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“Sudan Call” to discuss joint position on African peace roadmap: SPLM-N

Sudan Tribune - Sat, 11/06/2016 - 00:36

June 10, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - The Sudan People's Liberation Movement/North (SPLM-N) Friday said the “Sudan Call” forces would hold a mini meeting to arrive at a unified stance towards the Roadmap Agreement proposed by the African mediation.

Leaders of the opposition "Sudan Call" sign an agreement on the alliance's structures in Paris on 22 April 2016 (ST Photo)

On 21 March, the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) and the Sudanese government signed a framework agreement calling to stop war in Blue Nile, Darfur, and South Kordofan and to and to allow humanitarian access to the needy in the war affected zones ahead of the national dialogue process.

However, the opposition groups, Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), National Umma Party (NUP), SPLM-N and Sudan Liberation Movement-Minni Minnawi (SLM-MM) refused to sign the roadmap saying it excludes other opposition groups and acknowledges the government controlled process as a basis for the constitutional reform process.

Following a meeting held last week to discuss the opposition refusal of the Roadmap, NUP leader al-Sadiq al-Mahdi said he agreed with the AUHIP chairman Thabo Mbeki to hold a meeting with the Sudan Call forces to discuss the matter.

In a statement extended to Sudan Tribune Friday, SPLM-N pledged to ensure the success of the upcoming meeting and to seek to reach a positive stance that promotes the unity of the Sudan Call and achieves its demand for holding an equal national dialogue.

“Change is inextricably linked to the unity of the opposition parties and the pursuit of change wouldn't be achieved without seeking to unify the political and civil society forces” read the statement.

The statement stressed the need for making a joint decision and holding joint consultations among the opposition alliance to reach a collective position, adding that “no party within the Sudan Call could act on behalf of the rest of the alliance forces”.

The opposition National Consensus Forces (NCF) Wednesday distanced itself from al-Mahdi's meeting with Mbeki, saying such meetings seek “a way out for the regime and not for the people who are suffering under its rule,”

The NCF is a member of the Sudan Call coalition but says the regime is not credible and points that the popular uprising is the best way to achieve regime change.

The chief mediator form his side, deals in his peace initiative with the forces that signed an agreement with his panel on the national dialogue on 5 September 2014 including the JEM, NUP, SLM-MM and the SPLM-N.

The statement further said that the meeting would discuss ways for handling the Roadmap, stressing the outcome of the meeting will serve the Sudanese issue and the equal national dialogue besides putting the relationship with the mediators on the right path.

It added that meeting would include the Sudan Call's presidential coordination council besides delegates from the alliance parties, saying the meeting comes following “attempts to break the stalemate in the peace process and the Sudan Call refusal to sign the Roadmap for objective reasons that are consistent with our people's desire for change”.

The SPLM-N stressed that its leadership has held consultations with their allies in the Sudan Revolutionary Forces (SRF) and the Sudan Call besides influential regional leaders and international parties and concluded that the upcoming meeting is crucial in order to arrive at a joint and binding stance particularly after the developments that followed the recent Paris meeting of the Sudan Call.

It further pointed that Sudan Call real battle is against the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) which “requires us to make diligent and patient efforts with the regional and international community to put the record straight and force the NCP regime to bear its responsibility for refusing to execute the AU and the international legitimacy resolutions and for conquering the Sudanese people and destabilizing the regional and international stability”.

The statement pointed to the need to bring the issue of the humanitarian situation and human rights violations including the aerial bombing of civilians and arbitrary detention and dismissal of university students to the regional and international forums to put more pressures on the regime.

