Salama al-Khufaji was a member of the Interim Iraq Governing Council, [1] [2] [3] created following the United States's 2003 invasion of Iraq. She was appointed on 8 December 2003 to hold the seat formerly held by Aquila al-Hashimi, who was assassinated in September 2003. [4] A Shia Muslim, al-Khufaji was a professor of dentistry at Baghdad University. [4]
In May 2004 she survived an assassination attempt, which occurred when the car in which she was traveling was ambushed and her teenage son was killed. [5] Several bodyguards were also killed. Since then she has survived two additional assassination attempts, one later in 2004 and one in January 2005. She was a candidate in the Iraqi elections of 2005.