Who is Tawar?

I am Tawar Salari, a 29-year-old young Kurd from Turku, Finland. I am a midwife-nurse and I’m also studying master degree in health sciences at the University of Turku. I work as a midwife at the university central hospital in the gynecology department and also in the support center for victims of sexual violence. At the age of 2, I arrived in Finland with my parents as a quota refugee due to my father’s political persecution, as we were no longer safe even in neighboring countries from the aggressive attacks of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

As an entrepreneur, I have trained various professionals on equality issues such as the status of minorities, the status of women with immigrant backgrounds, the mental health of immigrants, honor violence, female genital mutilation, and the impact of religion on communities. I have also been actively supporting the Women, Life, Freedom movement of Kurds and Iranian women from Finland and have taken their message to the EU parlement to the EU commission. Equality and justice have always been central values in all my choices.

I have held various positions of trust in activism and still hold some of them:

2019-2021 in the Vigor project, where we promoted health topics for immigrants to the target group and professionals. Through the Vigor project, I also worked closely with THL to prevent female genital mutilation.
Since 2020, on the board of the Varsinais-Suomi Midwives Association.
2021-2023 member of the Youth, Peace, and Security coordination group.
In 2023, in the international politics group of the Finnish Youth Sector Organization, promoting equality on various international trips.
2024 Chair of the Generation Equality Youth Group and Vice-Chair in 2023. Generation Equality Youth is a coalition group coordinated by UN Women Finland and Plan International Finland, promoting the UN’s Generation Equality campaign. We work strongly to eradicate online violence.

After long activism, I have strongly entered politics and joined the ranks of the Finnish Social Democratic Party. My themes in politics have strongly been in the field of human rights, improving the status of immigrants, maintaining the well-being of the people, and various security-related issues. Of course, foreign policy is also strongly present, especially the situation of the Kurds and the Middle East.

Currently, I hold the following political trust positions:

The first vice-chair of the Social Democratic Women in 2025-2028.
Member of the board of the Social Democratic Students’ in 2024 and re-elected for 2025.
On the board of democratic women of Varsinais-Suomen district in 2024-2025
On the board of the Turku Social Democratic Women in 2024-2025.
On the Turku City Welfare and Health Promotion Committee.
In the SDP equality and human rights working group.
In the SDP security working group.
In the SDP youth working group.

Now I am a candidate for the Turku municipal elections and the Varsinais-Suomi regional elections.

Check out my election goals > My priorities in the Municipal Council and the Regional Council: – Tawar Salari