August 20, 2022
The women’s voice organization VOSOMWO held a large-scale meeting in Hargeisa to discuss the challenges facing women with political pride and the abuses they face in the field of culture. The meeting that took place in Hargeisa was first addressed by the General Director of the organization, Mrs. Hibak, who spoke about the role of this organization in the promotion of women with political pride. “VOSOMWO was founded in 2004, until now this organization has been working to raise awareness, promote and seek the rights of people with cultural disabilities who live all over Somaliland, in terms of employment, education and social integration that we have worked very hard on as an organization.
In terms of education, there are students that the association has helped in the universities from these culturally handicapped communities, and they have worked very hard on employment,” said Mrs. Hibak, while talking about the purpose of the meeting. she said, “The purpose of our meeting today is to look at the challenges facing women from culturally disadvantaged communities to appear in the politics of Somaliland and its development, as we know in the parliamentary and local elections, there is no visible woman from these clans who contested.
Scholars, women and other guests also spoke about the problem of women participating in the country’s politics, and how they can overcome it. Lawyer Mubarak Abdi, one of the people who spoke there, said, “This topic that is being discussed today is a topic that has been around for a long time, and we have proposed many steps to be taken that do not require much discussion. When it comes to political participation, women in Somaliland are outnumbered, not only marginalized girls, because the Somaliland system has a (deep state) that chooses something, and they influence the people who are chosen to enter the front lines of politics. Our democratic system is described as a system in which only men are in charge (dominate) and women do not hold many positions” said Mubarak.
Mrs. Su’aad Carmiye also spoke there, “We (women) believe that we belong to a tribe, and we are all fighting for the tribe, whether we are from the same family or if we are from the same family.” However, the truth is that we do not belong to any clan, we are not born or inherited, there is no one that we can represent, so we and the women of these clans are not different. Whether it is men or Barkhad Batuun or Abdikarin Mooge, there is no one who wants a woman to sit at the table to decide the government of the country.
