Shanaz Ibrahim Ahmed (Sorani Kurdish: شاناز ئیبراهیم ئەحمەد) (born 1954) is an Iraqi-Kurdish politician and current First Lady of Iraq.

[1] Shanaz is a member of a prominent, politically active family from Sulaymaniyah and is closely associated with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party,[2] which is currently headed by her nephew, Bafel Talabani.

During this period, due to regular political instability, Shanaz and her family were often forced to find refuge in the Zagros Mountains.

[5] As a result of the Iraqi government's crackdown on Kurds in 1973, Shanaz fled to Cairo, Egypt with some of her siblings, including Hero and her husband Jalal Talabani.

[8][9] A few months later, facing the prospect of house arrest under a new agreement between the Shah of Iran and the Iraqi government, Shanaz and part of her family fled to Damascus, Syria while her parents sought political asylum in the United Kingdom.

[11][12][13] Her daughter Sara Rashid is President of Kurdistan Save the Children (KSC), a non-governmental humanitarian organization founded by Hero Ibrahim Ahmed.

[14][15] While Shanaz never took part in the armed resistance against Saddam Hussein like her sister Hero and brother-in-law Jalal Talabani, she was integral to the efforts from abroad through fundraising, lobbying, raising international awareness, and organizing political rallies.

[3] Following the 1991 Kurdish uprising, the first Gulf War, and the imposition of sanctions on Iraq, Shanaz co-founded Kurdistan Save the Children (KSC), a non-governmental humanitarian organization, with her sister Hero Ibrahim Ahmed.