PERSON: Tania Fernandes Anderson

Bowdoin Geneva Main Streets

Executive Director

Tania Fernandes Anderson (born January 4, 1979) is a Cape Verdean-born American politician and non-profit executive who is a member of the Boston City Council for the 7th district. A Democrat, she was elected in 2021 to succeed Kim Janey and represents Roxbury, Dorchester, and part of the South End. She is the first practicing Muslim elected to the Council.

Fernandes Anderson was born in Praia, Cape Verde, where she was raised by her closeted uncle and moved to Roxbury when she was 10. She graduated from John D. O’Bryant High School. She is the executive director of Bowdoin Geneva Main Streets, a non-profit supporting small businesses.

In June 2022, the Boston City Council unanimously adopted a resolution introduced by Fernandes Anderson and Councilors Kendra Lara and Ruthzee Louijeune which apologized for the city’s historical role in the Atlantic slave trade.

In October 2022, Fernandes Anderson offered a resolution calling for “Boston’s Hijab Day,” in recognition of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died while in the custody of Iranian authorities. Amini had been arrested for improperly wearing the hijab. The city council agreed to mark September 23, Amini’s birthday, as the “Day of Woman, Life and Freedom” in connection with human rights protests in Iran, but declined to recognize it as “Boston’s Hijab Day”.

At an October 18, 2023 city council hearing where resolutions were presented about the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel and subsequent 2023 Israel–Hamas war, Fernandes Anderson made comments calling for a return of hostages taken by Hamas and an immediate ceasefire by both sides and introduced a resolution calling for an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire. She was criticized for characterizing the Hamas-led October 7 attack as a “military operation” rather than an act of terrorism.

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