Somalia - the Untold Story

judith gardner

Description

Somalia came to the world's attention in 1992 when television and newspapers began to report on the terrifyingly violent war and the famine that resulted. Half a million Somalis died that year, and over a million fled the country. Cameras followed US troops as they landed on the beaches at Mogadishu to lead what became an ill-fated UN intervention to end hunger and restore peace.



In this book, Somali women write and talk about the war, their experiences and the unacceptable choices they often faced. They explain clearly, in their own words, the changes, challenges – and sometimes the opportunities – that war brought, and how they coped with them.



Key themes include the slaughter and loss of men, who were the prime target for killings; rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war; changing roles in the family and within the pastoralist economy; women mobilising for peace; and leading social recovery in a war-torn society.



This book is not only an important record of women's experience of war, but also provides researchers and students of gender and conflict with rare first hand accounts highlighting the impact of war on gender relations, and women's struggle for equal political rights in a situation of state collapse.
Acknowledgements

Foreword

Preface

Introduction

Part 1: Experiences in War

1. Women and Pastoralist Economy - Roda Ibrihim

2. Marriage in Traditional Somali Society – Sadia Ahmed

3. Rape – A Weapon of War – Fousia Musse

Part 2: Impact of the War On Women and Their Responses

Section 1: Changing Roles and Responsibilities in the Family

4. Single Mothers in Canada – Ladan Affi

5. Women Traders – Amina M. Warsame

Section 2: Women Mobilise For Peace

6. Women and Peace-building Somaliland – Zeynab Hassan & shukri Hariir

7. Wajir Women for Peace – Dekha Ibrihim

Section 3: Women and Leadership

8. Women and Leadership

Facts & Figures

Maps

Glossary

Bibliography

Further Reading

Resource List

Index

Sujets

• International relations
• Somalia
• Somalie
• Science

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 janvier 2004
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781849644730
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Gardner 00 prelims 3/12/03 10:20 Page iii
Somalia –
The Untold Story
The War Through the Eyes
of Somali Women
Edited by
Judith Gardner and Judy El Bushra
CIIR and
Pluto P Press
LONDON • STERLING, VIRGINIAGardner 00 prelims 3/12/03 10:20 Page iv
First published 2004 by
Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
and 22883 Quicksilver Drive, Sterling, VA 20166–2012, USA
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright © Edited by Judith Gardner and Judy El Bushra,
and CIIR 2004
The right of the individual contributors to be identified as the
authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0 7453 2209 3 hardback 0 7453 2208 5 paperback
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Somalia––the untold story : the war through the eyes of Somali
women / edited by Judith Gardner and Judy El Bushra.
p. cm.
ISBN 0–7453–2209–3 –– ISBN 0–7453–2208–5 (pbk.)
1. Women––Somalia. 2. Women refugees––Somalia. 3. Women
and war––Somalia. 4. Women––Crimes against––Somalia. 5.
Somalia––History––1991– 6. Somalia––Social conditions––1960–
I. Title: War through the eyes of Somali women. II. Gardner,
Judith. III. El-Bushra, Judy.
HQ1795.S66 2004
305.4'096773--dc22
2003020195
10987654321
Designed and produced for Pluto Press by
Chase Publishing Services, Fortescue, Sidmouth, EX10 9QG, England
Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England
Printed and bound in the European Union by
Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne, EnglandGardner 00 prelims 3/12/03 10:20 Page v
Contents
Map vii
Abbreviations viii
Acknowledgements ix
Preface x
A note on Somali poetry xiii
Introduction Judy Gardner and Judy El Bushra 1
PART 1: WOMEN’S EXPERIENCES OF THE WAR
1 Women’s role in the pastoral economy
Rhoda M. Ibrahim 24
Testimony 1: Habiba Osman 41
2 Traditions of marriage and the household 51
Sadia Musse Ahmed
Testimony 2:Amina Sayid 59
3 War crimes against women and girls 69
Fowzia Musse
Testimony 3:A group view 85
Ty 4: Shukri Hariir 89
PART 2: WOMEN’S RESPONSES TO THE WAR
Section 1: Changing roles and responsibilities in the family 99
4 Domestic conflict in the diaspora – Somali women
asylum seekers and refugees in Canada 107
Ladan Affi
5 Crisis or opportunity? Somali women traders and the war 116
Amina Mohamoud Warsame
Testimony 5: Halimo Elmi 127
Section 2: Women mobilise for peace 139
6 Women and peace-making in Somaliland 142
Zeynab Mohamed Hassan and Shukri Hariir Ismail, et alGardner 00 prelims 3/12/03 10:20 Page vi
vi Somalia – The Untold Story
7 Women, clan identity and peace-building 153
Judith Gardner with Amina Mohamoud Warsame
8 Women’s roles in peace-making in the Somali
community in north eastern Kenya 166
Dekha Ibrahim
Section 3: Women’s rights, leadership and political
empowerment 175
Testimony 6: Dahabo Isse 179
9 Post-war recovery and participation 189
Compiled from information provided by Shukri Hariir
and Zeynab Mohamed Hassan
Testimony 7: Noreen Michael Mariano 209
Starlin Abdi Arush – a tribute 215
Afterword: political update, July 2003 220
About the contributors 223
Appendices
Appendix 1: Chronology of Somalia’s civil war 228
Appendix 2: Somalia in facts and figures 236
Appendix 3: Glossary 238
Appendix 4: Bibliography 241
Index 247AA
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Gardner 00 prelims 3/12/03 10:20 Page vii
YEMEN
SOMALIA
Aden
Zeyla Bossaso
Erigavo
Berbera SANAAG
Boroma
Sheikh El AfweyneGebiley
SOMALILANDArabseyo
Gardo
Harta Sheikh Hargeisa Burao
Harshiin
SOOL
Las Anod Garowe
NUGAL
OGADEN
ETHIOPIA Galkayo
Abudwaak
Balanbale
Beletweyne
BAKOOL HIRANHIRAN INDIAN
Bulo BertiLuuq
OCEAN
Baidoa
GEDO JowharBurhakaba
