Nisrin Barwari

Nesreen Barwari (born 1967) was a Kurdish official. She was born in Baghdad to a Kurdish family and was imprisoned at age fourteen due to her brother's involvement with the Kurdish movement. She obtained a Bachelor of Science in architectural engineering at the University of Baghdad in 1991. She served with the United Nations local office in Iraqi Kurdistan from 1991 to 1998 . After obtaining a master of public administration at the Harvard Kennedy School in 1999, she served as minister of reconstruction and development in KRG until 2003.

She was appointed Iraq's Minister for Municipalities & Public Works in September 2003, the only woman minister on the interim Iraqi Governing Council. In June 2004, she was reappointed minister in the Iraqi Transitional Government. In January 2005 she was elected to the Iraq National Assembly, but resigned her membership to continue as minister.

Berwari has displayed concern for the rights of women in Iraq. In January 2004, she joined protests against Resolution 137 of the Iraqi Governing Council that would have curtailed women's rights by making Iraq's personal status law subject to religious doctrine. During her time as minister in Baghdad she survived several assassination attempts.