N.O.R.F Posted April 12, 2005 Sarah's Hope Seven days ago Sarah left her home at 4am and arrived in Hargeisa at 11pm. Having been lucky to board a relatively brand new Mark II, Somaliland's ever reliable taxi for travel between the regions and the capital, the nineteen hours of travel were quite reasonable. Sarah traversed this rough and dusty roads for two reasons: to attend a meeting of women in preparation for the parliamentary elections, and to participate in the meeting of the Somaliland Human Rights Network to which her organization Sanaag Civil Rights Center is a member. It is remarkable to see that whenever women organizations meet nowadays, the topic of elections always comes up. This is because the coming electoral exercise brings hope to women, Sarah included. Women in Erigavo in Sanaag region are all set to run as parliamentary aspirants. There are 5 women candidates who will battle it out with men for the 12 seats allocated for their region. The women candidates will run under Somaliland's three political parties: UCID, UDUB and KULMIYE. The first step however is to get their names in the party line up. Sarah and her fellow women would have to convince the political party leaders who are mostly men to approve the list of candidates without removing their names. Political parties are a new organizational expression in a post-conflict country in transition to democracy. And just like in many other situations, the Somali traditional clan lines prevail. On asking Sarah if her clan and her husband's clan will vote for a woman she answered, "My family has been encouraging me to run. This is already a sign that they have trust in my capacity as a woman leader. Will the clan leaders the lobby political parties to give a chance to women candidates? "We have already had a series of discussions with clan leaders and they are quite supportive. The elders had previously given a chance to the men to hold positions of power with very little to show for it. It is about time to hand it over to women!" Sarah replied confidently. Women like Sarah have high hopes of becoming part of this country's leadership that would steer this unrecognized nation to progress. Somaliland already has 2 women cabinet members whose performance motivated other women to follow their footsteps. Women now have one unified cry, their time has come to be recognized. After all, they've struggled to take part alongside the men in the discussions to determine the road to Somaliland's peaceful and fragile stability. Posted by Yvette Lopez@http://insidesomaliland.blogtales.com/ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Qudhac Posted April 12, 2005 kudos to her. lets hope the post election parliament reflectes our society as a whole. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
