Ex Dadaab refugee, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar shuts down offensive question aimed at Muslim leaders

Worldwide, female politicians have to work twice as hard prove their worth in the male-dominated world of politics. This becomes even harder when they are a minority in the country they serve.

At a recent conference held for American Muslim politicians, Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar shut down a question from an audience member who asked her to condemn certain issues.

“Will you be able to make a statement against FGM…it would be really powerful if the two Muslim congresswomen, yourself and Rashida [Tlaib], make a statement on this issue,” the woman asked.

Without skipping a beat, Omar point-blank refused to comment on FGM or any issue that Muslim leaders are often asked to speak out against such as Al-Qaeda, Hamas, etc.

“I am, I think, quite disgusted, really, to be honest that as Muslim legislators we are constantly being asked to waste our time speaking to issues that other people aren’t asked to speak to,” she said.

Omar, who is the first Somali-American woman elected from Minnesota, pointed out that she has been instrumental in putting in place laws that condemn these practices.

“I voted for bills doing exactly what you asked me to do. There is a bill in Congress, a resolution, that I am the co-author of, that I voted out of the Foreign Affairs Committee,” she explained.

Omar is part of a group of four US House of Representative members popularly known as The Squad. It comprises Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib. Omar and Tlaib are the first Muslim women to serve in Congress.

The Squad made a name for itself not only because they are women of colour but because they stand for progressive politics, unafraid to speak up against obvious injustices. Most recently, they were on the receiving end of a series of tweets from US President Donald Trump who, said they should go back to their countries of origin. " Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came," Trump wrote in a series of Tweets claiming that The Squad were against progress. The four women had spoken up against the abhorring conditions at the Us-Mexico border.

....and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how....

Omar was born in Somalia before her family fled the war in Somalia and lived in Dadaab. They later sought asylum in the US.

“So I want to make sure that the next time someone is in an audience and is looking at me and Rashida and Abdul and Sam, that they ask us the proper questions that they will ask any member of Congress,” Omar reiterated.

“If you want us to speak as politicians – American politicians – then you treat us as such,” she concluded to a round of applause from the audience.