Because of her charity work, the Huffington Post describes her as the "Muslim Mother Theresa".
Edna Adan Ismail was Foreign Minister of Somaliland from 2003 to 2006, and had previously served as Somaliland's Minister of Family Welfare and Social Development.
She is the director and founder of the Edna Adan Maternity Hospital in Hargeisa, which opened in 2002, and an activist and pioneer in the struggle for the abolition of female genital mutilation. She is also President of the Somaliland Association for Victims of Torture.
In 2010, she opened the Edna Adan Ismail University in Hargeisa, Somaliland.
She was married to Mohammed Haji Ibrahim Egal who was Head of Government in British Somaliland five days prior to Italian Somalia's independence and later the Prime Minister of Somalia (1967-69) and President of Somaliland from 1993 to 2002.
Edna Adan Ismail is the daughter of Adan Ismail Guleid "Adan Dhaktar", who is also known as "The father of Health Care in Somaliland".