Ilhan Omar the first muslim woman legislator elected to office in the United States.
Mogadishu and was raised in Baydhabo ,
Somalia. She was the youngest of seven siblings. Ilhan's father, Nur Omar Mohamed, is a
Somali , and worked as a teacher trainer. Her mother was a Benadiri , and died when Omar was a child. She was thereafter raised by her father and grandfather. Ilhan's grandfather, Abukar, was the director of Somalia's National Marine Transport, with her uncles and aunts also working as civil servants and educators. After the start of the civil war in 1991, she and her family fled the country and spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya .
In 1995, Omar and her family immigrated to the
United States , initially settling in Arlington, Virginia . In 1995, they moved to
Minneapolis , where Ilhan learned English in only three months. Her father and grandfather emphasized during her upbringing the importance of democracy, and she accompanied her grandfather to caucus meetings at age 14, serving as his
interpreter . Omar became a U.S. citizen in 2000, at the age of 17.
Omar attended Edison High School , and volunteered there as a student organizer. She graduated from North Dakota State University with bachelor's degrees in political science and international studies in 2011.
Omar was a Policy Fellow at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.
Omar began her professional career as a community nutrition educator at the University of Minnesota , working in that capacity from 2006 to 2009 in the Greater Minneapolis–Saint Paul area. In 2012, she served as campaign manager for Kari Dziedzic 's reelection campaign for the Minnesota State Senate . Between 2012 and 2013, she was a child nutrition outreach coordinator at the Minnesota Department of Education .
In 2013, Omar managed Andrew Johnson 's campaign for Minneapolis City Council . After Johnson was elected, she served as his Senior Policy Aide from 2013 to 2015. During a contentious precinct caucus that turned violent in February 2014, she was attacked by five people and incurred some injuries. According to MinnPost , the day before the caucus, Minneapolis City Council member Abdi Warsame had told Johnson to warn Omar not to attend the meeting.
As of September 2015, Omar was the Director of Policy & Initiatives of the Women Organizing Women Network. The association advocates for women from East Africa to take on civic and political leadership roles.
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