Gender and Development; 7(1), 69-72 pp.; 1999 Mar-72, 4p

This article describes the effects of the rise of Islamic extremism on women's lives in Somalia since the early 1990s. Throughout the conflict and afterwards, Somali women's organizations in different parts of the country have been active in both development work and advocacy for peace. They were challenging both the government and nongovernmental organizations to recognize and promote the role of women in society, and to resist threats to women's rights. It has been documented that religious extremists were challenging women's rights within marriage and family, to their economic and political participation outside the home, and to their freedom of dress and behavior. The paper also highlights the fact that wholesome and unwholesome traditional practices tend to be associated with Islam, and with other rights as defined in Islam. It reconfirmed that the violations against Somali women's rights are culturally rooted, and that such practice continues unchecked. Until Somali women received a better education, particularly in religious education, this situation will continue. The only hope are the women's organizations who seriously attempt to redress the extremists' strategy of marginalizing women on the grounds of religious evidence.

Economic and social crisis can force communities to seek refuge in religious faith; in such situations, communities become more susceptible to the influence of groups which use religious beliefs as a means to gain power. Sadia Ahmed describes the effects on women's lives of the rise of Islamic extremism in Somalia since the early 1990s.

In 1991, after 21 years of Siyad Barre's dictatorial regime, social and political upheavals brought Somalia to its knees: civil strife shredded the country into factions and the government finally collapsed, with disastrous consequences (for an account of the conflict, see Bradbury 1994). The conflict had a profound effect on the lives of the Somali people by destroying traditional economic systems, thus challenging women and men to change their respective economic roles.

Over the past two decades, extreme Islamic movements have gained momentum in Somalia (as elsewhere). I will examine some of the consequences for women of the rise of such groups, based on research carried out in 1996 by a coalition of grassroots women's organisations in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu.

Challenges to gender relations

Somalia's economy is mainly dependent on pastoralism. In the rural areas, livestock trade continues to be the backbone of the economy. Before the war, women from pastoralist groups were not usually directly involved in market transactions, and women's role in the economy seemed less significant than was actually the case. However, when it became difficult for men to travel for fear of government troops, the task of marketing livestock and buying foodstuffs and other goods for the family was increasingly and continues to be left to women (Warsame 1998). In urban areas, too, women's role in the economy became more visible. Today, although their incomes are generally low and the majority of female entrepreneurs have little or no education, women are increasingly forced to become the main breadwinner. The collapse of government has led to widespread unemployment among civil servants, and has forced more women into the market-place, pressurised to meet their families' needs. The government was the main employer in Somalia; the voluntary and private sectors are relatively small.

The rise of religious extremism

The rise of religious extremist groups in Somalia began in the early 1970s, when the communist regime introduced the ideology of scientific socialism. A rebel movement promoting Islamic values arose; this was generally welcomed by people, who saw it as shoring up `Somali' religious values and culture, and who felt a deep antipathy towards communism.

Government crack-downs on this movement created further sympathy among the public, but over the years, support for Islamic groups has waned. Judging from my own conversations with Somalis, these groups are commonly perceived to be foreign-funded and programmed. People also think that their agendas are incompatible with the interests of the Somali state. Extremists' mistakes, such as openly showing disrespect towards well-respected religious institutions, have led to further disillusionment on the part of the public. It has not proved easy to impose an extremist agenda on people who have been practising Muslims for centuries.

However, extreme Islamists do retain much support among certain social groups. Over the past decade in particular, they have found a large number of young male and female supporters who have grown up with little experience of life beyond conflict, with high unemployment rates and a lack of alternatives due to the destruction of schools. It is a well-known fact among Somalis that some extremist religious groups create business and employment opportunities for loyal followers (personal communication, 1998).

The impact of Islamic extremism on Somali women

Hasan (1991) lists the central Islamic principles which have been compromised by extremist groups in their quest for popularity and power, and suggests that the issue of women's roles and women's rights is the only one on which such groups will not compromise: `for them, women's liberation movements (or associations) are the central enemy, because the entire patriarchal society, whose existence fundamentalism has gone to the defence of, is built upon the oppression of women' (Hasan 1991, p35).

Throughout the conflict and afterwards, Somali women's organisations in different parts of the country have been active in both development work and advocacy for peace. Currently, women's groups are challenging both the government and NGOs to recognise and promote the role of women in society, and to resist threats to their rights. Challenges have been made by religious extremists to women's rights within marriage and the family, to their economic and political participation outside the home, and to their freedom of dress and behaviour.

In 1996, a coalition of women's grassroots organisations in Mogadishu conducted a study on Somali women's rights from the perspective of Islam. The study was motivated by a concern about the increasing number of fundamentalist movements mushrooming throughout the country, and the implications of this for women and development; about a perceived low awareness among Somali women on women's rights in Islam; and about the tendency of groups of educated men to retain information or blatantly mislead women about their rights and duties.

