Stoic- that is great to hear- living in Somaliland means I dont always get to read whatever I want or get leisure time to read! I did my undergrad thesis on American Foreign Policy impact on Palestine & Israel so I got very intimate and personal with the scholars of that time- great sadness at their loss. Just the other day I was re-watching on youtube Edward last interview- I think it was his 11th anniversary- youtube recommended it. Good times

Your most welcome. I think the guilt of being the "one that got away" is the hardest burden to deal with! and the resentment felt by those who got left behind fuels their sense of entitlement. A nasty cycle.

Safferz- you are not too far to pop along from years to year I can't imagine I would ever venture out that faaaaaaar- although I'd love to be in that environment! I wonder what happened to Edward daughter Nelia I think she was called? or even his son- the Palestinian course is almost but forgot with all the problems in the Middle East! Found lots of talks by Leila on Youtube- lets hope my internet stays!

Do Muslim Women Need Saving? The Western crusade to rescue Muslim women has reduced them to a simpl Somaliland floods means I can catch up with my reading! I am not too familiar with Lila Abu-Lughod but I was a big fan of her father Ibrahim Abu-Lughod may he rest in peace: Her writing on this issue has been compared to Edward Said work!! It would be nice to have the era of educated Arab intellectuals who provided an alternative view- particularly on Middle East discourse; I miss Edward Said, Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, Ibqbal (although technically he was Pakistani). Anyway enjoy reading. ------ A moral crusade to rescue oppressed Muslim women from their cultures and their religion has swept the public sphere, dissolving distinctions between conservatives and liberals, sexists and feminists. The crusade has justified all manner of intervention from the legal to the military, the humanitarian to the sartorial. But it has also reduced Muslim women to a stereotyped singularity, plastering a handy cultural icon over much more complicated historical and political dynamics. As an anthropologist who has spent decades doing research on and with women in different communities in the Middle East, I have found myself increasingly troubled by our obsession with Muslim women. Ever since 2001, when defending the rights of Muslim women was offered as a rationale for military intervention in Afghanistan, I have been trying to reconcile what I know from experience about individual women’s lives, and what I know as a student of the history of women and of feminism in different parts of the Muslim world, with the stock images of Muslim women that bombard us here in the West. Over the past decade, from the girls and women like Nujood Ali, whose best-selling memoir I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced was co-written, like so many of the others, by a Western journalist, to Malala Yousafzai, they have been portrayed as victims of the veil, forced marriage, honor crimes or violent abuse. They are presented as having a deficit of rights because of Islam. But they don’t always behave the way we expect them to, nor should they. (MORE: Forbidden to Drive: A Saudi Woman on Life Inside the Kingdom) Take the veil, for example. We were surprised when many women in Afghanistan didn’t take them off after being “liberated,” seeing as they had become such symbols of oppression in the West. But we were confusing veiling with a lack of agency. What most of us didn’t know is that 30 years ago the anthropologist Hanna Papanek described the burqa as “portable seclusion” and noted that many women saw it as a liberating invention because it enabled them to move out of segregated living spaces while still observing the requirements of separating and protecting women from unrelated men. People all over the globe, including Americans, wear the appropriate form of dress for their socially shared standards, religious beliefs and moral ideals. If we think that U.S. women live in a world of choice regarding clothing, we need to look no further than our own codes of dress and the often constricting tyrannies of fashion. As for Malala, she was subjected to horrible violence by the Taliban, but education for girls and Islam are not at odds, as was suggested when atheist Sam Harris praised Malala for standing up to the “misogyny of traditional Islam.” Across the Muslim world girls have even been going to state schools for generations. In Pakistan, poverty and political instability undermine girls’ schooling, but also that of boys. Yet in urban areas, girls finish high school at rates close to those of young men, and they are only fractionally less likely to pursue higher education. In many Arab countries, and in Iran, more women are in university than men. In Egypt, women make up a bigger percentage of engineering and medical faculties than women do in the U.S. A language of rights cannot really capture the complications of lives actually lived. If we were to consider the quandaries of a young woman in rural Egypt as she tries to make choices about who to marry or how she will make a good life for her children in trying circumstances, perhaps we would realize that we all work within constraints. It does not do justice to anyone to view her life only in terms of rights or that loaded term, freedom. These are not the terms in which we understand our own lives, born into families we did not choose, finding our way into what might fulfill us in life, constrained by failing economies, subject to the consumer capitalism, and making moral mistakes we must live with. (MORE: Brides Before Bombs: Nigerian City Fights Terrorism With Mass Weddings) There is no doubt that Western notions of human rights can be credited for the hope for a better world for all women. But I suspect that the deep moral conviction people feel about the rightness of saving the women of that timeless homogeneous mythical place called Islamland is fed by something else that cannot be separated from our current geopolitical relations. Blinded to the diversity of Muslim women’s lives, we tend to see our own situation too comfortably. Representing Muslim women as abused makes us forget the violence and oppression in our own midst. Our stereotyping of Muslim women also distracts us from the thornier problem that our own policies and actions in the world help create the (sometimes harsh) conditions in which distant others live. Ultimately, saving Muslim women allows us to ignore the complex entanglements in which we are all implicated and creates a polarization that places feminism only on the side of the West. Read more: Lila Abu-Lughod: Do Muslim Women Need Saving? | TIME.com http://ideas.time.com/2013/11/01/do-...#ixzz2kS7Oc4iz

