Choman Hardi was born in Iraqi Kurdistan in 1974. During the 80s her family fled Iraq after Saddam's forces attacked the Kurds with chemical weapons. In 1993, Hardi was granted refugee status in England where she went on to study Psychology and Philosophy. She attended Oxford, London and Kent Universities, and was a Research Fellow at Oxford, before returning to her home city of Sulaimani in 2014 to teach English, and to found the region's groundbreaking Center for Gender and Development Studies. Her latest volume of poetry is called Considering the Women. Choman Hardi will be appearing the Auckland Writers Festival in May.