Aden Aw Hirsi (born 1968) is a Somali

Somali people

Somalis are an ethnic group located in the Horn of Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula. The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family...

 politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

 and author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 who specializes in political science

Political science

Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...

.

Biography

The great grandson of Sheikh Aw Hirsi, a well-known Qadiri sufi leader, Aden Ibrahim Aw Hirsi, nicknamed 'Irro was born in 1968 in the southern Gedo

Gedo

Gedo is an administrative region , formerly part of the historic Upper Juba Region in southern Somalia. Its regional capital is Garbahaarreey. Gedo is a region created in 1980s and is bordered by the Ogaden in Ethiopia, the North Eastern Province in Kenya, and the Somali regions of Bakool, Bay,...

 region of Somalia

Somalia

Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...

.

Education

He attended primary and secondary schools in Sarinley and Bardera. He spent a good part of his growing years in the Bardera District, where many of his family members and relatives have lived for generations.

From 2000 until 2004, Aden studied political science at Ohio Dominican University

Ohio Dominican University

Ohio Dominican University is a private four-year liberal arts institution, founded in 1911 in the Catholic and Dominican traditions. The main campus spans over in the North Central neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio, United States. The university has just over 3,100 students and offers undergraduate...

. Prior to attending college in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, he had trained in Islamic studies

Islamic studies

In a Muslim context, Islamic studies can be an umbrella term for all virtually all of academia, both originally researched and as defined by the Islamization of knowledge...

, where he concentrated on Sufism

Sufism

Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...

.

Career

Aden started attending private language schools in Bardera. He focused in Arabic and English. A few years later, he began his translation and interpreting career while still a teenager in high school. He continued performing interpreting and relief jobs through much of the 1990s. In this capacity, he had worked for CARE International and UNHCR, and later co-founded SADO, a local non-profit organization.

Between 2003 and 2006, Hirsi taught English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 and Somali

Somali language

The Somali language is a member of the East Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Its nearest relatives are Afar and Oromo. Somali is the best documented of the Cushitic languages, with academic studies beginning before 1900....

 at Columbus State Community College

Columbus State Community College

]Columbus State Community College, commonly referred to as CSCC, was first established in Columbus, Ohio as Columbus Area Technician's School in 1963 and was renamed Columbus Technical Institute in 1965...

 in Columbus city of State of Ohio of The United States.

Political career

In November 2006, he was chosen to become the governor

Governor

A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...

 of the Gedo region in Somalia. While in office,Governor Hirsi, a former relief worker himself, persuaded numerous international relief organizations to open offices in the region.http://www.gedoweb.com/index/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5501 As a result, a number of disasters were averted. In the same year, Al-Shabaab, a local Islamist group unhappy with the presence of many foreign relief organizations in the region, declared its strong opposition to Hirsi's popular administration. The group consequently orchestrated a peaceful way to frustrate and ultimately oust the governor by bankrolling Hirsi's challenger, Hussein Ismail, the latter of whom then gathered a clan militia and threatened to start a civil war in the region.

In May 2008, faced with the dilemma of choosing between bloodshed and resignation from his gubernatorial post, Hirsi resigned from office, and let Ismail assume governorship.

Literary career

As a writer, Aw Hirsi has authored numerous books and glossaries including:

• Somali for Icebreaking,2003
• Drums of War , 2001,
• Things we Have in Common ,2003, and
• The Somali Court Interpreter ,2005