The Life of a Somali girl

In culture, language, and way of life, the people of Somalia are largely one homogenous group. They live in the present day Somalia, Northeastern Kenya, the Ogaden region of Ethiopia, and parts of Djibouti. They have a distinct culture that suits their occupation as a pastoralist community, and are socially conservative when it comes to the practice of their culture. Like any other culture around the world, the Somali culture has its share of bad practices that cause harm to its members. I will discuss the effect of Female genital mutilation that most of the Somali girls are subjected to go through.

According to the Somali culture, every Somali girl has to go through this practice before she gets married, and if she does not, she will not get married and therefore will cause harm to the honor of her family. This process involves cutting of the girl’s clitoris and some steps of stitching. This will have medical complication on the girl-child, while also psychologically killing her feelings. I am not an expert, but I am a Somali and part of my family members have gone through this, and I know the complication it comes with.

My argument is that, a girl’s life should not be ruined for the sake of fruitless cultural practice, and that the Somali women deserve their voice to be heard. It is against the will of every Somali women to through this pain, because their voices have long been silenced, they are made to through difficult traumas before their 18^th birthday. Remember a cultural is good when it does not humiliate its members. It is time to stop this barbaric practice in the Somali culture.

Somalia…freedom of speech …what?

Somalia………….freedom of speech …what?

Freedom of speech is a universal right that all mankind cherish to practice, but for some it a phrase that does not have a meaning, and if it does, it is not real in their face. Somalia, a country that does not have central government for over two decades has its people lacking many basic human rights. So discussing subject like free speech might be seen as not being a solution to the issue in Somalia. But remember, those who suffer under this pre-longed civil war are mostly women who have been silenced long before the war started.

Women in the Somali culture are treated as second-class citizens, and are mostly silenced by their male counterpart claiming that they should not speak in front of their men. This does not make any sense at all; leave a lone a Somali Women who bore the burden of raising children while the father is either away fighting or has already been killed, and for some fled the war to another country.

This is the time that the Somali culture needs to understand that the Somali women are as important as any one else on this planet. We don’t need ruin the dignity of our mothers just because the fruitless part of our culture is dictating to do so. Come on! I thought our culture was better than this.