Since 2011, the SPLM-N has been fighting the Sudanese army and its allied militia in South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

(ST)

Categories: Africa

Gambia: UN adviser condemns President’s reported threats against ethnic group

UN News Centre - Africa - Fri, 10/06/2016 - 23:59
The United Nations Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide has condemned the inflammatory speech by the President of the Gambia, Yahya Jammeh of the Gambia at a political rally this past week, in which he reportedly threatened to eliminate the Mandinka ethnic group.
Categories: Africa

Sudan arrested the right suspect of human trafficking: police

Sudan Tribune - Fri, 10/06/2016 - 23:02

June 9, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Sudanese police authorities on Thursday denied reports casting doubts on the identity of an Eritrea man arrested and sent to Italy as “one of the world's most-wanted people smugglers", saying they are sure he is the right suspect searched by the Italian police.

Left: An image of the man believed to be Mered Medhanie previously released by the UK National Crime Agency; Right: the man extradited to Italy (BBC Photo)

British media; particularly The Guardian and The BBC, published reports claiming that Sudanese authorities didn't extradite Medhanie Yehdego Mered, 35, who is wanted for running a huge human trafficking network. Instead, Khartoum arrested and delivered Medhanie Tesfamariam Kidane, a 27-year-old.

High ranking security officials from the Sudanese police and other security apparatuses involved in the operation Thursday held a meeting with the British and Italian Ambassadors to Khartoum to discuss the issue.

Reached by Sudan Tribune after the meeting, a police official who is not authorized to speak to the media stressed that nothing proves that the arrested man is not the one who is searched for smuggling of illegal immigrants and the death of many thousands in the Mediterranean.

The official further said that the arrested man is one of a wide human trafficking network, adding "he may not be the head of the network but he is one of its most prominent members".

The National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS), since several months are also tasked with the file of illegal human trafficking. This decision created a confusion of competencies between the two security services.

Italian police announced Wednesday that Mered, suspected of controlling a migrant trafficking network, was arrested in Sudan with the help of Britain's National Crime Agency, had been extradited to Italy on Monday 6 June.

Sudan committed itself to cooperate with Italy and Germany to stop the flow of illegal immigrants from the Horn of African countries.

(ST)

Categories: Africa

Muhammad Ali in Africa

BBC Africa - Fri, 10/06/2016 - 20:01
BBC Africa looks back at the boxing great's strong connection to the continent.
Categories: Africa

Premier League: Kolo Toure, Victor Valdes & Emmanuel Adebayor on released list

BBC Africa - Fri, 10/06/2016 - 19:16
Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Adebayor, Victor Valdes and Martin Demichelis will all be released by their Premier League clubs.
Categories: Africa

Nigeria army 'killed Biafra protesters'

BBC Africa - Fri, 10/06/2016 - 18:40
Nigeria's military is accused of killing at least 17 Biafran protesters by rights group Amnesty International.
Categories: Africa

South African mobile phone firm MTN to pay $1.7bn Nigeria fine

BBC Africa - Fri, 10/06/2016 - 18:37
South African telecoms firm MTN agrees to pay $1.7bn to Nigeria over unregistered Sim cards, after originally being fined $5bn.
Categories: Africa

A Healthy Trading System Requires Progress and Engagement at All Levels

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Fri, 10/06/2016 - 18:09

Roberto Azevêdo is the Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO)

By Roberto Azevêdo
GENEVA, Jun 10 2016 (IPS)

This is a challenging time for global trade. According to the current World Trade Organization (WTO) new trade forecasts, global goods trade is expected to grow by 2.8%, making 2016 the fifth consecutive year of sub 3% growth. The gross domestic product (GDP) is still the most critical variable in the trade expansion equation, and as long as GDP growth remains low, trade numbers are likely to follow a similar trend.

Roberto Azevêdo

This sort of dip in the numbers is not unprecedented, and we have experienced low trade growth in the early 1980s. Though we expect to come out of this pattern of low growth in the coming years- with trade growth forecast to pick up to 3.6% in 2017, it is nevertheless of some concern.

While the level of trade growth has stayed fairly constant in recent years, it is interesting to note that its composition is changing. A key driver of trade growth from 2011-2013 was import demand in Asia.