I am not sure who is behind these illustrations but my heart-ached as I read through these- Not only does it only speaks volume about Somali experiences, but also depicts the reality many Somalis have been through and still going through everywhere. To battle general life issues, carry all the scars and emotional baggage of troubles and conflicts, yet burden by immigrant tag while they try to get a leg up in life and restart. I find all the stories so so incredibly sad! but Saafi story www.opensocietyfoundations.org/multimedia/meet-the-somalis#saafi Probably not healthy to read them all in one go "Meet the Somalis is a collection of 14 illustrated stories depicting the real life experiences of Somalis in seven cities in Europe: Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Leicester, London, Malmo, and Oslo. The stories allow readers a unique insight into what everyday life is like as a Somali in Europe. Meet the Somalis is based on the firsthand testimonies of Somalis in Europe interviewed during six months in 2013. The Somali community in Europe is a vibrant, diverse minority group, including people of Somali origin born in Europe, Somali refugees and asylum seekers, and Somalis who have migrated from one country in Europe to another. There are no accurate figures for the number of Somalis in Europe, but on the whole they are among one of the largest minority groups. The illustrated stories focus on challenges faced by Somalis in their respective cities in Europe and issues raised in the Somalis in European Cities research, including education, housing, the media, employment, political participation, and identity. Meet the Somalis depict experiences many of us will never know, like fleeing a warzone with your children or, worse, leaving your loved ones behind. But more often, these stories portray the values shared amongst many of us, like the importance of family, well-being, and identity in an ever-changing world. Stay tuned: Meet the Somalis will be translated into Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, and Somali."

I didnt say skip the process- have the fair trail and all, determine he or they are the ones- then they should get the fitting punishment. So Che probably lucky for criminals that I am not the judge. I am very much for innocent till proven guilty, but if proven guilty.... Lazy I completely agree with you- they need to find the head of the snake, the little guy will always be replaced as you correctly say.

I am glad this is sorted; Somaliland had no problem with students accessing anything whether it be educational or scholarships under the banner of Somalia. However the current Somalia government has been waging a war on Somaliland students- I am not really sure why- I am glad the Egypt problem is solved- Now Ethiopia (this is more terrorist related) and Sudan are problem that need solving. I don know what Somalia wanted to gain by obstructing students, and if they make it difficult, then Somaliland will be forced to seek for other states to accept the Somaliland passport and even issue different quotas for scholarships. Although on second thoughts, Somaliland probably needs a little hostile push over the edge and having their passports accepted might be a boost in their quest- particularly now that the UK are upgrading their passports to International standard.

