The Kurdistan in America podcast is honored to have Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, the Kurdistan Regional Government Representative to the United States, as its guest in episode 6 of season four.
Ms Abdul Rahman was appointed the KRG envoy to the United States in 2015 and is about to embark on a new chapter of her career in public service by taking on the role of advisor to Prime Minister Masrour Barzani for foreign affairs and climate change.
In this interview, Ms Abdul Rahman recounts her childhood in Kurdistan, Baghdad and Iran before moving to the UK as a refugee. She describes her successful career as a journalist in the UK and Japan, working for the Financial Times among other newspapers, and her transition to a career in diplomacy, first in London and then Washington.
The KRG envoy’s father, Sami Abdul Rahman, was a veteran of the Kurdish freedom movement and played a critical leadership role in the Kurdish and Iraqi opposition to Saddam Hussein’s regime. He was killed alongside his elder son Salah and more than 100 others in a twin suicide bombing in 2004.
Our conversation covers Representative Abdul Rahman’s personal journey, her reflections on some of her achievements in the past eight years in Washington and what drives her passion for public service.