Ilhan Omar, a Democrat, came to the U.S. as a refugee and was one of the first two Muslim women to be elected to Congress.
What is her Name?
As a child, Ilhan Omar and her family had to leave Somalia because of the civil war there. They consumed four years in a refugee camp before being given asylum in the United States. She became an American citizen in 2000 and was elected to the Minnesota House in 2016. In 2018, Omar was chosen to be the Congresswoman for Minnesota’s 5th district.
First Somali American:
Ilhan Omar was the first Somali American and one of the first two Muslim women to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. She is also the first person to speak in the House while wearing a hijab. Omar is a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor-Party in Minnesota. He or she is a progressive politician. In 2020, her autobiography, This Is What America Looks Like: My Journey from Refugee to Congresswoman, came out.
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Early Years:
Omar was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, on October 4, 1982. When Omar, the youngest of her seven children, was 2, her mother died. After she lost her mother, her father, her sisters, and her aunts helped her. Omar grew up in Mogadishu with her middle-class family, where her grandfather didn’t make her follow traditional gender roles.
Refugee Camp in Kenya:
Somalia’s civil war changed Omar’s childhood in many ways. Ilhan Omar family left the country when she was eight years old. In the end, they spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya. In 1995, the United States let Omar and her family stay there as refugees. The family lived in Virginia at first, where Omar had to deal with bullies when he was in middle school.
Omar could read some English when she came, but he couldn’t speak it. Her family would watch reruns of Baywatch to help them catch up on what was going on in the world.
Move to Minnesota:
In 1997, Omar moved to Minnesota. Many Somali immigrants live in the Cedar-Riverside neighbourhood of Minneapolis, where her family moved. Before he started working at the post office, her father drove a taxi. In 2000, when she was 17, she became a U.S. citizen.
School Life:
Omar went to Edison High School in Minneapolis and got his degree in 2011 from North Dakota State University.
Political Career:
Omar became interested in politics when she went with her grandfather to Democratic caucuses to translate for him. Later, she worked as a community organizer and helped out with campaigns as a volunteer.
Minnesota House of Representative:
In 2016, Omar beat an incumbent who had been in office for 44 years in a Democratic primary and was then elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives. The movie Time for Ilhan told about her campaign for this seat. Omar became the first Somali American woman to be elected to the Minnesota House when she won.
5th district of Minnesota:
In 2018, Omar was elected to the U.S. House to represent the 5th district of Minnesota, which includes most of Minneapolis. She is for a $15 minimum wage, Medicare for All, and the Green New Deal, among other things. She is the leader of the caucus of progressives. “The Squad” is made up of Omar and three other progressive congresswomen: Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Ayanna Pressley.
Beliefs:
People have said that Omar is against Jews. In one case, she was censure for a tweet she sent in February 2019 that said, “It’s all about the Benjamins, baby!” about people in Congress who support Israel. She said she was sorry for using anti-Semitic stereotypes, but soon after, she called people who support Israel in the U.S. “allies to a foreign country.”
Elected to Congress:
When Omar was elected to Congress, a 181-year-old rule said that people couldn’t wear head coverings on the House floor. This was changed so that she could wear her hijab while doing her job.
Terrorist Attacks:
The terrorist attacks on September 11 made her want to show her cultural identity, so she chose to wear the hijab. She has said, “I knew it was up to us to help create a positive story about our faith.”
Efforts to hurt Omar:
While Omar was running for the Minnesota House of Representatives, conservative websites and online forums spread a rumour that she had married her brother to help him come to the U.S. Omar said that the claim was “completely false and laughable.” After the accusation was made, news organizations checked the facts and found that there was no proof to back up the claim.
Donald Trump Make Story:
During his time in office, Donald Trump made up a story that Omar had said she was proud to be part of Al Qaeda. He also asked Omar, as well as “Squad” members to “go back” to where they came from and called Omar “unpatriotic”. At Trump rallies, people chanted “Send her back” about Omar.
Top Leaders:
Throughout the siege of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, Omar was taken to the same place as the top leaders because police thought she could be a target (she has received numerous death threats). She has said about the attack, “It was a very traumatic event, and it will affect all of us for a very long time.”
Resolution against Antisemitism:
The House passed a resolution against antisemitism and other forms of bigotry in March 2019. This was seen as a slap in the face to Omar. The resolution also condemned Islamophobia, which Omar saw as a good thing because “millions of people finally feel like the most powerful body in the world can see them and acknowledge their existence.”
Ilhan Omer Comments:
In 2020, she talked about what she had done “moved past” her earlier comments: “I talk about Saudi blood money and how they are bloodsuckers, and no one says, ‘This is Islamophobic,’ but I know that if I use those words to describe another country, that could be [a problem]. And so you learn how words are connected to history. I used to not know what was going on, but now I do.”
Personal Life:
In 2002, Omar tied the knot with her first husband, Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi. The couple’s relationship got worse after they had two kids, a daughter named Isra and a son named Adnan. In 2008, they broke up the marriage by following Islamic rules (they had not been legally married).
Divorce:
After her marriage ended in 2008, Omar had a hard time coping, and she even shaved her head. In 2009, Omar ran away with Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, a British citizen. Elmi is the man who has been said to be her brother, but no proof has been given.
Religious Divorce:
In 2011, Omar and Elmi got a religious divorce, which was the end of their marriage. Omar and Hirsi got back together. In 2012, they had a third child, a daughter named Ilwad. Although Omar was still legally married to Elmi, she filed taxes with Hirsi together in 2014 and 2015. In the end, she paid a fine and back taxes to make things right.
Marriage with Hirsi:
After getting a legal divorce from Elmi, Omar married Hirsi on paper in January 2018. She asked for a divorce the following year, and they were no longer married by November 2019.
Marriage with Tim Mynett:
In March 2020, Omar legally and halally married Tim Mynett, a political consultant who had worked for her. In her divorce petition, his ex-wife said that Omar had an affair with her husband.