In the last two years this has shifted, with the US and Europe as the driving force of today’s modest growth, making up for slowdowns in Asia and elsewhere. In fact, if Asia’s contribution to trade had matched its average of recent years, world trade would have grown 3.5% in 2015, rather than 2.8%.

Rather than being an abstract indicator, trade growth, often matters because trade can act as a driver of broader economic growth and job creation. It certainly isn’t the only driver, but is an essential component of any strategy for sustainable economic growth.

And so the current downturn leads us to the question: what can we do to respond?

Governments have pushed monetary and fiscal policies to their limits in recent years but there is still room to move on trade. A more proactive approach could help to stimulate global demand.

One step would be for governments to remove the restrictive barriers introduced in recent years. Currently only 25% of these measures put in place by WTO members since the 2008 financial crisis have been removed. A shift in strategy here could help make a big difference.

We can also put in force trade agreements we have reached recently. By implementing the Trade Facilitation Agreement alone we could add another trillion dollars to global trade. This would include exports of about $730 billion dollars from developing countries.

Another step is, of course, striking new trade agreements. And we are seeing a lot of activity on this front both at the regional level, and through the World Trade Organization. While they have grown rapidly in recent years, bilateral and regional trade initiatives are not a new thing, pre-dating the creation of the global trading system.

These two different approaches are frequently portrayed as incompatible, however, they do not require an “either/or” strategy and can be created and implemented to complement each other. These different kinds of initiatives have long co-existed and complemented each other and I have no doubt that they will continue to do so.

Today, virtually all WTO members are involved in at least one of these initiatives. Today there are 270 regional trade agreements or RTAs in force and have been notified to the WTO with over a third in the Asia-Pacific region.

The most recent examples in the region are the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. And of course there are other important initiatives such as the Silk Road Economic Belt and the Maritime Silk Road, which attempt to build and develop links between several partners.

To take the example of the TPP, many of the 12 partners involved already have existing bilateral agreements with each other. The added advantage of this broader agreement is the potentially enormous market it creates. Instead of dealing with a number of different sets of rules or standards, the TPP could help to homogenize rules between all the parties.

Like several other agreements today, the TPP is an example of deep integration initiative through regional trade agreements. While earlier RTAs concentrated on only liberalizing tariffs, more recent RTAs have gone further.

Empirical evidence suggests that RTAs with deeper integration between signatories provide greater potential for the development of production chains which span national borders. WTO members in the Asia-Pacific region in particular have greatly benefited from these global value chains.

As production networks expand and regional and global value chains become more important, it is critical to minimise significant differences in legislation, rules and infrastructure, which impact international trade and investment between trading partners. This appears to be the case more and more in current RTAs and other regional trade networks.

The silk-road economic belt, for instance, is rebuilding traditional links by concentrating on issues of connectivity such as improved infrastructure including port facilities, roads, and rail links. By improving these infrastructural networks connecting Asia and Europe, it is likely to improve trade by facilitating upgraded trade routes with landlocked areas of Central Asia.

These are all important steps that need to be taken to free up international trade and facilitate greater integration in value chains.

But how does all of this regional activity fit within the global framework of the World Trade Organization?

Currently the WTO has 162 members with increasing numbers. The rules and regulations of the WTO covers 98% of global trade, therefore by and large, RTAs operate within these rules.

Indeed, our analysis of regional agreements have shown that a large number of them fall within the guidelines set by the WTO with no obvious conflicts between overlapping agreements.

Perhaps a bigger consideration is where such initiatives touch on areas that are not currently covered by the WTO, whereby different RTAs deal with the same issues in different ways. This is not to suggest that regional agreements should not venture into these areas. But I think conversations in the WTO could help us establish whether a multilateral approach is feasible or desirable. Through discussions with the WTO, we’re likely to have a much more balanced, and inclusive framework.

A healthy trading system requires progress and engagement at all levels. And we have to acknowledge that one reason for the proliferation of regional agreements over recent years was a lack of progress in striking trade agreements globally through the WTO.

