Iceland review - 2014, Qupperneq 21

it’s so good to come back to iceland, especially when it’s so
hot and humid in istanbul. the air is so fresh here, and
there’s the wind,” ingibjörg Sólrún gísladóttir says during
a recent trip to Reykjavík. She’s taken some time out to discuss
her life, work, and women’s issues around the world.
ingibjörg Sólrún spent close to three decades climbing the
icelandic political ladder with her career culminating in her
becoming minister for foreign affairs in 2007, a position she
served in until her exit from politics in 2009.
FroM FeMinisM to Foreign Ministry... and back
With her roots in the feminist movement, ingibjörg Sólrún
started out in the Women’s List, which she represented on
Reykjavík city council from 1982 to 1988 and then later
in alþingi, iceland’s parliament, from 1991 to 1994. other
highlights of her political resume include serving as mayor
of Reykjavík for nine years and as the leader of the Social
democratic alliance, iceland’s second-largest political party in
parliament, from 2005 to 2009.
immediately preceding the october 2008 economic collapse,
ingibjörg Sólrún was hospitalized after she fainted at the United
nations general assembly in new York. doctors discovered
that she had a benign brain tumor. the period was particularly
challenging, she says. “the circumstances were very difficult. it
was a terrible time. First i was sick, then there was the economic
collapse, the government fell apart and there was the court
case,” she recollects. the independence Party-Social democrat
coalition government was terminated in January 2009 after a
series of protests following the collapse. When former Prime
minister geir H. Haarde, ingibjörg Sólrún’s coalition partner,
emPoWeRing
tHe Women oF
tHe WoRLd
Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir spent 28 years in politics before taking up a role
with UN Women in Kabul, Afghanistan. She now heads the organization’s
newly-established Europe and Central Asia office in Istanbul, Turkey.
By Zoë RobeRt. PHOTOS By Páll StefánSSon.
faced charges of misconduct in office in the years leading up
to the financial crisis in a Landsdómur court case in 2012, she
came to his defense.
the year prior, in 2011, ingibjörg Sólrún had come full circle
in her career, taking up a position at Un Women in Kabul,
where she oversaw the organization’s program in afghanistan.
Un Women is the United nations body which focuses on gen-
der equality and women’s empowerment, mainly in developing
countries and war-torn regions.
at the end of 2013, ingibjörg Sólrún relocated to istanbul to
help set up and head Un Women’s new europe and central
asia regional office.
worlds apart
the move from Kabul to istanbul was a welcome change, she
says. “i live much more of a normal life now than when i was
in Kabul. i can enjoy what istanbul has to offer, go to concerts,
to the cinema.” due to the security situation in Kabul, she was
unable to travel freely, meaning she spent most of her time
inside the walls of the Un compound.
the move also means that ingibjörg Sólrún and her husband,
Hjörleifur Sveinbjörnsson, a translator, have been reunited.
during her two years in afghanistan, they lived apart with him
remaining in iceland, as the Un isn’t able to guarantee the
safety of staff members’ partners in the country. “We met every
six weeks, which was all right but at the same time it’s difficult
when there’s such a huge gap in what you and your partner are
experiencing,” she says.
despite the security situation in afghanistan, she cherishes
her time in the country and is well aware of the fact that she