Nadim Zahawi, the Iraqi Kurdish refugee who wants to take over from Boris Johnson

London. Among the aspirants to the post of prime minister, there is also an Iraqi Kurdish refugee, a self-made man who became very rich after emigrating to Great Britain. But 55-year-old Nadim Zahawi is not your typical Middle Eastern refugee. His was one of the most powerful families in Iraq, of which his father was governor of the central bank. With Saddam Hussein’s rise to power, however, the family fell from grace, forcing parents and children to flee hastily to London.