Kurdistan Regional Government Representative to the United States to discuss ISIS, refugee crisis at Lipscomb University April 5
Kim Chaudoin | 615.966.6494 |
Lipscomb University, the Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Association and the Tennessee World Affairs Council will host an international briefing on ISIS and the refugee crisis at Lipscomb University on Tuesday, April 5.
The briefing features Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, Kurdistan Regional Government Representative to the United States. The briefing will take place in Lipscomb’s Stowe Hall, located in the Swang Business Center. A reception is set for 5:30 p.m., with the briefing to follow from 6-7 p.m. Admission is free, but registration is requested. Click here to register.
In her role, Abdul Rahman’s focus is to strengthen ties between the Kurdistan Region and the United States, advocating the Kurdistan Regional Government’s position on political, security, humanitarian, economic and cultural matters as well as promoting coordination and partnership. Prior to her U.S. appointment in 2015, Abdul Rahman was the high representative to the United Kingdom.
Before her career in public service, Abdul Rahman worked as a journalist for 17 years. She began her career on local newspapers in London and won the Observer Newspaper’s Farzad Bazoft Memorial Prize in 1993, which led her to work at the Observer and later at the Financial Times. She worked for the Financial Times in Great Britain and in Japan, where she was the Tokyo correspondent.
Her late father, Sami Abdul Rahman, was a veteran of the Kurdish freedom movement, joining the Kurdistan Democratic Party in 1963 and playing a critical leadership role in the Kurdish and Iraqi opposition to Saddam Hussein’s regime. He held the post of deputy prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government and general secretary of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. He was killed alongside his son, Salah, and 96 others in a suicide bombing in 2004.
Born in Baghdad, Abdul Rahman’s family briefly lived in Iran in the mid-1970s before moving to Great Britain in 1976. She received a history degree from London University.