I’m pleased to say that we are now changing this situation. The WTO has actually delivered an impressive amount over the last couple of years.

But it’s also important to note that a healthy trading system isn’t just about negotiating trade agreements, the WTO’s work extends far beyond negotiations. We also monitor trade policies, build trading capacity in developing and struggling countries, and we have built one of the most effective dispute settlement systems in international law.

Indeed, although some RTAs have provisions on disputes, most of the dispute settlement mechanisms provided are rarely used. Meanwhile the level of activity in the WTO’s dispute settlement system is rising very rapidly. We have dealt with over 500 disputes in the WTO’s 21 year history. And of course most of the disputes brought to the WTO involve parties who are also themselves part of an RTA.

Categories: Africa

Politics of Numbers

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Fri, 10/06/2016 - 16:54

By Zubeida Mustafa
Jun 10 2016 (Dawn, Pakistan)

The Pakistan Economic Survey 2015-16 reminds us of our ticking population bomb.

We are told that today the country`s population stands at 195.4 million 3.7m more than it was the previous year. We have regressed.

The population growth rate stands at 1.89pc in 2016. It dropped to 1.49pc in 1960-2003.

Yet few express serious concern about the threat we face from our rapidly growing numbers that are undermining our national economy and destroying our social structures.

Many myths have been propagated to camouflage the official apathy vis-à-vis the population sector. Thus, it is said that there is population resistance to family planning on religious grounds. Another myth goes that people are ignorant of birth control and prefer large families.

These myths have been exploded by the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey of 2007 and 2014 which established that only a handful of women cited religion as a factor in their failure to limit pregnancies.

As for ignorance, practically all women questioned knew of at least one or more contraceptive methods. It cannot be disputed that irrespective of the views expressed from the pulpit women are now ready to plan their families. According to the two demographic surveys, there is also a substantial unmet need. That means there is a big chunk of the reproductive age female population 40 pc according to some estimates who want to limit their family size but cannot.

Then why are we failing in this sector? Of course, there is the usual absence of political will, ineptitude and corruption that marks the government`s working in the social sectors.

Policies are there but implementation is not.

The number and performance of population welfare centres that were set up to provide access to contraceptive services leave much to be desired. Media reports indicate that they are either non-existent or non-functional in many remote areas. Poor performance of official service institutions impacts mainly on the underprivileged, the worst sufferers. This is visible in the large family size of the poor.

There is a lot of focus on awareness-raising and research when the key issue to be addressedis thatofeasy access tocontraceptive services for potential acceptors. It is a pity that many who do not want more children cannot avert births because family planning services are beyond their reach.

There is also the need to integrate the population sector with the health system. This was suggested many years ago by Dr Nafis Sadik, the first executive director of the UN Population Fund, to the Pakistan government. But for reasons not known, Islamabad could never understand why a holistic approach was needed for a successful familyplanning programme.

Another aspect that has been ignored is the need to focus intensely on the status of women.

It seems that the progress made by the feminist activists in the 1980s and 1990s in empowering women has been pushed back. With daughters held in low esteem, family planning has suffered a setback. Parental preference for a male child remains pronounced.

Itappears thatithasbeenlefttoahandful of NGOs to sustain Pakistan`s population programme. The biggest of them is RahnumaFPAP, the oldest organisation in the field.

Having been launched in 1953 when Pakistan did not even have an official population programme, it has an impressive delivery network of 10 family health hospitals, 10 mobile service units and thousands of clinics. It has created referral mechanisms with a number of government and private clinics and practitioners and thus claims to cover an area of 77,910 square kilometres and a population of 12.5m.

Rahnuma`s dynamic and committed president, Mahtab Akbar Rashdi, tells me that her organisation has made all its programmesholistic and integrated. She herself is a staunch advocate of family planning and agrees that low esteem for women is a deterrent to progress in this sector.

