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Ilhan Omar is the first Somali American legislator in the United States and one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, as well as the first woman of color to serve as U.S. representative from Minnesota.

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I really loved How America Looks Like by Ilhan Omar. I heard her talk on a news show, I have heard her being interviewed many times on news shows and wanted to learn more about her.

I found a memoir written by her with the aid of Rebecca Paley of her journey a child growing up in Mogadishu, Somalia. She was young when her mother died, that she has no memory of her. Smallest of the family, she got into trouble for fighting a bully much bigger than herself who was harrassing a boy bigger than her. She, a preschooler told the bully to meet her outside after school!. Pulling the bully down and rubbing his face in the sand, she was filled with anger at the bully who made a vulgar remark about the bigger boy’s. She knew that people need to revere their mothers, not say horrible things about them. A crowd gathered and her eight grade brother was shocked to see what she was doing in the middle of the crowd. Her father’s response was to laugh. Nobody should be coming to my house complaining about my smallest baby.

Ilhad had to make a temporary break from her family, her life was so prescribed by her family, the Somalia refugee group, actually byeveryone that she knee. Taking her children to North Dakota to study nutrition and finding what her true self was. A painful break but a needed one and it took resolution and determination.
Read the book for more details and what lead her to be a congresswoman. I am deeply impressed by her and urge you read this book.
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Carolee888 | 2 andere besprekingen | Mar 17, 2023 |
A great biography of a great woman. Against all the odds, against much bigger bullies the small girl keeps winning. For me she appears to me a perpetual rebel - when it was rebellious for her not to wear hijab, she didn't; when it was rebellious to wear hijab, she started to wear it. Though, she actually links it more to her internal spiritual way in the book and there is more interesting discussion on what it means to be progressive AND Muslim. She is the same age as me and it is heart-breaking to think what she had to go through during her early school years in Somalia and in the refugee camp in Kenya, while I was growing up in peace and with enough food. People like her gives hope for a better future in America and the whole world.
I listened to the audiobook and she read it very naturally and enjoyably.
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dacejav | 2 andere besprekingen | Jul 29, 2022 |
According to Wikipedia ”Omar is the first Somali American, the first naturalized citizen of African birth, and the first woman of color to represent Minnesota in the United States Congress. She is also one of the first two Muslim women … to serve in Congress. She has been the subject of several death threats, conspiracy theories, other harassment by political opponents, and false and misleading claims …. “

Front of book blurb: “Ilhan Omar was only eight years old when war broke out in Somalia. The youngest of seven children, she was being raised by her father and grandfather when armed gunmen attacked their compound and her family fled Mogadishu. They ended up in a refugee camp in Kenya, where Ilhan came to understand the meaning of hunger and death. Four years later, after a painstaking vetting process, her family finally achieved refugee status and arrived in Arlington, Virginia. “

She believes the hardships she endured as a child refugee taught her to stand up first for a bullied classmate, then for herself, and lastly for her constituents.

It’s also the story of her father and grandfather’s unwavering support in her journey as they encouraged her to be a very non-traditional Muslim woman in a public role as she worked to do it in a way that honored her faith.

“My father always exhorted me to “Go live your life.’ But he jokingly warned, “Don’t do anything that would make me unable to sit with my peers, or anything that would make me throw you and myself in the Mississippi.” P 88

It’s a fast-moving story – at times I would have liked more information and greater depth. For instance, I believe she doesn’t mention her decision to become an American citizen. According to another source, this happened when she was age seventeen.

I’m happy to have read this and to learn more about this unique Congresswoman.
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streamsong | 2 andere besprekingen | Feb 3, 2021 |

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