The study was conducted using questionnaires of mainly closed-ended questions, designed to explore the level of respondents' awareness regarding women's rights. 120 people (80 women and 40 men from local communities) were interviewed. The findings confirmed that many women are confused about their rights, obligations, and duties as articulated in Islam. It also highlighted the fact that wholesome and unwholesome traditional practices tend to be associated with Islam, and with women's rights as defined in Islam. It reconfirmed that violations against Somali women's rights are culturally rooted, and that such practices continue unchecked (Sheck et. al. 1996).

Marriage and the family

The widespread practice of relatively late marriage in Somalia is under threat. The national planning statistics of 1988 recorded the average age of marriage as 21 for girls, and 25 for boys; as more young people sought university education, the age of marriage was further postponed. However, this trend has been reversed by the collapse of the educational system. As fundamentalism strengthens its hold on the community, boys and girls are encouraged to marry ever earlier.

The Islamic principle of male responsibility for the family's maintenance, as outlined in the Q'uran (Afshar 1998), is being seriously undermined by young men being encouraged to marry one or more wives without economic means. The research confirmed that many young girls are ultimately either deserted or divorced. Since young couples sometimes marry without the parents' consent, deserted or divorced wives cannot always count on the support they could have otherwise relied on within the extended family system.

The research also suggests that ignorance of what the Q'uran says regarding polygamy is creating a problem for women. In 1998, I personally heard of a young girl under 20 with three children and little means, who was informed that her husband had married another woman; she calmly listened and defended him, saying `it is his right' (personal communication, Sept 1998). In fact, the Q'uran sets out men's responsibility in single or polygamous marriages: polygamy is only permissible under strict social circumstances; it is therefore a conditional permission and not an article of faith or mortal necessity (Sheck et. al. 1996).

Another development issue affecting women in their role within the family is fertility and family-planning. Spacing children is not a subject entertained by fundamentalists, despite the fact that the Quran encourages it; Islam gives women a wide range of rights, and does not oppose family planning, especially when women's health is at stake. Early and frequent child-bearing increases young women's health risks.

Political and economic participation Since the end of the war, Somalia has seen a decline of women's power in formal politics. The new political structures are principally based on clan relationships; it is becoming increasingly evident that unless parties free from clan politics are established, and the present strategy of fostering clan representation, common all over Somalia, is revisited, women's participation in politics will continue to be severely hampered. In Somaliland, as in Somalia, groups in power are using religion as the basis for excluding women from politics. A colleague who chairs the Umbrella Women's Organisation in Hargeisa, Somaliland, recounted to me that every time they organised a workshop, the Minister of Justice and Religious Affairs came to interrogate participants about their activities, until he was officially asked by Parliament to stop this. He stated that his actions were based on his belief that women can be easily influenced by foreigners, and hence felt they needed protection (personal communication, 1998).

Veiling and control of behaviour

In Somalia, a society at war with itself, and where sexual violation has also become a tool of war, the tendency towards more extreme religious practice has been reinforced by the perceived need for protection and protective clothing. The number of veiled women in Somalia has visibly increased since 1991.

Somali women's traditional dress is modest, but allows them freedom of movement and is thus more practical than the veil. As a Somali woman, I have seen that the recent increase in veiling has been accompanied, for the first time in Somali history, with extreme forms of censorship of women's behaviour, as extreme versions of Islamic interpretation have found fertile ground. Women who refuse to conform are harassed by both sexes, and peer pressure is exerted on them to veil.

Religious education and women's rights

Lack of religious education among the public allows extremists to use Islamic texts against women. Hadiths (1) are among the strongest weapons used to justify the marginalisation of Muslim women from religious and social power. Although a significant portion of the accounts of the Prophet's comments and deeds was recounted on the authority of women, (Ahmed 1990), the Hadiths were written by men. Many Hadiths that undermine women's freedom actually contradict the actions and philosophy of the Prophet Mohammed; the misogyny employed in the collection of such Hadiths has been discussed elsewhere (Mernissi 1991, Ahmed 1990). In addition, the fact that Arabic is not widely spoken in Somalia helps religious extremists to maintain their hold over communities: for example, they justify ideas about the weakness of women by arguing that the Arabic word al nisaa (the female) is synonymous with the Arabic word nisf (half). Through such arguments, women and men are made to believe that women are less intelligent in the eyes of Allah, and that the limitation of their rights is therefore justified. Until Somali women receive a better education, and better religious education in particular, this situation looks set to continue. Women's organisations are the only part of civil society to attempt seriously to redress the extremists' strategy of marginalising women on the grounds of religious `evidence'.

While the challenge of research and work by women's organisations is significant enough to cause concern to religious extremists and their supporters, their work is hindered by the lack of a coherent shared policy, and lack of access to the growing literature by Islamic scholars of both sexes, which challenges the denial of women's rights using religious texts. Women's organisations must bring about coherence in policy and achieve improved cooperation in designing and implementing strategies to challenge the erosion of women's rights.

Formerly the Director of the Women's Research Unit at the Somali Academy of Sciences and Arts, Somalia, Sadia Ahmed now works as gender co-ordinator for the Pastoral and Environmental Network in the Horn of Africa (PENHA). Contact her at PENHA, PO Box 494, 1 Laney House, Portpool Lane, London EC1N 7FP. E-mail: [email protected].

References

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Notes

1 Reported accounts of the life of the Prophet Mohammed.