HANDS is another large NGO that was launchedin 1979 with the mission of improving health and education, with a focus on mother and child and reproductive health. It claims an outreach of 25m people in 42,000 villages. Its Marvi model involving community-based health workers visiting women in their homes was conceptualised in 2007. HANDS claims that it is making an impact.

But can NGOs with their limited resources and capacity achieve what is essentially the government`s responsibility? Mahtab Rashdi complains that `visible political commitment from the provincial governments is yet to be seen`. She specifically identifies Punjab, Pakistan`s most populous province, where the government`s family planning programme `reaches only 17pc of people in the reproductive age`.

This leaves one wondering if family planning also has a political dimension as the census that has been blocked since 2008. After all, doesn`t a big population translate into a big constituency? That is a political bonus in a country where ethnicity determines electoral results.

www.zubeidamustafa.com

This story was originally published by Dawn, Pakistan

Categories: Africa

Addressing the Land Question

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Fri, 10/06/2016 - 16:25

By Ahmad Ibrahim
Jun 10 2016 (The Daily Star, Bangladesh)

In a developing country such as Bangladesh, where the implementation of democracy still seems a far flung dream as national budgets blur the line between fantasy and expectation, land has come to be the defining issue of the day. It is of little surprise that a third-world country, caught in the throes of frantic industrial development, would have to deal with the issue of land. Add to it the fact that Bangladesh is the most densely populated country in the world and what you basically have is a recipe for development induced disasters. But even taking all of these challenges into account the current state of land rights in the country is appalling. Almost 56 percent of the entire population is functionally landless, getting by either through odd jobs or becoming part of the industrial division of labour. The average size of land holding is a meagre 0.6 hectare. For a country that is yet almost completely dependent on agrarianism as part of its economy, that is a terrible figure.

PHOTO: Sheikh Nasir

A quick look at the rampant corporatism in the acquisition and use of land will tell us where the root of the problems lie. A 1950 law states that no corporation or household is allowed to own more 33.33 acres of land by itself. While this law itself seems to have been made with the region’s low availability of land in mind, it falls flat in the face of bureaucratic capitalism. An investor can now easily create dummy firms and corporations under whose name they can own an unlimited amount of land, all registered under different firms or people. This is why we see thousands upon thousands of acres of land owned by giant firms, while the poorest are becoming increasingly dispossessed of land and livelihood.

The question of land extends far beyond the scope of acquisition. In many parts of the country, some yet to be transformed by the mechanisms of for-profit businesses, land forms an intrinsic part of a community’s identity. Often the land on which people farm has been passed down through the generations, and is used to grow crops, house the dead and for festivals and the likes. Is there a monetary value that can be placed on such a relationship? The answer to that might be no, but the government does seem intent on trying its best to do so. A nation gripped by the rhetoric of development, Bangladesh is now site to several contested regions where displacement is occurring every day.

Yours truly has visited several of these sites- Rampal in Bagerhat, Chunarughat in Habiganj, Banshkhali in Chittagong. In all of these cases, displacement either has occurred or will occur due to development projects. In the case of Rampal, the land acquisition for the coal-power plant has already displaced thousands. Where there was once fields of fish farms and crops, there are now trucks carrying sand as the Sundarbans wait apprehensively for a death blow. A fact-finding mission has revealed that the government had absolutely no safeguards in place for the displacement that happened there. They only offered monetary compensation for the land, and even that below market price. The government knowingly flouted several rules from institutions such as World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) for Development-Induced Displacement (DIDR). That is, when a government removes a people from their land in order to make way for some infrastructural development, they must not only compensate but also rehabilitate, make sure that these people have a new area of living, and a secure means of living. Instead, the government chose to only pay the value of the land and move on. Not looking at the population who were landless on paper, who were evicted and got nothing in return. These people, along with the ones who received compensation, will eventually fill garments factories and chemical factories, having no choice but to enter the labour supply- thereby fundamentally changing their way of life without their consent. The only law the government has to go by is the Acquisition and Requisition of Immovable Property Act 1984, which is probably one of the laziest examples of lawmaking. In a legislation that is almost copied word for word from one created in 1850 by the colonial powers, the document provides many barriers for those who own land and, in fact, makes it extremely easy for the Bangladeshi government to acquire land via eminent domain.

