Women In Somali Society

Introduction and objectives

Traditional Somali culture has evolved over time, not only because of its own inherent dynamism but also through the exercise of diverse external influences extending from the early centuries of Islam through the colonial period to the Cold War, and ultimately to the ‘globalizing’ effects of international travel and telecommunications.

This Paper on the Role of Women in Somali Society has been prepared, as a partial fulfilment of my completion of Gender, Conflict and Peace Building course.

This report is thus intended primarily for the academic use of Institute of Peace and conflict Resolution.

The objective of this report is to review the existing literature (published and unpublished) on women and gender issues in Somaliland and Somalia, in order to:
- provide a gender analysis summarising the comparative situation of Somali women, with particular reference to their social, economic, legal and political roles;

Nevertheless, there are certain biases and omissions in the literature, notably an absence of material with detailed up-to-date information on gender aspects of recent changes. Considerable effort was made to obtain recent literature from a variety of development organisations, working on women and development issues in Somaliland.

I am very grateful to all those organisations and individuals who I used their material to the in put of this paper. Due to limitations of time and material, it was not possible to make a thorough assessment of past and present women issues.

This exercise cannot be generalized and cannot be a substitute for research on these issues; further researches can be undertaken for specific areas or as a general.

Concept clarifications:

Gender is defined in contrast to sex, to draw attention to the social roles of and interactions between women and men, rather than to their biological differences. Male and female roles and the relations between men and women are not unalterable but subject to constant change because they are shaped by society, i.e. they are socially constructed and depending on ethnicity, class, age etc. Yet, in all societies the gender relations between women and men tend to be clearly to the disadvantage of women. They encompass different scopes for action, e.g. different possibilities for making choices and different rights and decision making powers. These scopes for action are determined by prevailing cultural norms and values of masculinity and femininity (Eschborn 200, p. 6)

Peace: A political condition that ensure justice and social stability through formal and informal institutions, practices and norms (Christopher A. Miller).

Political participation:

A political participation is the active engagement by individuals and groups with the governmental processes that affect their lives. This encompasses both involvement in decision-making and acts of opposition (standing for office and campaigning for a political party).


The Economic Role of Somali Women

Perhaps the most important way in which women contribute to the economy is through their work. Women have always worked as farmers, teachers, domestic workers, nurses, volunteers, mothers, child care workers, and business owners. Women have made and continue to make essential and enormous contributions to the economy.

It is the women who make the local markets thrive by selling goods - clothing, gold and foodstuffs - in order to feed their families.

Nomadic women make a decisive contribution to the economy in the form of labour and through the products goats and sheep, some of which they own. Women are the architects of the nomad society; they both build and own the nomadic hut—an important element of the wedding ritual and the marriage and one of the many activities that women traditionally accomplish together. Women also work to collect wood and fetch water, prepare food, and feed the children. Much of this work is heavy.

In agricultural areas, women have farming duties, working in the field with other members of their extended family and tending her of cattle and small livestock.

Somali women within the fishing communities, make the “fishing nets, baskets, and boat utensils” as well as “selling surplus fish” (Farah,1995a:1)

Women also contribute to the economy as consumers.

Women in Peace and Security

The Somali society is organized by clan; elders and religious leaders are called upon to resolve conflicts on the basis of mutually agreed principles involving existing xeer and legal precedent.

In the traditional setting, women are not considered for formal positions of power in society and are typically excluded from formal meetings, regardless of whether these are focused on conflict resolution or other community concerns.

Their contribution to public life is restricted to the private influence over their husbands, fathers, sons, brothers, and uncles as they sit together under a tree or in another shady place and talk until the conflicting parties come to an agreement.

Despite their exclusion from the formal meetings, women have played an active role in mobilizing for both peace and war. Women took part in the liberation struggle against the Barre regime, raising funds to sustain the war effort, nursing the wounded, and a small minority even joined in the fighting.

