Aqila al-Hashimi (Arabic عقيلة الهاشمي cAqīla al-Hāshimī; 1953 - September 25, 2005) was an Iraqi politician who served on the Iraqi Governing Council. Aqila al-Hashimi was born in 1953 into a prominent Shi'ite religious family in Najaf. She gained a degree in law in Iraq and a doctorate in French Literature at the Sorbonne. She joined the Foreign Ministry in 1979 working as a French translator for Tariq Aziz. Al-Hashimi ran the Oil-for-Food Programme in the Foreign Ministry under Saddam Hussein.