Zaynab Abdi (born 1995 or 1996) is an American immigration, refugee, and women's rights advocate and speaker.
Abdi was born in Somalia to a Somalian mother and Yemeni father. [1] [2] Due to the Somali Civil War, [3] she moved to Yemen with her family, although without her father, at the age of seven. [4] She played soccer as a child in Aden, Yemen, [5] [6] and decided she wanted to be an architect. [3] While living in Yemen, Abdi's mother received a diversity immigrant visa to come to the United States. She chose to immigrate, with the hope of becoming a citizen and sponsoring the rest of her family; Abdi and her younger sister were left in the care of her grandmother. [3] Abdi's mother went on to remarry in the United States, and had two more daughters. Her grandmother died in 2010. [6]
Abdi and her sister moved to Cairo, Egypt in 2012 after the Arab Spring began in Yemen. [1] When the second Arab Spring happened in Egypt, Abdi and her sister applied to becomes asylum seekers in the United States. [1] [3] Abdi immigrated to the United States in 2014, at age 17, and joined her mother in Minnesota, but her sister was unable to obtain a visa. [3] [4] [5] [6]
Abdi attended Wellstone International High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, [7] where she learned English, became a member of the student council, and formed a school soccer team. [5] She went on to attend St. Catherine University beginning in 2016, where she studied political science, international studies, and philosophy. [3] She graduated in 2020. [3]
After graduating college, she joined a soccer team based in the Twin Cities. [3] In 2017, the team became eligible to represent the United States in an international tournament, but Abdi, as a green card holder unable to leave the country, was unable to play. [3]
She went on to pursue her master's degree at Columbia University. [1]
After graduating college in 2020, Abdi became a civic engagement coordinator for Reviving the Islamic Sisterhood for Empowerment (RISE), a Minneapolis-based nonprofit. [3] [8]
Abdi has worked for Green Card Voices, a publishing organization helping immigrants in Minnesota, [1] as an immigrant and youth ambassador. [8]
In 2023, Abdi published the graphic novel Voice for Refuge: Our Stories Carried Us Here. [1] She founded a soccer team for immigrant and refugee children. [9] She was the delegate for the Malala Fund organization at the United Nations Social Good Summit. [10]
Abdi is Muslim. [8] She has a younger sister, who lived in Belgium with her son as of 2021. [3]