Farrah Khan
Farrah N. Khan is an American politician who served as the 23rd mayor of Irvine, California from 2020 to 2024. A member of the Democratic Party, Khan first served Irvine as a member of City Council before being elected mayor in 2020.
In July 2023, Khan announced that she would run for the third district seat of the Orange County Board of Supervisors.
Early life and education
Khan was born in Lahore, Pakistan. She immigrated to the United States when she was three years old. She subsequently lived in northern California. She received her bachelor's degree in English literature from the University of California, Davis. She moved to Irvine in 2004.Career
Prior to working in politics, Khan worked as a regulatory manager for a biotech company. She has also worked as a small business owner and was executive director of the Newport Mesa Irvine Interfaith Council.Irvine City Council
Khan first ran for Irvine City Council unsuccessfully in 2016. Running again in 2018, she was elected. She was the first Muslim and woman of color to be elected to Irvine's city council.While on the Irvine City Council, she co-introduced an item with Councilmember Melissa Fox that repealed a decades-old ordinance that did not offer members of the LGBT community anti-discrimination protections.
Mayor of Irvine
Khan ran for mayor during the 2020 election. She won about 47% of the vote, unseating mayor pro tem Christina Shea, a Republican, who received 36% of the vote. Khan stated that she was motivated to run for mayor after Shea made controversial criticisms of Black Lives Matter protestors, remarks that Khan felt were "not reflective of our community". Her election as mayor made her not only the first Muslim and woman of color to serve Irvine City Council but also the first Muslim woman to serve as mayor of a large city in the United States.Khan ran again for mayor in the 2022 election, and won reelection with 37.8% of the vote.
Controversies
Association with a denier of the Armenian genocide
In March 2022, a video surfaced of a 2020 meeting between Khan and Ergun Kirlikovali, a former President of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations. In the video, Kirlikovali appears to make a joke that a box of Turkish delights could be eaten on Armenians' occasions, which would make them disappear. Khan appears to joke along, saying she would make sure to eat the Turkish delights in front of them. Kirlikovali is a known Armenian genocide denier. Some claimed that the joke was about making Armenians disappear whereas Khan has maintained that that was not the case.This video was met with outrage and criticism, especially by members of the Armenian community. The group ANCA Western Region criticized Khan for associating with a genocide denier and pointed out that Khan appointed Kirlikovali to her mayoral advisory committee in 2021.
In response, Khan claimed that the video was not accurate, stating that the video's captions had an "incorrect translation". Khan also promised to cut ties with deniers of the Armenian genocide.