WO M E N SIHA Journal / Issue No. 6
Women’s Land Rights in African Muslim Communities Why Land Matters for African Women
Blocking the Sunlight Sudanese Women’s Struggle for Democracy and Political Agency
Why are AntiRape Laws Rejected in Somaliland and Somalia? The Politics of Women’s Bodies
DOSSIER: Equality Starts at Home
IN ISLAM
EDITORIAL 05 Three Questions To: Munira Yussuf
PEOPLE 06 Nawal El Saadawi:The Daughter of Goddess Isis who Fought for Justice
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10 Keeping Girls in the Game The Story of a Female Sport Centre in Somaliland 12 Because She Cares Toyiba Yassin’s Pathway to Activism 15 Age is Not Only Measured in Years Sit Al-Nofor Bakar: a Nurse, Activist, and Artist 18 Nuruddin Farah: A Feminist Writer? Somali Womanhood in Nuruddin Farah’s Novels
EQUALITY 22 The Politics of Shari’ah and Gender in Somaliland 25 Muslim Women in the Spotlight of Ethiopia’s Elections
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28 Women's Land Rights in African Muslim Communities Why Land Matters for African Women 32 Multiple Identities What Does it Mean to Be a Queer Muslim African Woman? 35 Moving Beyond Tokenism An Open Letter by the Somali Women Journalists’ Rights Association
BETWEEN TWO WORLDS 38 The Hijab Controversy Secularism and Islam in Europe
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41 Stories of Survival The Journeys of Migrant Women from Somaliland 44 Taking Roots The Bangladeshi Community in Great Britain 48 There's a Reason Muslim Women Struggle to Make their Voices Heard
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Women in Islam, 2023
THE PERSONAL AND THE POLITICAL 50 Without Fear A poem by Zahra Abdihagi Mahamed 52 Period Checks The Policing of Prayer in Malaysia 55 Jailed for Crimes That Do Not Exist 58 Maid in Saudi Arabia A Photo Series by Tasneem Asultan
PERSPECTIVES
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62 Male anti-FGM/C Activists Negotiating Gender Power Relations in Somaliland 66 Blocking the Sunlight Sudanese Women’s Struggle for Democracy and Political Agency 69 How the COVID-19 Pandemic Exposes the Harsh Realities lived by Women in the Greater Horn of Africa 72 What makes women resist violent extremism in Mali and Niger? 74 Why are Anti-Rape Laws Rejected in Somaliland and Somalia? The Politics of Women’s Bodies
55 DOSSIER: EQUALITY STARTS AT HOME 78 The Perplexity of a Muslim Woman: Over Inheritance, Marriage and Homosexuality A Book Review by Ziba Mir-Hosseini 82 Free Our Family Laws! 85 Is Mahr a Gift or a Bride Price? A Perspective from Kenya 88 Reformist Qur’anic Methodologies Musawah’s Approach in Centring Muslim Women’s Voices to Uncover Qur’anic Ethics and Gender Justice 92 Film review – The Judge The Multiple Pathways towards Gender Equality
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94 The Battle Over Family Law in Egypt Shows Only the Personal Can Be Political, And Then Only So Far
98 The Echo 99 SIHA Publications
82 Women in Islam, 2023
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Issue No. 6, 2023
A journal published by:
SIHA,
the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa Network, was born of the social justice movement. Since 1995, it has grown to a membership of over 100 indigenous African women’s rights organisations. SIHA works in a variety of cultural, political, and geographical environments in Uganda, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Somalia, Somaliland, Sudan, and South Sudan.
SIHA firmly believes in the collective power of African women. The network was built on the shoulders of women’s rights activists from the Horn of Africa, and has been sustained by their
relentless commitment to advance gender equality and their cause. As an inclusive and diverse feminist women’s rights network, we draw strength from the multiplicity of women’s experiences and voices.
SIHA's vision is that all women and girls in the Horn of Africa have the right to live in a peaceful, just environment, and to exercise their equal rights as human beings. To make this vision a reality, SIHA aims to unlock the massive potential of feminist and women’s rights movements in the region by strengthening and supporting collective action for social and political change.
SIHA acknowledges that almost all challenges that women face are based on socially and politically constructed norms that actively subordinate women. Thus, our work foregrounds fundamental political transformation, with a focus on challenging political repression, fundamentalism, and restrictive traditions.
SIHA is committed to generating and disseminating knowledge informed by women’s lived realities and day-to-day struggles. Women in Islam is one of SIHA’s many publications.