Heiða Guðný Ásgeirsdóttir (born 26 April 1978) is an Icelandic sheep farmer and former model who serves as a deputy member of the Althing.
From her late teens until she was 23, Heiða worked as a fashion model, including in New York City; she returned to take over her parents' sheep farm, Ljótarstaðir on the River Tungufljót , after her father could no longer manage it. He has since died; she lives there with her mother and also runs occasional walking tours of the farm, which covers 6,464 hectares (15,970 acres) and has about 500 sheep. [1] [2] [3] [4] As of 2014 [update] she was possibly the only Icelandic woman shearing sheep; [5] in February 2017 she was the only female contestant in the machine shearing division at the World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships in New Zealand. [1] [4] [6]
She has also worked in construction and as a local police officer, [7] and is on the board of the nearby Vatnajökull National Park. [3] In 2017 she modelled again, for a new Icelandic brand. [8]
Heiða became involved in environmental politics fighting plans to construct a hydro-electric plant which would involve damming the river and flooding much of her farm. [1] [2] [4] [9] She was elected as an alternate member of the Althing in the 2017 elections, representing the South constituency for the Left-Green Movement, [7] [10] and made her maiden speech on 18 September 2018. [11]
In 2016 she was the subject of novelist and poet Steinunn Sigurðardóttir's first non-fiction book, Heiða – Fjalldalabóndi (Heiða – The Farmer in the Valley, her local nickname). [1] [6] [12] [13]