This week politicians and the media have raged about "terror suspect" Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed, who absconded, dressed in a burqa, while being monitored by electronic tag. I know how he feels. I spent two years living under a control order – and the accusation that I was a terrorist. A control order is largely the same thing as a Tpim (terrorism prevention and investigation measure) – with which Mohamed had been issued – just more draconian. Like Mohamed, I found the pressures of being labelled a "terrorist" life-sapping. And I also absconded. Mohamed went "on the run" without having been charged with a crime and without being shown the evidence of his alleged wrongdoing. Call me old-fashioned, but I still believe in the basic concept of a trial. I'm not alone. Our justice system has world respect because it was built on the old principle that someone is "innocent until proven guilty". But with legislation such as Tpims and Schedule 7 – under which David Miranda was detained – this no longer seems to be the case. I was cleared of my "crime" – but not before I'd lost two years of my life in a netherworld of prisons, police, tags and harassment. The cumulative effects of the conditions destroy all normality: I was forced to stop caring for my sick mother and I had to quit a degree I loved doing. In short, every aspect of my life was dismantled and ruined. When my case eventually came to court, the judge, Justice Collins, was astonished by the flimsy evidence of my so-called wrongdoing put before him. He said three times that he could see no grounds to suspect me of involvement in terrorism. He added that, if he had seen the evidence before, he'd have thrown the order out. I was grateful to him for being candid, but by that point I'd lost my previous life. Over the years it has become clear that the reliability of information from our security services is not to be trusted. They assured us there were WMDs in Iraq, and there were not. They can get it equally wrong in a terrorism case. That is why we need fair, open trials. Four of the men living under Tpims have been found not guilty in a court of law. And yet an anonymous group of men and women in suits have taken it upon themselves to override this verdict. This is an ugly precedent to set, reminiscent of regimes that are universally condemned. After 18 months on my control order, I was ready to snap because of the pressures placed on me by these draconian measures. For my sanity, I felt my only option was also to go "on the run". There was a manhunt, with 400 officers, so I'm told. They didn't find me, or the two other men I left with. In fact they've never caught anyone who's breached their conditions. I returned of my own accord after five weeks. I was innocent. I didn't want to be labeled a "fugitive" – running from a crime I didn't commit. I handed myself over to police and spent the next six months in Belmarsh prison. So as someone who's felt the injustice of being called a terrorist – without evidence – as someone who's been on the wrong side of secret hearings, and who also saw the futility of a system built on secrets, I say to Mohamed: run as far as you can, run far away from these rainy shores, and I hope you will find the justice that is missing here. Sometimes, when faced with injustice, the only option is disobedience, so God speed and good journeys. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/08/mohammed-ahmed-mohmed-on-the-run-security-services?commentpage=1

^^^Locked up? I am more for poetic justice- load them up to a ship and dump them in the sea. Mass murders.

LayZie G.;984982 wrote: Ibti, don't hush the boy. He brought up a great point. Mida hore you are entitled to make personal statements but not facts, because personal statements are not facts. With that said, the decade long question that continues to hunt you and which you have no answer to is, why you want to wear a NIQAB? Surely it can't be for fashion. I just don't understand what this personal choice is all about. What is so fascinating about the cloth? Mida kale, clothes are relevant, and women's fashion is very much relevant. How you dress matters as thats how people judge you. Clothes reveal more about a person than one likes to admit. You are judged by the way you look and if I can't see you, I can't judge you. Loool @ If I can't see you, I can't judge you. Baal faaduusha eega! Lazy my dear sis, it is a fundamental right that as a human being I can dress bad or good or make my own fashion from stones- I dress for me, not for people, how else do you think I can go out to the street with yellow socks, red jalabibi, black abaya and niqaab with pink hand bag. My fashion is my confidence to do as I wish and please, and my clothes dont say much about me other than I am a Muslim and I wanted to cover up- So in that sense fashion and clothes are neither relevant to me or anyone who cares to notice me. As for WHY I want to or personal choice- the reasons could be as simple as because I want to, I feel I should be able, In support for the right for others to wear it, or maybe I have a deeply held believe that it makes me closer to my maker- either way I find the time consumed on what women can wear trying and annoying. Let her pick her clothes, whatever they be, not society, not sheikh, not some law maker, and certainly not a hooligan on the street. I have already address the security issue-

