Rape is Rampant in Somalia

The rape of women and young girls is rampant in Somalia. The issue is serious and should not be overshadowed by cultural agenda funded by foreign wealthy nations.

The attempt to shepherd cultural agenda through a nominally functioning parliament led by corrupt characters such as Adam Mohamed Nuur (Madoobe) and Sacdia Yasin Xaji Samatar(Firimbi) makes a mockery out of an enormously important issue.

The rape of women and young girls is used as a weapon of war and a crime of opportunity by men in Somalia. The patriarch Somali culture normalizes both.

These conducts are not normal. Both are abhorrent and antithetical t human decency. 

When I was growing up in Mogadishu, we were visited by relatives from Mudug and Galgaduud. There was always high anticipation for their visits. Relatives told stories about war and peace among other topics in world affairs.

Young men often in their twenties and thirties told stories of battles. They emphasized who fought gallantly and who folded under the weight of war.

Young men also described night raids. There was almost always a story of a band of young men raiding a house in a small village or a traditional Somali hut tugged in the woods.

The men of the raided village or single-family home normally flee early in the evening to the woods. Villages and homes were considered open targets for surprise attacks.

When the attackers came, they often found women and children sleeping. The killing of women and children was considered dishonorable.

However, the rape of women and girls was culturally acceptable. Gang rape was considered cutting-edge.

These young men told how women they gang raped reacted. A story of a woman in excruciating pain pleading for mercy was always included. It was thought they took pleasure in the pain and torture they inflicted. 

One visitor relayed one story about when he and his friends attacked a woman. He said he sat down at the entrance of the hut and watch the gruesome procession. He said the pale light from the moon made everything visible despite the attack happening middle of the night.

He said he appeared to be the oldest in the group because he had a beard. The victim cried for help. He said she looked at him and said “war gallows”, roughly translated as “one with the beard, please help me.” It brings me to tears every time I remember this story as a grown man.

The women of the perpetrators aided the violence. They retold the stories. Further women added their own commentaries and depicted victims as partners in the crime.

One of the women visitors was a gifted storyteller. She told a rape story about one victim. The victim thought she was going to be executed. But the victim was relieved when her attackers told her she was going to be raped instead. The victim was said to undress immediately and said, “I know all about it and it doesn’t hurt.”  

The storyteller described the victim walking out of her undergarment. The storyteller also provided many other details in an elaborate plot along with physical gestures that are hard to describe in a brief essay. But she painted a picture that dehumanized the victim and glorified the offender.

The storyteller joked about open secrets kept by some in her own community. She told about incidents of women being dragged out of their homes and sexually assaulted on the sand a few hundred meters away. 

The storyteller mocked how victims denied being raped because men in the group could not agree on who goes first. She said a quick trace of the women’s tracks showed the body prints on the sand. She described body prints showing where buttocks and knees lay the previous night. 

The victim’s motivation for not telling the truth was simply to avoid being shunned for something that was not their fault. This culture has not changed. 

Some 30 years later, I went back to Mudug and Galgaduud to reconnect with the people and ancestral land. Rape culture as a weapon of war is more prevalent as encapsulated in the stories of my childhood told by the visiting gifted storytellers.

I was in Abudwak when my cousin who grazes camels, sheep, and goats between the Somali region of Ethiopia and Galkayo was raped by two men who snuck by the defence lines of two warring clans. The news came a few hours late because the attackers stole her cell phone.

The news shook me to my core. My mind raced back to all those childhood stories told in our house in Wardhiiglaay, Mogadishu a few blocks from Mohamud Harbi Elementary & Middle School. But as a grown man now and more experienced with life, I was worried about the potentially negative health impact on my cousin.

People didn’t want to discuss it let alone help her. I encouraged relatives to at least get her tested for sexually transmitted diseases. I was told the closest place for a such test was in Galkayo.

She was eventually taken to a hospital in Galdogob. The basic tests performed there showed negative results albeit potentially unreliable given equipment and staff expertise.

It was Galdogob I saw her for the first time since I left Somalia. She was an infant at the time. The last image of her in my mind was hosted on her older sister’s hip because their mother died of Malaria in the prior year.

Now she has become a mother of her own. She gave birth five months before the attack.

The husband went on the offensive to retaliate. He organized a group of his cousins and gave chase to the attackers. The attackers had a head start and outran them beyond the virtual border between two warring clans.

The victim’s husband captured many camels abandoned by the attackers. In addition, he kidnapped two girls who grazed goats and sheep on the virtual border. He and his supporters wanted to rape them for revenge.

Fortunately, the news got out quickly that one of the girls had a mother who was a distant relative of the kidnappers. Both girls were released unharmed.

While these horrendous sexual crimes in rural Somalia, urban life is filled with rape victims as well. Young girls bore the brunt of this violence.

Large extended families living in the same home are common in Somalia. Among most families are troubled men who rape and sexually abused young girls.

Recent notables of young victims include Aisha Ilyas Aden in Galkayo and an unnamed 5-year-old in Karaan District of Mogadishu a few years ago. Both gained notoriety in digital media. These are a few that have gone viral. Many of them are never heard. 

Rape of women and young girls is widespread in Somalia. It is used as a weapon of war. The patriarchal Somali culture aggravates the pandemic by shaming victims and glorifying the perpetrators.

Somalis must reverse this value proposition which enabled a culture of rape to burgeon. Victims should be absolved from all perceived responsibility.

Foreign wealthy nations pouring money through corrupt politicians with hidden cultural agendas are unlikely to help with this necessary cultural change. The ill-fated effort, for the time being, should not overshadow the extremely important issue of rape in Somalia.