Mogadishu, Somalia - After a protracted conflict that has
lasted more than two decades, there's now a sense of relative calm and
security in Somalia. The unidentifiable gunmen that patrolled the streets
have been replaced by men in smart uniforms.
Road blocks that once divided the city between government and al-Shabab
controlled areas have been removed; traffic flows freely. Somalis are
flocking to the beach, old houses are being renovated and are glistening with
fresh coats of paint.
But not everybody enjoys the newly found sense of security.
Camps filled with Internally Displaced Persons - people forced to flee
the violence and insecurity of their home regions - are still a common sight.
But for the women who live in them, violence and insecurity are still
pertinent issues.
"Some of them were
armed with AK47s. They slapped me, ordered me outside and raped me. They
did all kind of things to me. I couldn't fight them or defend myself. How
could I against seven armed men?"
- Nura Hirsi, rape
survivor
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Nura Hirsi is a 27-year-old widow
living in the Burdubo IDP camp in the Tarabunka neighborhood of West
Mogadishu. She says she was raped by seven government soldiers when they
forced entry into her home on Saturday, December 29.
"It was 1am, my children were sleeping when these men entered my house,"
she told Al Jazeera. "Some of them were armed with AK47s. They slapped
me, ordered me outside and raped me. They did all kind of things to me. I
couldn't fight them or defend myself. How could I against seven armed
men?"
Nura said that nobody would come to help her during the attack.
"People are afraid to leave their houses at night to come see what is
happening. Everybody is afraid; they are scared for their lives.
"After they left, I cried. In the morning I went to the hospital and
they gave me some medicine to take, but I didn't tell them of all that took
place. They are Somalis and I don't want people to know."
Authorities do not take allegations of rape - even gang-rape -
seriously, she said.
"I went to the police but they were not really interested. People get
killed in Mogadishu; I didn't die. To them rape isn't so serious. Nobody is
ever arrested. Even the person in charge of the IDP camp was not interested.
He didn't say anything when I told him. I would even like to speak to
the radio stations - but who will give me that chance?"
Stigma of rape
Abdalle Muumin is a Somali journalist. He said much of the country's media
ignored sexual violence, leading to an enduring stigma faced by rape
victims.
"There is a culture in Somalia, where a victim of rape will report that
so-and-so attempted to rape them, but nobody is ever comfortable to come
forward, speak up and say that they were raped," he said.
"Another reason why you don't hear anything about IDP-related news is
because editors and media owners are not interested in that. When reporters
file news regarding IDPs it is not aired; in fact it's referred to as shuban
biyood ["diarrhoea"].
"Editors and owners are more interested in political news; it cost money
to produce a radio package. In politics, there is money."
Fartun Abdisalaan Adan is a co-founder of Sister Somalia, an
organisation formed in 2010 which opened the first rape crisis centre in
Mogadishu.
Attitudes towards rape are slowly changing, she said. The subject is no
longer taboo - but a lot more needs to be done to tackle it: "When
we first started our work, there was a lot of denial from the government and
men, and a lot of women were ashamed to speak up - but slowly we gained their
trust. Now people in Somalia talk about it, no-one can deny that it is
happening, although the response is still slow."
"Women in the
IDP camps are especially vulnerable... A man can come in any time and do
whatever he wants to you, knowing he will get away with it."
- Fartun Abdisalaan
Adan, Sister Somalia
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Rape is still a huge problem, however, and
as many as seven new victims arrive each week at Sister Somalia's Mogadishu
office alone.
"Women in the IDP camps are especially vulnerable. If you look at IDP
camps, it is mostly lone women with children who live there," she said.
"[The camp] is not a house, there is no door. A man can come in any time
and do whatever he wants to you, knowing he will get away with it.
"When [victims of rape] come to our office, our first reaction is to
take them to a hospital to get medical help and pay their fees; then it's
back to our centre where the counselling begins. We also discuss whether they
want to go back to their home, if they choose to move then we assist them
with relocation. We have also established a safe house where they can stay
temporarily until suitable accommodation is found. Currently, we are
assisting around 400 women who have been raped or whose daughters were raped."
The safe house is especially useful to young girls who have run away from
their families after becoming pregnant as a result of rape.
"Younger girls, often 16 or 17, are usually afraid to tell their parents
they have been raped and may now be pregnant, for fear they will not be
believed, especially by their fathers; so they run away and stay at our
centre. These younger victims are the ones who are most reluctant to report
they were raped because they are also worried about their future and whether
being a victim of rape will lessen their chances for marriage."
'Not a women's issue'
Speaking via a telephone from Galcayo, south central Somalia, humanitarian
activist and this year's Nansen Refugee Award winner, Hawa Aden Mohammed,
expressed concerns about the cultural reservation among victims to speak out,
as well as the seeming culture of impunity for the perpetrators of sexual
violence.
"It is not so easy to pursue legal action when the law is so relaxed or
non-existent," she told Al Jazeera. "In my experience, 90 percent
of women who were raped are reluctant to go to authorities because they are
afraid or they are not confident anything will be done. There is also a need
to educate; a lot of these women feel ashamed, they view themselves as haram,
spoiled, dirty - and are unwilling to talk about it.
"The government needs to do more to address the issue of violence
against women in all its forms. This is not a women's issue, it is a society
issue."
The new Somali government has only been in power for two months, but,
according to the Director General at the Minister for Labour, Youth and
Sports, Aweis Haddad, "the government is doing it best to prevent such
things. One of the first things that president did when he came to office is
speak out against rape and gender based violence."
He concluded by shifting blame, denying state troops were primarily
responsible for the sexual violence against women such as 27-year-old Nura.
"A lot of people are able to put on government uniforms and pretend to
be the police or the army, but they are not. In some cases it's the
Shabab," he said.
"We treat every crime seriously. If people in government are found to
behind such things, action will be taken."
Names of rape survivors have been changed to protect their identity.
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