Well growing up in the UK- I didnt think we will ever get to a stage we any article of clothing would be considered for banning. But here we are. It is her prerogative if she wants to negate her identity- and when needed as usual for airport, identification, doctor i.e. when necessary for identification- it is not sworn on- they lift, checked and then dropped- and anyway in this day of automatic iris scans at airport- they dont even need to lift, just have your eye scanned for verification- it is truly about identification. There is nothing extreme about the niqab- it is a preference and a sign of piety for the few that choose to wear it- and the number of women who wear it are too much of a minority to warrant all this attention.

There is no such thing as a partial ban- if we accept a partial ban, soon follows a full ban, then a hijab partial ban and eventually a hijab ban all together, then culture clothing until everyone is wearing the same high street fashion shiid- after that there will be something new to pick on- accent, colour, and so on. IF the barely Muslim, white, blond hair, green eyes Bosnian could not blend in, there is hardly room for brown Muslims.

Ka dara oo diib dhal :D lol

Based on Somali life expectancy- he is probably dead. Good luckto Saeed Al-Somaal

Please iska amuus- it is irrelevant what Somali girls wear or want to wear. The fact is- If and when I want to wear a niqab, I should be able to.

Wow!! Lol How amazingly insulting. Only thing left is for him to run and WIN- :eek: mad world. Although to be honest, warlords, murders, mass corruption all run and win presidency posts- so a little mayor who is an addict is not so high on the moral outrage scale I guess.

IT wont spark a debate about the niqab- the debate was already on going and it is well on its way of being banned in the UK. Things like this are the fuel they use for their justifications about identification etc. And it bothers me because it criminalizes Muslim women who want and choose to wear the niqab- and if it banned in the UK it will impact Muslim women regardless of whether they wear a niqaab or not. I dont know where you live- but we happen to live in a gaalo country- and their laws and society views and debates CAN and does make life extremely difficult for Muslim women. Of course since guys find it easier to blend in- they neither concern themselves nor bother to follow these incidents. :Cool:

Sh*it likes this complicates the debate about women's Islamic clothing in Britain- justification for the crazy racist people.

***^^^I know that, but the MOCAT is here- so if it is Kenyan Airways, it is only logical he meets them. Sa'ad is going to burn out- SDF is already big and complex, not to mention all the committees he heads. He is an asset to Somaliland people, and by extension the government.

Why is the ministry of planning welcoming and meeting with them instead of Muhanad? Sa'ad Shire naftii baa ka baxadey- ciid walba isaga aya loogu yeedhi!

lol lol hahaha qarxis.com iska dheh! Safferz caadi matiihiid- that was a legendary first account! lol

In all the songs they sing about women with horse hair and hairy arms! When ever someone asks me what Somali men find attractive I have an image of a girl with a long neck, small waist, horse hair and hairy arms (xaad).

According to this quiz I am Ambivert but considering I actually have a severe dislike for interactions with other people I've always though of myself as an introvert. It is not that I can't do it, I can and I do, I just find it boring and draining. If it was not for work, I wouldnt see or talk to other people outside of immediate family and friends. lol Haha

Salaax out of 21288 criminal acts in 2013 only 3 cases were terrorist related (involving 21 people)- Classified history is based on memory- therefore by default it is always somewhat distorted- however the ones you need to worry about are those who purposefully distort it. I very much doubt you had a nanny- unless you mean your relative who looked after you from time to time. In any case, I hate kids, so definitely not me. And yes utilize your pen and paper ayeeyo- my first wisdom waan kuu sheegey- write it down.

Classified- anigu I dont think old age is an insult- markaas waxaba 1970s iyo mid 30s cay ha moodiin. Although your maths is a little rusty, you are probably not too far off. Well since you insist, we will agree you was playing with your kaadii in the 1990s- no wonder you think history started with Sayid ayeeyo.