Abir Al-Sahlani was born on 18 May 1976 and is an Iraqi-born Swedish Member of the European Parliament and since July 2019 a member of the European Parliament, representing the Centre Party.
12 Facts About Abir Al-Sahlani
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Abir Al-Sahlani's father, Faisal Sahlani, was a leading opposition politician.
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Abir Al-Sahlani was a member of the Communist Party, which at that time, was banned by Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist regime.
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Abir Al-Sahlani left Iraq with her mother, fleeing the brutality of the former regime, leaving behind her father, a political prisoner in Abu Ghraib prison.
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In 2004 Abir Al-Sahlani was appointed to the Secretary General of the Iraqi National Democratic Alliance position.
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In February 2007 Abir Al-Sahlani became a member of Sweden's Center Party.
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In May 2019, Abir Al-Sahlani was elected to the European Parliament.
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Abir Al-Sahlani has since been serving on the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs.
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Since 2021 Abir Al-Sahlani has been part of the Parliament's delegation to the Conference on the Future of Europe.
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In 2024, Abir Al-Sahlani was the winner of the "Best Speech" award at The Parliament Magazine's annual MEP Awards.
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In November 2013 Abir Al-Sahlani took time-out from the Swedish parliament due to alleged deficiencies in the reporting of an aid project in Iraq.
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In October 2022, Abir Al-Sahlani cut her hair in the middle of a speech at European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, whilst intoning the popular Kurdish YPJ women's resistance slogan, "Jin, Jiyan, Azadi", which translates to 'woman, life, freedom' to affirm her support for Iranian women and the Mahsa Amini protests and to call on Europe to act.