Abir Al-Sahlani

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Swedish. (May 2009) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Swedish article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Swedish Wikipedia article at [[:sv:Abir Al-Sahlani]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|sv|Abir Al-Sahlani}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Abir Al-Sahlani
Official portrait, 2024
Member of the European Parliament
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 July 2019
Member of the Riksdag
In office 4 October 2010 – 29 September 2014
Personal details
Born	(1976-05-18) 18 May 1976 (age 48) Basra, Ba'athist Iraq[1]
Citizenship	Sweden
Political party	Centre Party (2004–present)
Children	3
Alma mater	Mid Sweden University Stockholm University
Occupation	Information engineer • Politician

Abir Al-Sahlani (born 18 May 1976) is an Iraqi-born Swedish Member of the European Parliament and since July 2019 a member of the European Parliament, representing the Centre Party. She lives in Hägersten, Stockholm.^[2][3]

Al Sahlani was born in Basra, Iraq in 1976^[4] to a middle class Iraqi family. Her father, Faisal Sahlani, was a leading opposition politician. He was a member of the Communist Party, which at that time, was banned by Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist 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.^[5] Al Sahlani arrived in Sweden alone at the age of 15 and began her political career soon afterwards.^[6]

Al-Sahlani studied at the Mid Sweden University (Mittuniversitetet) in Sundsvall. She holds a master's degree from Stockholm University.

In 2002–2003 she was a volunteer with Nacka School (Internationella Engelska Skolan) in Stockholm.^[7]

In 2004 Al-Sahlani was appointed to the Secretary General of the Iraqi National Democratic Alliance (DNA) position.^[7]

In February 2007 Al-Sahlani became a member of Sweden's Center Party. In May 2019, Al-Sahlani was elected to the European Parliament.^[8] She has since been serving on the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs. In addition to her committee assignments, she is a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Disability,^[9] the European Parliament Intergroup on LGBT Rights^[10] and the European Parliament Intergroup on Seas, Rivers, Islands and Coastal Areas.^[11]

Since 2021 Al-Sahlani has been part of the Parliament's delegation to the Conference on the Future of Europe.^[12]

In 2024, Al-Sahlani was the winner of the "Best Speech" award at The Parliament Magazine's annual MEP Awards.^[13]

In November 2013 Al-Sahlani took time-out from the Swedish parliament due to alleged deficiencies in the reporting of an aid project in Iraq. According to the Swedish Radio, 300,000 euros had not been reported correctly.^[14] Half a year later she was cleared of all charges and made a comeback in the Swedish Parliament.^[15]

In October 2022, 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.^[16]

• Swedish Iraqis
• List of Iraqis