However, they are the ones who suffer mostly in conflict situations. In modern warfare the weapons used do not often discriminate fighters from unarmed civilians including women, children and elderly. Women are particularly targeted for violence as well as humiliating attacks such as rape, prostitution, beatings, and stoning.

Despite these obstacles, Somali women have taken initiatives to restore peace and security in their community in national reconciliation and peacebuilding process. Here are some examples:

In 1992, a local women’s organization, the Somaliland Women Development Association (SWDA) in Hargeisa, collected funding from the public and some NGOs to establish and maintain a police force to restore peace and security in their areas to secure their environment to conduct their daily affairs without fear of being robbed, or attacked by the militia. In the same year, the women organized demonstrations lobbying the council of elders to halt the civil war between two major clans and to call for a reconciliation meeting.

During 1994-96 conflict in Somaliland, the Women’s Peace Group of the Committee of Concerned Somalis in Hargeisa organized ‘walks of life’ and a prayer meeting on 28 March 1996 in New Hargeisa at the Beerta Sayidka. At the same time, a group of 22 women submitted an official letter to the government of Somaliland to protest the outbreak of civil strife. The message of the letter was that the women of Somaliland need a lasting peace and to spare the lives of vulnerable people, to spare the long-fought for freedom and not to increase the number of orphans.

In addition to their political involvement in the peace process, women have the potential to promote peace at a social level; they can act as mediators in conflicts between the men of their family, clans, and communities. Some promote the importance of peace through husbands, sons, and fathers as well as to their mothers, sisters, daughters and other women relatives.

Political Participation and Decision-making

As mentioned above, most decisions concerning the life of the community—whether about war, peace, migration, marriage, or divorce—were an exclusively masculine domain, usually adopted through rough consensus by lineage ‘elders’. Religious authority rested equally with men. Women were assigned to tasks like child-rearing, preparation of food, maintenance of the hut, collection of water and firewood, and supervision of small stock; they were considered incompetent for more responsible roles—an attitude that persists widely to the present day.

During the era of Siyad Barre, it appeared that the government was committed to the political and economic improvement of Somali women, so much so that many Somali men referred to it as the “Somali women’s revolution” (Salah,I.1994:28).

In Somaliland, as Nagaad presented at the Somaliland Women Conference 25-27th December, 2007 that the Local Elections held in December 2002, the 7 political organizations, running the first stage, presented 1920 candidates to run as a local councillors, comparatively the number of women candidates in the lists was very small; 76 female candidates. As a result of women’s exclusion in the top lists of local elections out of 320 local government councillors only 2 were women. Currently there are 3 women local councillors out of 320 councillors through out Somaliland. The third women was filled the post vacated by an appointed minister.

The same report says, out of 82 seats of the House of Representatives 2 women succeeded in the election.

At the administration and management, women are engaged as employees but not yet at a decision-making level. Only one woman has served as minister out of 51 ministers and deputy ministers, Women do not hold high and middle administrative positions in the public sector.

There is not a single woman director general out of the 28 director generals; there are 7 women director of departments out of 137. Out of the 7 members of the national electoral commission none are women (Nagaad 2007, p.23). There are a large number of women in the political parties but there are a limited number of women who are members of the decision-making bodies of their respective political parties.

The male dominated government denied women accessing decision making whether it is political or administrative. Women lost the rights of participation according to the strong clan system dominated by men coupled with the absence of an adequate policy and legal framework that would enable women enjoy equal opportunities in exercising their right to political participation. High literacy rate and low education level of women is another challenge.

Women in civil Society

In Somaliland, numerous women’s groups and organisations emerged after the birth of Somaliland and the outbreak of civil war. As argued in a recent study, Somalia between Peace and War: Somali Women on the Eve of the 21st Century, “the existence and activities of non-governmental organisations were sharply circumscribed in the Siyad Barre era. They have mushroomed since the collapse of the government. The eagerness of many international partners to promote women’s issues encouraged a blooming of women’s NGOs. While many of these remain dependent upon external support for their ideological cues and funding, others represent the authentic efforts of Somali women to organise themselves and to assert themselves in meaningful social and political ways. A few more established NGOs – predating the collapse of government – have used the opportunity to establish themselves as important forces within their communities, challenging the domination of the military factions of traditional, male–dominated structures”.

