It began as a protest and became a national talking point. A women’s rights activist reveals what happened when she filmed herself behind the wheel Manal al-Sharif Manal Al-Sharif … ‘I felt I was driving for all Saudi women – and, in a sense, I was.’ Photograph: Marwan Naamani/AFP/Getty Images In 2011, as the Arab...
October 14, 2026
Category: Women Corner
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Why is she here?’: the Nigerian herder’s daughter who became UN deputy chief
Mother of six Amina Mohammed rose from a humble upbringing in the Lake Chad region to become a government minister and the UN’s second in command ‘We don’t always communicate very well the ffect that we have on the ground’: UN deputy secretary general Amina Mohammed. Photograph: Eskinder Debebe/UN Photo By Mark Seddon In a...
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A “domestic” history about the Danish-Somalis at a museum in Århus
By Marco Zoppi Societies ineluctably transform themselves through the natural course of time, and during this development some of their elements of heritage, whether vested in culture or articulated in other facies of human experience, are modified to meet the requirements of practice and of lived empirical contexts. And precisely there, where the most sophisticated...
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Disabled Somali Refugee Playing College Basketball Is Inspiring
By Anya Alvarez In 2014, when 18-year-old Rihana Ibrahim, a Somali refugee, arrived in Tucson, Arizona, she recalls: “I was happy, but scared. Nobody was around.” For Rihana, the fear was well placed. Affected with polio as a child, she lost mobility in her lower limbs, sometimes dragging herself on the ground, or using old wooden...
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Somaliland: ‘I convinced my sister not to do type III FGM on her daughter’
These are the young men struggling against all odds to enact change in a generation and improve the lives of Somali women Khadar, 24, has been challenging men to speak out against FGM in Hargeisa, Somaliland. Photograph: Alice Rowsome By Alice Rowsome in Hargeisa In Somaliland, Unicef estimates that about 98% of girls and women...
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This Hijab-Wearing Model Is Making Major Waves in the Fashion Industry
Last year, Halima Aden’s name started trending because she wore a burkini (a modest swimsuit) in the Miss Minnesota USA pageant. Fast-forward to 2017 and Halima, a first-generation Somali-American, not only signed with IMG Models — the same agency that represents Gigi and Bella Hadid — but also landed a photo shoot for CR Fashion Book, run...
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Wife-beating a source of pride for some in Mauritania
By Nebghouha Mint Zeidane Aichetou Samba at her home in Nouakchott, Mauritania October 15 2016. — Picture by Thomson Reuters Foundation NOUAKCHOTT, Salimata was always told she should be proud to come from a family of wife beaters. “You’re the daughter of a woman whose husband broke her hands. Your grandmother’s legs were fractured by...
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An Open Letter To Our First Lady Seynab Abdi Moalin
By Yasmeen Maxamuud Soo dhowow Marwo Seynab, We want to welcome you to the cradle of your nation, the bosom of your people. We are part of you and you in turn have already become part of our hope and inspiration. On behalf of Somali women, please allow me to welcome you as The First Lady of...
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Will Landmark Gang-Rape Case Spur Change in Attitudes in Puntland?
By Brendan Wynne Editor’s Note: Brendan Wynne is Communications Director of Donor Direct Action, an international women’s group which supports the Galkayo Center in Puntland, Somalia, a front-line organisation that works to end all forms of violence against women and girls. The views expressed in this commentary are his. (CNN)The verdict in a gang-rape case...
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Somali gang rape video sparks call for justice, not fine of camels
By Kathy Migiro NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A group of teenage boys who posted a video online of themselves raping two girls must not be allowed to evade jail by paying for their crime in camels, campaigners said, in a case that has sparked outrage in the conservative Horn of Africa country. In the...