Bangladesh is home to a diverse group of religions and ethnicities, many of whom have culturally different ties to nature and land, and yet the rampant dispossessing of the poor from their lands is changing the realities of all these communities. Take, for example, the legislation on Special Economic Zones (SEZ), where it is mentioned that the government will only look at khas land and not farm lands. And yet the records they rely on date back to colonial times, making a mockery of all their promises. In those outdated records, the 512 acres in Chunarughat are khas arid lands, while in reality they are the major source of sustenance for the tea-workers’ community, who have endured poverty for centuries. In those records, the Khasia village in Nahar Tea Gardens is khas land, whereas the indigenous community have lived there for over 75 years. It is these inefficiencies that forever cripple an already corrupt system of governance.

No doubt the country needs a robust infrastructure if it is to compete in the wider world’s game of power, but it is being done by sacrificing millions of poor people inside the country. Who does the electricity generated from Rampal go to? Where would the profits from the SEZ in Chunarughat go (according to BEZA, there is full repatriation for foreign investors)? These are hard questions that we must ask ourselves. Today, the state of land rights in the country is in a deplorable condition, but with effective campaigning, we may be able to better protect individual landowners from the mouths of the big sharks.

The writer is a researcher and activist.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

Categories: Africa

Africa in pictures: 3-9 June 2016

BBC Africa - Fri, 10/06/2016 - 16:13
A selection of photos from across the African continent this week.
Categories: Africa

Hungry for success: SA's ice cream entrepreneur

BBC Africa - Fri, 10/06/2016 - 15:46
Paul Ballen of Paul's Homemade Ice Cream talks to the BBC about his ambitions for his luxury product.
Categories: Africa

Nigeria dollar squeeze hits global airlines

BBC Africa - Fri, 10/06/2016 - 15:04
United Airlines and Iberia will no longer fly to Nigeria as airlines face foreign currency restrictions.
Categories: Africa

Migrant crisis: 'People-smuggler' says he is wrong man

BBC Africa - Fri, 10/06/2016 - 14:50
A man extradited to Italy accused of being a top people-smuggler tells police his arrest was a case of mistaken identity.
Categories: Africa

Sudan FM calls on UN chief to put pressure on holdout groups

Sudan Tribune - Fri, 10/06/2016 - 12:18

June 09, 2016 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese Minister of Foreign Affairs has called on the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to intensify pressures on the armed groups and opposition parties to sign the African Union Roadmap Agreement for peace in Sudan.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (right) meets with Ibrahim Ghandour, Sudanese Minister for Foreign Affairs on June 9, 2016 (UN Photo)

According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday, Ghandour who is currently in New York briefed Ban Ki Moon on the outcome of the national dialogue and the efforts exerted to convince holdout opposition groups to join the peace process.

The Sudanese top diplomat further thanked the UN chief for welcoming the signing of the Roadmap Agreement and called on the international body to convince the armed groups and opposition forces to sign the AUHIP brokered plan to achieve peace and national dialogue in Sudan.

On 21 March, the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) and the Sudanese government signed a framework agreement calling to stop war in Blue Nile, Darfur, and South Kordofan and to and to allow humanitarian access to the needy in the war affected zones ahead of the national dialogue process.

However, the opposition groups, Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), National Umma Party (NUP), Sudan People's Liberation Movement -North (SPLM-N), and Sudan Liberation Movement-Minni Minnawi (SLM-MM) refused to sign the roadmap saying it excludes other opposition groups and acknowledges the government controlled process as as basis for the constitutional reform process.

Concerning UNAMID exit strategy from Darfur, the Minister of Foreign Affairs called on the United Nations to support its smooth withdrawal from Darfur as agreed by the United Nations, African Union and the government of Sudan.

