Ilhan Omar’s first husband was “embarrassed” when her effeminate “brother” — who she is accused of marrying — came to live with them in Minnesota, a family friend told The Post.
The congresswoman (D-Minn.) had two young children with Ahmed Hirsi, when she suddenly split from him in 2009. She then quickly married an “extremely feminine Somali guy from London,” Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, fond of wearing short shorts with cowboy boots.
She was able to do this as she had only been wed to Ahmed in a 2002 Islamic ceremony which was not recognized by the state.
One of Hirsi’s close friends claimed Omar and her first husband were actually still together, and Elmi suddenly moving in caused strain on their relationship. The legal marriage was reportedly so he could get “papers” to start a new life in the US, as The Post has previously reported.
“The whole community was gossiping about [Elmi] when he first arrived,” the source, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Post.
“He was walking around in tight female clothing, which is heavily frowned upon in the Somali community, so I went to ask Ahmed about it.
“He told me that it was his wife’s brother from London and that Ilhan had ‘embarrassed all of us by bringing him here’. Ahmed used very strong words and said it was ‘disgusting.’”
Hirsi is said to have been at the heart of Minnesota’s Somali community and was hugely popular after settling there with his family.
“He was very sociable and had his finger on the pulse of everything that was happening,” the source told The Post.
“Ahmed was known by his nickname, South Side. He is a good man and has friends all over town.”
But the source claimed to have noticed a change in Hirsi when an Elmi moved to Minneapolis.
“All of the Somalis in Minneapolis were gossiping and trying to find out who this guy was,” he said. “Then everyone realized it was Nur Said Elmi’s son, and Ilhan’s brother. Everybody was shocked.”
Repeating the allegations which have dogged Omar for years, the source said “Ahmed told me it was his wife [Omar] who brought him over, and it was her brother,” he told The Post.
“He explained that she had married him legally to get him papers and that he was only Islamically married to her.
“He said her brother was ‘pure trash’ who had embarrassed their whole family and was complaining about why Ilhan had to bring him over.”
The source claimed that Elmi was shunned in the community.
“I used to see Elmi in my neighborhood but we kept our separate ways because if people saw me with him, everyone would think differently of me,” he added.
“The others used to compare his behavior to his father, Nur, a respected military general. Ahmed said he was bringing a bad name to the family.”
Hirsi allegedly did not want Elmi “anywhere near his children” — Isra Hirsi, now 23, and Adnan, 20. Their third child, Ilwad, was born in 2012 while Omar was still married to Elmi.
“Ahmed used to insult her brother all the time and say nasty things,” the source told The Post.
“He told me, ‘He’s an uncle to my children and I am scared he is going to influence them with his effeminate lifestyle.’”
Hirsi, Omar and Elmi did not respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
The family friend claimed Elmi was the main source of friction between Hirsi and Omar.
“Ahmed and Ilhan used to argue over her brother all the time,” he told The Post. “I saw them arguing and shouting in public.”
He claimed that Hirsi was full of relief once Elmi left Minnesota around 2012. “Ahmed praised God for taking him away from his family,” the source said.
Omar has been marred by allegations that she fraudulently married her second husband and alleged brother Elmi for immigration purposes since 2016.
The Minnesota congresswoman, who arrived in the US as a refugee from Somalia in 1995, has vehemently denied these allegations.
Omar first applied for a marriage license with Hirsi in 2002, though she later said, “we never finalized the application and thus were never legally married.”
According to Omar, the pair separated in 2008, then reconciled around four years later and legally married in 2018.
Omar was married to Elmi from 2009 to 2017. On their marriage application, both listed their marital address as a property in Columbia Heights, a suburb in Minneapolis. Hirsi also used that address for a business license.
Omar claims that she and Elmi split in 2011, but that it took a few years to finish the paperwork.
The Post previously reported joint tax filings between Omar and Hirsi in 2014 and 2015, while she was legally married to Elmi. Those filings were later corrected.
Omar and Hirsi eventually split in 2019 and she is now married to her former political advisor Tim Mynett.
Following a stint in South Africa, Elmi returned to the UK where he continues to live a “flamboyant” life and works at the University of Bristol.
He described himself as a “dirty dandy” on his social media profiles and regularly posted pictures of himself wearing garish outfits and enjoying drinks alongside handsome men at London cafes.
Elmi pursued a doctorate degree at Bristol University from 2023, served as a research assistant and his areas of interest include “critically queer,” “decolonization,” and “gender research group.”
