi
EducationNorth Dakota State University (BA)
WebsiteHouse website

Ilhan Abdullahi Omar (born October 4, 1982)[5] She is the member of the U.S House of Representatives from Minnesota's 5th district since January 3, 2019. Omar is also member of "The Squad".

Early life

[change | change source]

Ilhan Abdullahi Omar was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, on October 4, 1982.[6][7] She was the youngest of seven siblings. Her mother died when Omar was two.[8][9][10][11] She was raised by her father and grandfather, who were moderate Sunni Muslims.[12][13]

Omar and her family left Somalia to escape the Somali Civil War and spent four years in a Dadaab refugee camp in Garissa County, Kenya.[14][15][16]

Omar's family was given asylum and arrived in New York in 1995.[17] They lived for a time in Arlington, Virginia, before moving to Minneapolis.[10]

Political career

[change | change source]

In 2016, she was elected a Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. She is the first Somali-American person elected to office in the United States.[18] She was the Director of Policy and Initiatives of the Women Organizing Women Network.

Omar was the Democratic Farmer Labor nominee for U.S. Representative in Minnesota's 5th congressional district, having won the primary on August 14, 2018.[19] Omar won the election in November 2018, becoming first Muslim-American woman to be elected to congress, alongside Rashida Tlaib.[20][21]

Omar is a member of "The Squad" along with Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley. In 2020, Omar endorsed Bernie Sanders for President.

Other activities

[change | change source]

In 2018, Omar was featured in the music video for Maroon 5's "Girls Like You" featuring Cardi B.[22]

On October 19, 2020, Omar joined Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Disguised Toast, Jacksepticeye, and Pokimane in a Twitch stream playing the popular game Among Us, encouraging streamers to vote in the 2020 election. This collaboration garnered almost half a million views.[23]

Notes

[change | change source]
  1. ↑ Omar and Elmi were married in 2009. Omar has stated that the couple divorced within their faith tradition in 2011. They remained legally married until 2017.[1]
  2. ↑ Omar has stated that she and Hirsi married within their faith tradition in 2002. The couple had two children. Omar has stated that she and Hirsi divorced within their faith tradition in 2008. They reconciled and had a third child in 2012.[2] Omar and Hirsi were legally married in 2018.[1] Their divorce was finalized on November 5, 2019.[3][4]

References

[change | change source]
  1. 1 2 Forliti, Amy (June 11, 2019). "Rep. Omar filed joint tax returns before she married husband". Yahoo News. Associated Press. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
  2. ↑ Sheehy, Kate (August 28, 2019). "Inside Ilhan Omar's tangled web of relationships".
  3. ↑ "Minnesota U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar finalizes divorce". Star Tribune. Archived from the original on November 25, 2020. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
  4. ↑ "US Rep. Ilhan Omar divorces husband in Minnesota". AP NEWS. November 5, 2019.
  5. ↑ Rep. Ilhan Omar (DFL-MN)
  6. ↑ Reinl, James (November 15, 2016). "Ilhan Omar: First female Somali American lawmaker". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on March 8, 2019.
  7. ↑ Omar, Ilhan (June 16, 2016). "Questions from a 5th grader". Neighbors for Ilhan. Archived from the original on December 31, 2017.
  8. ↑ Yimer, Solomon (November 7, 2018). "Ilhan Omar Just Became the First Muslim Women Elected to US Congress". ethio.news. news.et. Archived from the original on March 9, 2021. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
  9. ↑ Iqbal, Zainab (February 4, 2019). "Ilhan Omar On Being Unapologetically Muslim". Archived from the original on February 16, 2019. Retrieved March 17, 2019.
  10. 1 2 Stolberg, Sheryl Gay (December 30, 2018). "Glorified and Vilified, Representative-Elect Ilhan Omar Tells Critics: 'Just Deal'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on February 2, 2019. Retrieved December 30, 2018.
  11. ↑ Adam, Anita Sylvia. "Benadiri People of Somalia" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on April 1, 2019. Retrieved March 17, 2019.
  12. ↑ Nichols, John (May 21, 2019). "Ilhan Omar: 'There's a Reason That I Got Elected to Be in Congress, and It Has Nothing to Do With the Fact That I'm a Refugee'". The Nation. Archived from the original on April 20, 2020. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  13. ↑ Holpuch, Amanda (February 29, 2016). "'This is my country': Muslim candidate aims to break boundaries in Minnesota". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on January 5, 2019.
  14. ↑ Schaub, Michael (January 19, 2019). "Rep. Ilhan Omar, Somali refugee turned congresswoman, to publish memoir in 2020". LA Times. Archived from the original on April 13, 2019. Retrieved April 13, 2019. ...in Somalia, which she left as a child with her family after the outbreak of the Somali civil war.
  15. ↑ "Ilhan Omar elected first Somali-American legislator in the US". Al Arabiya English. November 9, 2016. Archived from the original on July 9, 2018.
  16. ↑ Bhalla, Nita (November 7, 2018). "Ex-Somali refugee's U.S. Congress win sparks debate in former home Kenya". Reuters. Archived from the original on November 7, 2018. Retrieved March 11, 2019.
  17. ↑ Jaffe, Greg; Mekhennet, Souad (July 6, 2019). "Ilhan Omar's American story: It's complicated". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 2, 2019. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  18. ↑ Blair, Olivia (November 9, 2016). "Ilhan Omar: Former refugee is elected as America's first Somali American Muslim woman legislator". The Independent. London. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  19. ↑ Bierschbach, Briana; Bakst, Brian; Pugmire, Tim (June 5, 2018). "Filing deadline drama: Rep. Omar jumps into race for Congress". Minnesota Public Radio. St. Paul, Minnesota.
  20. ↑ Kellman, Laurie. "Democrats draft an anti-Semitism resolution in response to Rep. Ilhan Omar's remarks on Israel". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on March 5, 2019. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
  21. ↑ Ferris, Sarah; Caygle, Heather; Bresnahan, John. "House Dems will take floor action to confront Omar's latest Israel comments". Politico. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
  22. ↑ "Rep. Omar Appears In New Maroon 5 Music Video". CBS Minnesota. May 31, 2018. Archived from the original on February 7, 2019. Retrieved February 6, 2019.
  23. ↑ Gilbert, Ben (October 21, 2020). "The gaming PC that Rep. Ilhan Omar used to stream video games with AOC is almost certainly more powerful than yours". Business Insider. Archived from the original on October 22, 2020. Retrieved October 22, 2020.

Other websites

[change | change source]
Find more about
Ilhan Omar
at Wikipedia's sister projects
Search Commons Media from Commons
Search Wikiquote Quotations from Wikiquote
Search Wikidata Data from Wikidata
Retrieved from "https://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ilhan_Omar&oldid=10725013"