“The implementation of Darfur Administrative Referendum and the visit of President al-Bashir to Darfur five states are clear indicators of peace in the region,” said Ghandour.

A tripartite working group has been set up in February 2015 to develop an exit strategy for the UNAMID from Darfur. The UN linked the full withdrawal of the peacekeeping operation from Darfur region to the signing of a ceasefire agreement where the protection of civilians can be ensured.

The hybrid mission has been deployed in Darfur since December 2007 with a mandate to stem violence against civilians in the western Sudan's region.

The meeting between the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ibrahim Ghandour and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon has also discussed the situation in South Sudan and the outcome of the recent joint Sudan and South Sudan ministerial meeting in Khartoum.

Ban Ki-Moon hailed Sudan's efforts to achieve peace and stability in South Sudan, the statement said.

(ST)

Categories: Africa

South Africa avoids credit downgrade but for how long?

BBC Africa - Fri, 10/06/2016 - 11:54
As South Africa narrowly avoids a credit downgrade from ratings agency Standard and Poors, the BBC's Lerato Mbele examines the country's economic prospects.
Categories: Africa

The Art of Covering Up in Somaliland

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Fri, 10/06/2016 - 11:49

Hasna (left) and Marwa (right), nurses in their early twenties, were reluctant to be photographed on the street—primarily because of attention this drew from male Somalilanders—but were more comfortable in a quiet café. Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

By James Jeffrey
HARGEISA, Somaliland, Jun 10 2016 (IPS)

Amid the hustle and bustle of downtown Hargeisa, Somaliland’s sun-blasted capital, women in various traditional Islamic modes of dress barter, argue and joke with men—much of it particularly volubly. Somaliland women are far from submissive and docile.

Somaliland’s culture is strongly influenced by Islam—Sharia law is included in its constitution—while this religiousness appears to co-exist with many signs of a liberal free market society, a dynamic embodied by Somaliland women whose roles in society and the economy undercut certain stereotypes about women’s Muslim clothing equalling submission or coercion.

“The West needs to stop obsessing about what women are wearing—whether those in the West who are wearing less or those in the East who are wearing more,” says 29-year-old Zainab, relaxing in a new trendy café after her day job as a dentist in Hargeisa. “It should focus on what women are contributing to the community and country.”“It’s about what’s inside your head, not what’s over your head.” -- Zainab, dentist.

Somaliland has had to develop a strong entrepreneurial streak since 1991 and its declaration of independence from Somalia never being recognised by the international community, leaving it to rebuild its shattered economy and infrastructure alone following a civil war.

Today, many small businesses are run by women, who in addition to bringing up large numbers of children are often breadwinners for families whose husbands were physically or mentally scarred by the war.

“Here women are butchers—that doesn’t happen in many places. It shows you how tough Somaliland women are,” Zainab says. “It’s about what’s inside your head, not what’s over your head.”

The issue of how the Quran, the central religious text of Islam, instructs women to dress is a source of continuing debate around the world, although a traditional stance is taken in Somaliland with all women covering at least their hair in public.

“Everyone is free to follow their religion and this is what the Islamic religion says: that a woman should cover their body,” says Kaltun Hassan Abdi, a commissioner at the National Electoral Commission, responsible for female representation in elections.  “It’s an obligation, so women don’t see it as discrimination or violation of rights.”

But some Somalilanders express concern about a steady drift toward Islamic conservatism in Hargeisa: music no longer blares out from teashops; colourful Somali robes are increasingly replaced by black abayas; more women are wearing niqabs—face veils—than a year ago; and no woman goes about town bareheaded as happened in the 1970s.

“The last 15-18 years have witnessed a dramatic change in the extent to which religion influences how people live their daily lives,” says Rakiya Omaar, a lawyer and chair of Horizon Institute, a consultancy firm that works on strengthening the capacity and self-reliance of institutions in Somaliland. “There is pressure to live as a serious Muslim—it may be subtle or overt; it may come from family or it may be the wider society that you interact with.”

