November 13, 2008

Q: What about your childhood in Somalia?

A: My childhood in Somalia was like any other childhood we can think of. However, I had the privilege to attend Quranic school (madrasa) as a girl-child which was not common around my neighbourhood at that time.

From my own family (household) we happened to be three girls and it was uncommon to send all three to school at a go, if need arose at least one or two would be sent unlike the male children who enjoyed the full right. This was another privilege I enjoyed.

Q: What was the sparking point for your commitment?

A: The sparking point for my commitment was when the Somali civil war erupted in 1991. The defenseless women and children who have no responsibility at all in the business of war-making became the prime victims of all criminal atrocities in record.

Q: What is good in Somalia? 

A: A lot of things are good, from the climate to food. But there was a unique thing which is still stuck in my mind is that the community parenting or collective responsibility. Almost every parent in my community would treat me and regard me as one of their own which was part of the culture. They had the right to make you toe the line and they also extended kindness towards one.


Q: Is Somalia a failed state?

A: Yes, it is a failed state in an attempt to find its way back on track as a viable nation state.


Q: What could happen to you if you returned to Mogadishu?

A: If I returned to Mogadishu, available options are:

• I could find myself in the cold-blood assassination just like my departed peace and human rights activists.
• I could be killed by indiscriminate motor-shells that claimed thousands of lives of unarmed innocent civilians.
• I could have ended being a refugee along the borders or be an IDP (Internally Displaced Person).

Q: Is it sometimes difficult to persuade Somali women to reach out for power and participation?

A: From my experience, it is sometimes difficult to persuade Somali women to reach out for power and participation because of the following:

• As a patriarchal society, power and political participation is seen as a male domain thing.
• At women's cultural upbringing, they do not see politics their business. They shy away from it.
• They are less empowered to withstand against the actual challenges.

Q: Tell us why and how you formed the sixth clan, and whether there has ever been a moment during your struggle when you truly thought about giving in?

A: Yes, there has been a moment when I truly thought of doing so. To give a clear picture of how things were by that time, here is the story of the Sixth Clan.

Why and how the sixth clan was formed:
During the Somali conflict there had been international and regional attempts to bring the warring factions together and solve the Somali political crisis. Thirteen conferences were held but they failed because they were all warlord-oriented conferences, which means only armed groups had the right to participate and excluded the participation of other actors from the civil society including women. In the year 2000, Ismaïl Omar Guelleh, President of Djibouti, convened the first all inclusive national reconciliation conference aimed at ending the clan hostility and coming up with a comprehensive national solution. Unlike the previous attempts the participation of Arta/ Djibouti conference was clan based. 

In the traditional clan structure women have no space or room because in patriarchal and patrilineal societies women have neither the responsibility to protect the clan while at war nor the right to represent the clan at the table of negotiations. Unfortunately, that resulted in the total exclusion of women in the participation of that important national reconciliation conference, simply because we are women and we do not represent any clan. Did we accept it?
"NO" we said and were vehemently opposed to that unfairness and social injustice and stood up for our rights. It was the courage, tenacity, vision, activism and dynamism of SSWC under my leadership that organized the women beyond the clan boundaries and brought them together to form our own clan (the sixth clan) as an identity to fully participate in national solution seeking process. We demand our rightful space in the national reconciliation process. It was our strong conviction that our contribution was vital and worth. We mounted pressure on the host country (Djibouti), paramount clan elders, religious leaders, etc. We also built strategic alliance with some of the clan leaders, Islamic Scholars, politicians etc from different clans to support our cause.

Moreover, the innovative initiative outside the box which was the creation of the Sixth Clan enabled women to accomplish the following gains:

(a) We transformed the women's role from the traditional ululation to indispensable stakeholders to national peace and political process.

(b) We took women from the periphery to the negotiating table as equal partners in decision-making.

(c) We challenged the socio-cultural paradigm and curved out women's political space in the national political dispensation.

(d) We helped in drafting the first ever gender friendly charter that guaranteed the allocation of the women's quota which was 25 seats in the previous parliament.