1. Maryam, a 38-year-old woman of the Marehan clan, arrived at Ifo camp in north eastern Kenya around July 1992. A month later she was sleeping at the hut of a friend when they were attacked by nine unknown assailants. In Maryam’s words: They came around 9pm. We were in the house sleeping. They came […]

For Somali women, the physical injuries caused by being raped are compounded by the almost ubiquitous practice of female genital mutilation (FGM — also known as female circumcision, or gudniin in Somalia). Different forms of FGM are practised in many parts of Africa, and it is also common in the southern part of the Arabian […]

The scale of sexual violence against women refugees The exact number of Somali women who were raped in Kenya’s North Eastern Province following their arrival as refugees is not known because until the UNHCR intervention in 1993, women had no incentive to come forward and report what had happened to them. They were also fearful […]

Fowzia Musse Editors’ note The wars in Bosnia and Rwanda drew the world’s attention to the use of rape and sexual violence in war. But systematic rape during wartime is nothing new. From the ancient Romans to the Vietnam war; sexual violation of women and girls has been a means to conquer the enemy.1 What […]

Editors’ note As Sadia Musse Ahmed has highlighted, marriage ties across clan lineages have an important role in ensuring safe passage. During the civil war such family ties were a source of protection for many; they enabled family members to move through otherwise hostile territories equipped with a ‘name’ or contact relative who could act […]

In northern Somalia the clan system involves relationships that Somali nomads utilise to create both war and peace. Marriage creates important ties between lineages. However, neighbourhood may be given greater importance than lineage. A Somali saying goes: ood kaa dheeri kuma dhaxan tirto (‘a fence far away from you does not protect you from cold’) […]

Both men and women gain merit and respect through the achievement of their social tasks and responsibilities, which they learn from childhood. Women’s work is seen as being crucial to society, and to some extent this is recognised in women’s rights to inheritance and property. Nevertheless, for young people of both sexes, maturity and responsibility […]

Marriage in Somali society is a contract between families or lineages (groups of families linked through male ancestors). There is a preference for this bond to be between groups not already related by clan lineage, or not closely related or living in the same area. In other words, young people are encouraged to marry into […]

Sadia Musse Ahmed Editors’ note ‘After that day I decided to rely only on myself, and not any man… the civil war taught me that a woman can live on her own.’ This Somali woman was reflecting on the day during the war when she learned that her husband had decided to divorce her; leaving […]

Pastoral communities have suffered badly since 1998 when import bans were imposed on livestock from the Horn of Africa by Saudi Arabia, the largest importer of Somali livestock (usually sheep and goats). The bans were imposed to prevent the spread of Rift Valley Fever, which was identified in southern Somali livestock in 1997-98. The war […]