Women in Somaliland
Continuing on the theme of the role of women in reform efforts in Muslim countries, Yvette Lopez, the talented, inspirational author of the Taste of Africa blog, has a great post there today on the subject.
Somaliland, in case you didn't know much about it, is an almost self-governing portion of war-plagued Somalia. (You can read much more about it on Yvette's blog.) But what she writes in today's post--as in many previous posts-- gives a lot of good info about the vital role of women in rebuilding shattered communities after wars--whether in Muslim countries or elsewhere.
In today's post, she writes of:
- Daraweyne village where an impending inter-clan conflict was halted by women, they stood in the middle of two warring clans as if saying "kill us first before you kill each other!" This act prevented the clash of male villagers and paved the way for a dialogue facilitated by women.
After the war, women took odd jobs to provide for their families while the men were left unemployed. The male unemployed force come from demobilized liberation fighters and nomads affected by the livestock ban, an industry dominated by men.
"Our men are proud, they don't want to be seen doing work they consider demeaning" [Zamzam Abdi, the manager of the most successful micro-finance institution that provides loan for women traders] added. More and more women set up small businesses, they sew clothes, manage teashops, clean houses, cook for other people among others. Today, women head more and more households, the sad impact of khat chewing sends their husbands away from their families leaving women to carry the burden of productive and reproductive roles.
The total absence of women in the traditional clan structure is slowly being changed in the arena of the newly formed Somaliland government and civil society movement. "We have gone a long way, now we have 2 women cabinet Ministers, 3 out of 332 local officials are women, stable and strong organizations are well managed and sustained by women, we are now part of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) of political parties and civil society groups that publicly voice out women's interest," Sacadia of Pastoral Environmental Network of the Horn of Africa (PENHA) said.
Somaliland is not recognised.
Somaliland is not recognised.
But it ought to be.
BTW, Yvette's great, isn't she? I really admire the work she does.