What Ilhan Omar's Memoir Reveals About Her Date of Birth, Family History
Summary
Ilhan Omar’s 2020 memoir describes her childhood in Somalia, her family’s flight during the civil war, and their eventual resettlement in the United States. The article says the memoir’s timeline is broadly consistent with Omar’s publicly listed October 4, 1982, birth date, while noting that the war’s start date is disputed and that the memoir does not specify which event she meant.Key Facts
- Omar writes that she was eight when civil war broke out in Somalia.
- The memoir says Omar spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya before her family emigrated to the United States.
- Omar’s publicly listed birth date is October 4, 1982, which would make her eight for most of 1991.
- The article notes that accounts place the start of Somalia’s civil war in late 1990 or January 1991, while the Mogadishu riots occurred in July 1989.
- Omar says in her memoir that she stopped wearing the hijab at 16 and returned to wearing it at 23.
- The memoir describes Omar as a 20-year-old mother; her daughter Isra Hirsi was born on February 22, 2003.
- Omar has denied allegations that her former husband Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is her brother or that their marriage was fraudulent.
- The article reports that federal agents searched Omar’s Washington home on October 12 and that investigators obtained a DNA sample, citing a source close to the matter.
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