When Asha Ahmed Abdalla was a teenager in her native country of Somalia, she used to daydream about what it would be like to be Somalia’s first lady, and decided to set her sights on achieving that goal.
But Abdalla grew up and her dream evolved. After years of humanitarian and political activity, the 45-year-old mother of three has set her eyes on the ultimate prize: to become Africa’s first woman president.
”Women should use their power,” she says. ”I’ve always loved politics. I love to fight for people’s freedom. Also, I like equality, especially women’s equality.”
These days Abdalla is campaigning for the presidency at the Somalia National Reconciliation Conference, a peace process that has been going on in Kenya for the past year. The conference, organised and facilitated by the seven-nation Intergovernmental Authority on Development, brings together the country’s warlords, traditional elders and others to find a peaceful solution to the bitter war that has rocked Somalia since 1991.
Analysts say the war in Somalia is primarily a struggle between about 23 clan- and sub-clan-based factions fighting to maintain control of particular areas.
Technically, the country is being led by the Transitional National Government (TNG), an interim government that was put together at the last Somali peace conference, held in Arta, Djibouti in 2000. In reality, the TNG only controls sections of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, and other small parts of the country.
Conference participants spent long months discussing and debating subjects such as conflict resolution and reconciliation, disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration, land and property rights and economic recovery. They have put together a Constitution and are now in the process of selecting a 351-member Parliament that will ensure that Somalia’s four clans and civil society will be represented.
The MPs, in turn, will elect a president who will lead the interim government for four years until an election can be held in Somalia. At the moment, observers say, Somalia is still too unstable and volatile to be able to host elections.
According to the conditions of the Arta conference, the current TNG’s term expires next month.
Abdalla is currently the TNG’s Minister of Demobilisation, Disarmament and Reintegration.
She has some stiff competition in her bid to become president. More than 40 big-name contenders are running for the position, including Hussein Aideed, son of former faction leader General Mohammed Farah Aideed, former International Football Federation official Farah Adow and Dr Najib Abdulkarim, a lecturer in a university in the United States.
But the energetic and enthusiastic Abdalla — whose campaign slogan is ”Give Somalia a Mother’s Nurturing!” — is not worried about her heavyweight rivals or the fact that she’s the only woman running in a society that has traditionally shunned her sex from the political arena.
”[The decision to run] came from my friends,” she says, adding that during her term in office, she acquired the reputation of being tough but fair-minded and law-abiding. ”If I become president, I will bring law and order back, and things will [go] back to normal.”
She has come up with a ”12 point agenda” that commits her to taking action on issues including disarmament, rehabilitation, judicial reform, health care, regional governance, economic revival, universal education, employment creation, and, of course, women’s empowerment.
Abdalla was born in 1958 in Ergavo, a city on the tip of Somalia stretching into the Gulf of Aden. She spent her early childhood in Yemen and returned to Somalia in the late 1960s.
At about that time Abdalla’s uncle was running for Parliament. His young niece, who helped him manage his campaign, was impressed by the flurry of activity, attention and discussions on issues. It was then that her political ambitions were born.
A decade later, while attending Latole University in Mogadishu, the student was caught up with the causes and effects of the Ogaden War, a bloody conflict between Somalia and Ethiopia. She saw her people suffering and got into heated discussions and debates about how to stop the war and help its victims.
It was also during this time Abdalla met her future husband. They married and emigrated to the US. There she led a life packed with educational and humanitarian achievements that included a BSc from La Guardia College in New York; a master’s from the City University of New York; and the chairmanship of the Washington-based Somali Relief Agency, which also dealt with Somali refugees’ welfare in the US.
In 2000 Abdalla — who by this time also had US citizenship — was persuaded to attend the Arta conference where, because of her pivotal role, she was elected an MP in the TNG and was later given a portfolio.
She hasn’t looked back since, even though during the course of her work, she has received several death threats from those angry at her policies.
Abdalla credits her family — particularly her father, who died last year — for who she is today. ”He taught me to be honest, to be straightforward, to believe what I believe and to work with others for good things. [He taught me] never do what somebody else tells you to do if it’s not right.”
She urges women to recognise their rights and to fight for them. ”I’m asking women around the world to work on peace together.”