Introducing Councilor Naren Briar ’20

Last November, Naren Briar ’20 made headlines when she won a city council seat in Bellevue, Washington, that had been occupied by the same incumbent for more than thirty years—longer than Briar has been alive. But Briar's victory was significant for another reason: She is believed to be the first Kurdish American to hold elected political office in the nation’s history.

Briar’s parents were Kurdish Iraqi refugees who came to the US in 1996 after fleeing the regime of Saddam Hussein. “They faced a lot of prejudice and racism for being Kurdish in the Middle East, and for not being Muslim,” Briar said. “To know they came from that, and then to witness their daughter, a first-generation American, elected to public office . . . was really surreal.”

A Dallas native, Briar majored in political science at BC and then moved to the Seattle area to work at Meta. She was inspired to run for city council after attending meetings as part of a civics class offered by Bellevue, a city of about 150,000 people that neighbors Seattle. The meetings helped her realize that despite the political polarization happening nationally, it’s possible to find common ground to enact change at the local level. Indeed, although she received high-profile endorsements, including an Instagram shout-out from Jane Fonda, Briar believes campaigning on day-to-day issues, such as public safety and affordability, is what won her the race. “My neighbor could be a Trump supporter, I could be a center Democrat, and my other neighbor could be super progressive,” she said, “and at the end of the day, we're all super annoyed we have to pay a lot for our water bill.” ◽