Women and Poetry

Oral literature plays a very important role in Somali culture and has done so for thousands of years. The Somali script was written in 1972; since then, the writing of the Somali orthography has not had much effect on the composition and dissemination of oral poetry.

The majority of the Somalis, largely nomadic pastorals, still remain illiterate. Even a literate population has much dependent on oral poetry. The literature is therefore still predominantly oral: it is orally composed, memorized, and recited.

One cannot adequately summarize here the function of oral literature or poetry of women in the society, because it affects the daily lives of most Somalis wherever they are. Poetry, proverbs, riddles, and other genres are used as acts of communication and as a form of education (elders to the young). They play a significant role in traditional conflicts and in tribal and political affairs.

Somali classical poetry is divided into four main styles: Gabay, Geeraar, Jiifto, and Buranbur.

According to this classification, based on the way the poem is chanted and the rhythmic pattern of words, the Gabay, Geeraar, and Jiifto are seen as male genres while Buranbur is considered the female style (Andrzejewski and Lewis 1974).

Poetry by women concerning matters of political interest, such as clan politics, the liberation struggle, modern government politics, the armed struggle against the regime of Siad Barre, and civil war, is not in wide circulation. The medium of transmission which is oral memorization and recitation that is mainly male role doesn’t work for women.

Somali women’s poetry plays a fundamental role in shaping society, educating children, conveying messages in political affairs, and raising consciousness. Over the years women have been involved in struggles for land, liberation, and freedom from oppression.

The poetry of women has not been limited to public issues but they also talked about their personal issues; their love and future affairs. Let us take an example of Anab Mahamed Guleed in 1989 reciting a long poem about her failed love and her perception on male in general. Anab particularly, discussing a man she put all her trust but was not the man she thought.

In her poem titled “ Quwaalaw allahayow midkaas nolol ha noo qaybin” , she classifies men in to four categories, except one category, she claims all the other three are worthless.

Qiima malaha barashu haddan lays qadarinayne
Qalbigaan la dhawrin dhakhsuu qanac u gaadhayaa
Qayrkaa haddaan kuu jeclaa waan ku qoonsadaye
Ka qawadayna qoyskaan lahaa aysla qabataane
Qormadaan yagleelaayay een qiima galinaaayay
Qabanqaabadii aan watay iyo qalidkii beenawye…..
Sharaftaydii anigoo qaboon qoon igu oolin
Oo aan qalqaallina ahyn qawlna fududaanin
Qalqaloocana waligay usocon qubin diintayda
Nafta inaan qisaasa waa midaan meesha qabanyne
Iga quuso adiguna ninyahay qiil kalaad suguye.

Conclusion and Recommendations

• Women have always been an integral part of the social and economic lives of their community and nation. What is necessary, however, is to acknowledge the value of their contribution and their potential to enhance themselves and the community at large.
• It is very important in strengthening women’s self-reliance, to educate women into how to organize business activities. Furthermore, empowering women economically will play a vital role in the political, social and economic development of the country.
• Capacity building activities are essential in order to strengthen women’s organisations.
• The male dominated government denied women accessing decision making whether it is political or administrative. Women lost the rights of participation according to the strong clan system dominated by men coupled with the absence of an adequate policy and legal framework that would enable women enjoy equal opportunities in exercising their right to political participation. High literacy rate and low education level of women is another challenge.
• What women do and can do depends to a considerable extent on social relations and norms, and to understand this better it is necessary to understand not just how women function but also how men do. It is not enough to just study the women: it is the complementarity of men and women, how roles work, responsibilities and rewards are shared between them, that is important.

Written by:

Mohamoud Mohamed Aqli
Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies
University of Hargeisa
March 2009