BAYBardera Afgoi BANADIR
Qoryoley
Mogadishu 0 km 400 LOWER Wajir Kurtanwarey Merca
SHABELLE 0 miles 200
Brava
Dadaab
LOWER
JUBA
Kismayo
INDIAN
OCEAN
Frontier of Somalia
Frontier claimed by Somaliland
Other frontiers
Main Roads
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KGardner 00 prelims 3/12/03 10:20 Page viii
Abbreviations
BBC British Broadcasting Corporation
CCS Committee of Concerned Somalis
CIIR Catholic Institute for International Relations
COGWO Coalition for Grassroots Women’s Organisations
COSONGO Committee for Somaliland NGOs
FGM Female genital mutilation
FIDA Federation of Women Lawyers
ICRC International Committee of the Red Cross
IGAD Inter-Governmental Agency on Development
NGO Non-governmental organisation
NSS National Security Service
PENHA Pastoral and Environmental Network for the Horn of
Africa
RRA Rahanweyne Resistance Army
SNM Somali National Movement
SNRP Somalia National Reconciliation Process
SOLWO Somaliland Women’s Organisation
SOWDAs Development Association
SOWRAGomen’s Research and Action Group
SPM Somali Patriotic Movement
SSDF Somali Salvation Democratic Front
SWA Somaliland Women’s Association
SWDO Somali Women’s Democratic Organisation
SWMs Movement
TNA Transitional National Assembly
TNG Transitional National Government
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
UNHCR United Nations High Commission for Refugees
UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund
UNIFEM United Nations Development Fund for Women
UNOSOM United Nations Operation in Somalia
USC United Somali Congress
WADA Women’s Advocacy and Development Association
WAPO Ws Advocacy and Progressive Organisation
WPDC Wajir Peace and Development Committee
WPF Women’s Political Forum
WSP War Torn Societies Project
WWP Wajir Women for Peace
viiiGardner 00 prelims 3/12/03 10:20 Page ix
Acknowledgements
Our biggest thanks go to the women whose words are published here,
for allowing their experiences and topics of study to be shared
through this book and for their patience while the text was being
finalised. We were in contact with many more women than are
represented in this final version, and we would like to thank all those
who showed an interest in the book and who helped along the way.
These include Zamzam Abdi, Faiza Jama, Sara Haid, Faisa Loyaan,
Sacda Abdi, Amina Adan, Qamar Ibrahim, Safia Giama, Faduma
Mohamed Omer ‘Halane’ plus Anab Ali Jama and the other women
of Sheffield Somali Women’s Association and Welfare Group.
Thanks too to all those who shared their expertise and helped to
shape the final manuscript: Amina M. Warsame, Dr Adan Abokor,
Faiza Warsame, Mark Bradbury, Adam Bradbury, Judith Large, Pippa
Hoyland, Ruth Jacobson and Dr David Keen; and to Joy Lawley for
her invaluable commitment to the project over six years.
Among those whose voices are missing is Zeynab Aideed, whose
oral account of her experience as an internally displaced person was
one of the inspirations behind the book.
This book was made possible through the generous funding
support of the Department for International Development, Comic
Relief, NOVIB, Christian Aid, CAFOD, UNICEF Hargeisa, and
ActionAid Somaliland.
ixGardner 00 prelims 3/12/03 10:20 Page x
Preface
The idea for this book came about during a conversation I had in
1993 with a Somali refugee who had formed a London-based Somali
organisation. On the day in question this normally calm man was
clearly preoccupied. It emerged that he had recently learnt that his
wife, who had stayed in Somalia when he fled the country, had been
captured by militia, imprisoned in a villa with many other women
and girls, and repeatedly raped and sexually violated for months
during some of the worst violence in Mogadishu in 1992.
Recently reunited with his wife after two years he had found her
greatly changed. She had been unable to tell him about her ordeal
but had eventually confided in a female friend.
This woman’s experience pointed to a side of the Somali conflict
that the outside world, and many Somalis themselves, were largely
unaware of – the extent to which gender-based violence, most
notably rape, had been used to prosecute the war.
It was this story that led CIIR to begin research for a book with
the aim of ensuring that women’s experiences of gender-based
violence in the war would not be forgotten. Early on in the research
for the book, however, it became obvious that there was much more
to tell about the impact of the war on women’s lives. It was also clear
that one of the most powerful ways to document such history was
for Somali women themselves to tell it. The result is this book, which
seeks to contribute to understanding about the war’s impact on
women as seen through the eyes of women themselves. Here women
write and talk about the war, their experiences, and the difficult
choices, changes and even opportunities the war has brought. In the
process they describe the position of women in Somali society, both
before and since the war.
The contributors come from different parts of Somalia, including
the towns of Brava, Mogadishu and Baidoa in the South, the region
of Puntland in the north east, and Somaliland in the north west.
Also represented is the Somali-speaking region of Kenya’s north east,
and Somali women refugees from the vast Somali diaspora in Yemen,
Canada and Britain. That the book contains more contributions from
women of northern Somalia and pastoral cultures than from the
south and non-pastoral ones is the result of difficulties in collecting
xGardner 00 prelims 3/12/03 10:20 Page xi
Preface xi
contributions rather than of intentional bias. Together the individuals
represented here give an insight into most sides of Somalia’s clan
divisions. They met as a group for the first time at a workshop in the
UK in 1997 to share their views and develop the book’s themes.
Some of the contributors are academics and researchers, some are
health professionals, social and c