A SHADOW ECONOMY: Women street vendors in Hargeisa and their role in contributing to the Somaliland’s economic development
Hargeisa, the capital city of Somaliland has been growing for the last two (2) decades. During the reconstruction and re-building of the state, Somaliland continued to remain peaceful. Prior to the fall of Somalia’s dictatorship government in 1991 and the break-out of the civil war, women’s roles were traditionally tied down to caregivers at home. […]
A SHADOW ECONOMY: THE INVISIBLE LABORERS OF KAMPALA
The informal economy is a glaring indicator of the absence of its worth from the eyes of policy-makers. World over, women are over-represented in the informal economy, and in-so-doing has remained an urban phenomenon in both developed and developing economies. From New York in USA to Dhaka in Bangladesh to Harare in Zimbabwe, women carry […]
PRESS STATEMENT: Somaliland Religious Affairs Fatwa on Female Genital Mutilation/ Cutting – NOT TO BE MISLED
Recently in Somaliland, coinciding with the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, a fatwa (religious ban) was issued by the Ministry of Religious Affairs stating as follows: ‘It’s forbidden to perform any circumcision that is contrary to the religion which involves cutting and sewing up, like the pharaoh circumcision, the ministry’s fatwa. […]
PRESS STATEMENT: Somaliland passes its first Anti-rape Law
For the longest time, stories of rape are prolific in Somaliland’s urban areas with the semi-independent state’s image of an “island of relative peace” away from the turmoil in Somalia. In the past, majority of rape victims believe that law enforcement authorities are un-willing and ill-equipped to investigate these crimes. Commendably so, after a seven-year […]
PRESS RELEASE: Public Order Laws in Sudan continue to be used to punish and control women
The report, ‘Criminalisation of Women in Sudan: A Need for Fundamental Reform’, shows how public order laws, designed to protect morality, continue to disproportionately target women, who can face long spells in jail and flogging for infractions such as wearing ‘trousers’ The Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) and REDRESS have […]
COMMUNIQUE: Our heads are bent by the heavy burden
The Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) Network convened its annual board, staff and advisors meeting attended by 32 members from 8 different countries across the region on 16 – 18th November, in Entebbe, Uganda. Our debates and discussion underlined the new cycles of disparity evolving every day, which continue to implicate women, […]
PUBLIC STATEMENT: REPORT OF STONING CASE IN SOMALIA – A MOTHER OF 8 STONED TO DEATH IN THE DISTRICT OF SAAKOW
On the fateful afternoon of Friday 27th October, in the southern district of Saakow, Habiba Ali Isaq, a 30 year old mother of eight children, was stoned to death for alleged adultery against her husband, Ali Ibrahim. According to her husband, Isaq was living in Hagar village in Jubbar with her children when she left […]
LAUNCH: Graduation Day – A snippet documentary dedicated to the Women and Girls in the Darfur Region, Sudan
Today, the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) launches a snippet documentary capturing its on-going work in North Darfur, Sudan and the provision of both literacy and sexual violence protection and response programs for those internally displaced. SIHA has been engaged in skills-development programs for Darfuri IDP women and girls (in […]
A prominent Sudan Women and Civil rights activist passed away
In the early hours of Saturday 12th August Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim, a renowned Sudanese leader of the feminist movement and fierce defender of women’s rights within the Horn of Africa region, passed away. Fatima was born in 1933 in Omdurman, and was a staunch advocate for women’s rights in Sudan. Her activism began in the late 1940’s, […]
Horn of Africa: there are no quick fixes in ‘countering violent extremism’
An effective response to violence and harmful ideologies is important. But projects are failing to adequately engage with root causes. Since 9/11, western countries have increasingly invested in programmes to prevent transnational violent extremism. These include serious militarised measures but also “softer” civic interventions under the banner of ‘countering violent extremism’ (CVE). An example is […]