Zahra Abdulla (born 1966 in Somalia

Somalia

Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...

) is a Somali

Somali people

Somalis are an ethnic group located in the Horn of Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula. The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family...

-born Finnish politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

. She is a member of the Helsinki City Council, representing the Green League

Green League

The Green League is a centrist green liberal political party in Finland. It has ten seats in the Finnish Parliament and two in the European Parliament. The current chairperson is Ville Niinistö....

.

Biography

Zahra was born in Somalia in 1966. She spent her early years in Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

 and Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

.

She later studied medicine

Medical education

Medical education is education related to the practice of being a medical practitioner, either the initial training to become a doctor or additional training thereafter ....

 in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

. However, the dissolution of the Soviet Union

Dissolution of the Soviet Union

The dissolution of the Soviet Union was the disintegration of the federal political structures and central government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , resulting in the independence of all fifteen republics of the Soviet Union between March 11, 1990 and December 25, 1991...

 and the simultaneous breakout of the Somali Civil War

Somali Civil War

The Somali Civil War is an ongoing civil war taking place in Somalia. The conflict, which began in 1991, has caused destabilisation throughout the country, with the current phase of the conflict seeing the Somali government losing substantial control of the state to rebel forces...

 in her native country forced her to apply for political asylum in neighboring Finland. She eventually received Finnish citizenship in 1998.

Zahra currently lives in Lauttasaari

Lauttasaari

Lauttasaari is an island and neighbourhood of Western Helsinki , about 3 kilometres west of the city centre....

, Helsinki

Helsinki

Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...

. She speaks fluent Finnish

Finnish language

Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...

, English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, Somali

Somali language

The Somali language is a member of the East Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Its nearest relatives are Afar and Oromo. Somali is the best documented of the Cushitic languages, with academic studies beginning before 1900....

, Arabic and Russian

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

.

Political career

Working for a time as a midwife, Zahra later moved on to a career in politics. In the Finnish parliamentary elections of 2007

Finnish parliamentary election, 2007

The Finnish parliamentary election of 2007 was the 35th election to the Eduskunta , held on 18 March 2007 after the termination of the previous parliamentary term. Early voting was possible from the 7–13 March. Two hundred MPs were elected from 15 constituencies.Election themes included a reduction...

, she came close to becoming the first Somali immigrant to be elected to the Parliament of Finland

Parliament of Finland

The Eduskunta , is the parliament of Finland. The unicameral parliament has 200 members and meets in the Parliament House in Helsinki. The latest election to the parliament took place on April 17, 2011.- Constitution :...

. However, very near the end of the vote counting, she was beaten out by fellow Green League candidate Outi Alanko-Kahiluoto

Outi Alanko-Kahiluoto

Outi Alanko-Kahiluoto is a Finnish politician representing the Green League. She was elected to the Finnish Parliament in the parliamentary election of March 2007. She is also member of the Helsinki City Council and the chairperson of the local party organisation in Helsinki...

 by only a few hundred votes (4586 vs. 4174).

In October of the following year, Zahra was elected to the Helsinki City Council with nearly 2,500 votes, "a large number of which were given in areas where immigrants hardly show up as a blip on the local population register." Reasons cited for Zahra's success in the elections were her high educational level, and considerable local support for the Green League.