Bilan Osman (born 1992) is a Swedish journalist, opinion columnist and anti-racism activist.

Early life and education

She was born in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

to parents from

Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...

, a chemistry professor and an activist, and raised in

Partille Partille () is a former urban area in the county of Västra Götaland in Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to ...

. Her paternal grandfather, Nor Osman, was a poet. She studied multimedia journalism at in

Motala Motala () is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Motala Municipality, Östergötland County, Sweden with a municipal population of 43,717 inhabitants in 2024. It is the third largest city of Östergötland, following Linköping and N ...

Career

Osman has been a columnist at the newspapers ''

Svenska Dagbladet (, "The Swedish Daily News"), abbreviated SvD, is a daily List of Swedish newspapers, newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. History and profile The first issue of appeared on 18 December 1884. During the beginning of the 1900s the pap ...

'' (2018–2019) and ''

Expressen (''The Express'') is one of two nationwide evening newspapers in Sweden. Describing itself as independent liberal, was founded in 1944; its symbol is a wasp and its slogans are "it stings" or " to your rescue". The newspaper awards the cultu ...

'', and also written opinion articles for other Swedish publications, including the magazine '. For eight years beginning in 2013, her primary work was as a travelling educator for the anti-racism Expo foundation. She then joined the Islamic . She has contributed to the anthologies ''Av oss blev det aldrig några riktiga damer'', ''Svart kvinna'' (2015) ''Rummet'' (2015) and ''En annan historia'' (2017).

Activism

In 2013, Osman was one of five co-signatories of an

open letter An open letter is a Letter (message), letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally. Open letters usually take the form of a letter (mess ...

in ''

Aftonbladet (, lit. "The evening paper") is a Swedish language, Swedish daily tabloid newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. It is one of the largest daily newspapers in the Nordic countries. History and profile The newspaper was founded by Lar ...

'' urging Muslim women in Sweden to veil themselves in solidarity with a pregnant woman who was attacked in Stockholm by a man who objected to her

hijab Hijab (, ) refers to head coverings worn by Women in Islam, Muslim women. Similar to the mitpaḥat/tichel or Snood (headgear), snood worn by religious married Jewish women, certain Christian head covering, headcoverings worn by some Christian w ...

. She stated at the time that the group wanted to normalise the hijab in Sweden. Educating people about and combatting racism is a major focus for Osman. She has written for the group anti-racist blog ''Inte rasist, men ...'' ('Not racist, but ...). In response to the

murder of George Floyd On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black American man, was murdered in Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old White police officer. Floyd had been arrested after a store clerk reported that he made a purchase using a c ...

and the

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a Decentralization, decentralized political and social movement that aims to highlight racism, discrimination and Racial inequality in the United States, racial inequality experienced by black people, and to pro ...

movement in the US, Osman said that she sought to "start a conversation about whiteness" in Sweden. She covers right-wing extremism and has been accused of left-wing extremism; in early 2024 a

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

post in which she expressed exasperation with white people led to criticism.

Honors

In 2014 Osman was the recipient of the annual ELSA Award of the

Swedish Committee Against Antisemitism The Swedish Committee Against Antisemitism (SCAA) (, ''SKMA'') is a politically and religiously independent organization that works to spread knowledge about, and counteract, antisemitism and other forms of racism. The SCAA continuously monitors pu ...

, which is given to "individuals or groups who, via social media or in other ways, counteract anti-Semitism and other types of prejudice". In 2020 she was one of four nominees for the "Rising Star" award of the

Swedish Magazine Publishers Association The Swedish Magazine Publishers Association (SMPA) ( is a trade association for Swedish magazines. The organization was founded in 1997 by the merging of ''Föreningen Svensk Fackpress'' and ''Svenska veckopressens tidningsutgivareförening''. ...

References

External links

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Osman on Twitter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Osman, Bilan Living people 1992 births Activists against antisemitism Swedish people of Somali descent Swedish journalists Swedish women journalists Opposition to antisemitism in Sweden People from Partille Municipality Swedish columnists Swedish women columnists Swedish anti-racism activists