Somaliland Women Win The Bread
They take jobs men are too proud to accept

A Somaliland woman counts her money after selling some goats. Women began earning money in large part by doing small tasks such as selling fruit, tailoring clothes or running beauty salons.

By Elizabeth A. Kennedy

HARGEYSA, Somaliland, October 15, 2006 — Amina Jama was through answering questions about the textile shop she runs with five other women — how much money it brings in, when she started working, whether selling the colorful bolts of cloth helps support her seven children.

"Are you going to buy something, or what?" she asked, throwing up her hands.

Spoken like a true businesswoman. And in this northern city, capital of the breakaway Somaliland region, there are plenty of women like her.

Hargeysa’s marketplace teems with female workers, many doing the jobs that the thousands of unemployed men are too proud to perform.

"Of course women are working. They are strong, they do not have the luxury of being anything but strong," said Edna Adan Ismail, a former Somaliland foreign minister and founder of a women's hospital in this overwhelmingly Muslim region.

The role of women changed dramatically across this Horn of Africa country after its longtime dictator was overthrown in 1991, causing the economy to collapse and putting many men out of work.

Women began earning money in large part by doing small tasks such as selling fruit, tailoring clothes or running beauty salons, said Shamis Barre, who works for the humanitarian group CARE International to help train Somali women in marketable skills.

"The jobs we have here, they are jobs that men would not do," Barre said. "So the bulk of women, they have to work. Most families depend on women."

Although Somaliland declared its independence in 1991 and has remained relatively peaceful — in contrast to the violent chaos in the rest of the country — men here still struggle to find work they will accept.

Somaliland is not internationally recognized as separate from Somalia, severely limiting any industry or government work.

"A woman might get $1 and be satisfied," said Hussein Yusuf Duale, an unemployed 55-year-old man in Hargeysa. "A man is not satisfied with $1."

Asha Dahir, 50, said she feels freer to work in Somaliland than she would in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, and much of southern Somalia, which is now governed by Islamic fundamentalists who have set up strict religious courts in recent months.

People in Somaliland mostly practice the moderate Sufi form of Islam. Many women wear long, colorful head scarves rather than burqa-style dresses that leave only the eyes exposed.

"It's difficult because we believe that Muslim women should stay home, but since our husbands can't find jobs we are happy to work to feed our children," said Dahir, who works with Jama, 38, at the Allah Amin textile shop.

Dahir's husband has been out of work since 1988, when fighting broke out between Somaliland rebels and the dictatorship then based in Mogadishu.

Although there are no precise numbers because of the lack of a viable government for 15 years, female workers are common all across Somalia despite the feeling that Muslim women should be home and let their husbands work.

"Women working have really not much to do with religion — it has to do with the economic situation on the ground and 15 years of civil war," said Beatrice Spadacini, a CARE spokeswoman.

The number of female workers in Somaliland is not clear, said Hassan Adan Qalinle, general director of the Ministry of Health and Labor.

"Our ministry has not so far conducted any research or survey about the exact number of men and women working in Somaliland," he said.

But younger women — such as Kadan Ibrahim Ahmed, 24, owner of the Panorama Beauty Salon — say they want to work and will continue to do so even if their husbands get jobs.

"When I opened this business, I wasn't married," Ahmed said.

"But my husband is an accountant and he doesn't complain, because only women run beauty parlors.

"We both get home at the same time at night, 7 p.m., and we have agreed that both of us should work."

Sudsi Abdi Rahman Yusuf, 21, also said she intends to continue working as a laboratory assistant at Hargeysa Hospital after she marries.

"I like this job. I can improve myself here," said Sudsi, who wears a white lab coat over a black robe. "Every day, my knowledge increases."

Source: The Associated Press