Aqila al-Hashimi

Dr. Aqila al-Hashimi (b. 1953, d. September 25, 2003), one of three women on the first Iraqi Governing Council, was ambushed by gunmen who attacked her convoy near her home. She died five days later from gunshot wounds to the stomach. "The attack on Hashimi was the first assassination of a member of the council." 

She was a foreign affairs expert and a career diplomat who had worked in the foreign ministry under Saddam Hussein. She was "the ministry official responsible for running the oil-for-food programme, under which the UN allowed Iraq to exchange oil earnings for humanitarian goods. Her last post at the ministry was as director of international relations." 

Juan Cole wrote September 30, 2003, that, as her successor, Paul Bremer, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) wanted "an independent professional [woman] with the sort of standing and competency enjoyed by Dr. al-Hashimi."

Profile
"Born in Najaf, Hashmi took a law degree in Baghdad, and then moved to France, where she gained a PhD in French literature at the Sorbonne. On returning home in the early 1980s, she was appointed to a diplomatic post in the foreign ministry, under the stewardship of Tariq Aziz, Saddam's main foreign affairs adviser and his foreign minister from 1983 onwards. The ministry made good use of Hashmi's knowledge of French politics and culture - she was also a fluent English speaker - by putting her in charge of relations with France, a very important position given the significance Saddam's regime attached to that country."