But it’s hard to find a woman in Hargeisa who says she feels pressurised by Islam or society’s adherence to it (women in smaller towns or rural areas are more likely to face increased religious conservatism, Omaar notes).

“I asked myself why I wear the hijab, and decided because that’s Allah’s will, and it’s part of my religion and my identity, and since then it’s been a choice,” Zainab says.

Zainab at work n Hargeisa, Somaliland. Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

During Mohamed Siad Barre’s communist-inspired dictatorship throughout the 1970s and ‘80s, Islam was suppressed in Somalia. Since Somaliland broke away, Islam has been able to reassert itself—including the flourishing of madrassas, Islamic religious schools—with positive effects, according to some.

“There are problems for women here but they’re not due to religion rather they are Somali cultural problems,” says Khadar Husein, operational director of the Hargeisa office of Transparency Solutions, a UK-based organization focused on capacity building in civil society.

“The man is mainly dominant in Somali society—things like domestic violence go back to that culture but has no root in Islam. Getting a more religious society means eliminating those cultural problems.”

But religion doesn’t appear to be easing restrictions on women in Somaliland’s political life.

“Without a women’s quota I don’t think there will be any more women in parliament,” Baar Saed Farah, the only female in the 82-member Lower Chamber of parliament, says about current lobbying to give 30 seats to women from forthcoming elections in 2017 (no women are permitted in the 82-member House of Elders in the Upper Chamber).

“In normal employment there is no differentiation between genders but when it comes to political participation it becomes very difficult for women because of a culture that favours men,” Farah says. “It has been there for a long time—even women may not accept a woman running for election as they’re so used to men always leading and making decisions.”

Somaliland remains a strongly male-dominated society. Polygyny, where a man can take several wives, is widely condoned and practised. Marriages are frequently arranged between the groom and the family of the bride—without the latter’s consent—and it’s easier for men to initiate a divorce. The prevalence of female genital mutilation in the Somalia region stands at about 95 percent, according to the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund.

And while Somaliland women may be a force to be reckoned with among markets and street-side trading, they still face many limits to full economic opportunities.

“They only operate small businesses, you won’t find many rich business women here,” says Nafisa Yusuf Mohamed, director of Hargeisa-based female empowerment organisation Nagaad Network. “For now there aren’t many alternatives, but this could change as enrolment in higher education is improving.”

Expanding female education is also affecting Somaliland’s increasing religiousness, Mohamed explains, as today’s young women better understand than their mothers the Quran, becoming more avid adherents in the process.

She notes how many young Somalilanders such as her 17-year-old daughter, who recently started wearing the niqab of her own volition, use social media to discuss and learn more about Islam once they finish attending madrassas.

There are also other more prosaic reasons for wearing the likes of the niqab, observers note. Some women wear them because they are shy, or want to protect their skin from harsh sunlight, or want to fit in with friends wearing them.

Changing Muslim clothing trends may be most noticeable to the outsider, but other developments also illustrate Somaliland’s increasing religiousness: the extent mosque prayer times affect working hours, both in the public and private sector; the higher proportion of adults praying the full five times a day; and the increasing numbers of mosques built.

“These changes are also a response to wider regional and international developments which have affected the Muslim world, in particular the growing perception that life in the Western world is becoming more hostile to Muslims,” Omaar says.

Although for most Somalilanders, exasperation with the West appears to primarily stem from how countries such as the UK—Somaliland was a UK protectorate until 1960—continue to not recognise its sovereign status, resulting in enormous financial drawbacks for the country.

Hence, as Somaliland celebrates its 25th anniversary of unrecognized independence this year, its economy remains perilously fragile, with poverty and unemployment rampant among its roughly four million-plus population.

“If you look at the happiness of Somalilanders and the challenges they are facing it does not match,” Husein says. “They are happy because of their values and religion.”

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