In what has been a painful week for women across the political world will Fatuma Dayib remain in the race

By:  Suleiman Abdikadir Hassan Bulle (@mv_suleiman)

NAIROBI—When Fadumo Dayib announced her bid to run for President of Somalia last year, people thought she was crazy. Somalia’s violent history and the life threatening conditions that the country’s political elite and activists face on a daily basis makes Dayib’s choice to run for office – especially as a woman in a patriarchal culture – a brave one.

Fatuma Dayib says she feels she is the only woman in a race against seventeen other men, the race to Villa Somalia. Photo/ COURTESY

For Fadumo, she is the only woman in a race against seventeen other men, the race to Villa Somalia. If her bid to replace the incumbent Hassan Sheikh Mohamud will be taken seriously, she will make history just like Hillary Clinton if not let down by men in an un-democratic elections.

In what has been a painful week for women across the political world, Martha Karua, Kenya’s Iron Lady  gave up on her dream and decided to back President Uhuru Kenyatta and settled for the Kirinyaga gubernatorial post.

In Somalia tribal leaders from across the country will have to choose 14,000 electoral delegates, who will in turn select a new Parliament that will vote for the President on November 30th
Fadumo, 43, her husband and their four children live in Finland

She was born to illiterate Somali parents in the mid – 1970s . Dayib was the 12th born of a family that visited Kenya to seek better medical attention after all the previous 11 children died of treatable diseases.

As a young child alongside her family they were deported back to Somalia, until they were forced to flee the civil war that has ravaged her country to pieces. She ended up in Finland – this time as a refugee.
But despite her turbulent childhood full of financial difficulties, her single mother, who often had to go to great lengths to make ends meet, mainly raised her.

Despite the disadvantageous past, her résumé boasts an impressive list of credentials.

After receiving several degrees in International Public health, Fadumo is currently a MC/MPA Mason Fellow at Harvard and a Doctorate candidate with focus on Women, Peace and Security at the University of Helsinki.

She also has over a decade of experience working for the United Nations. An especially notable feat considering Dayib didn’t become fully literate until about the age of 14.
It was when she was working with the UN in Puntland that she felt she was indebted to her nation and that she wanted to do more to help the people of Somalia.
Despite not having an extensive political background, connections or a privileged upbringing; she truly believed she can lead her homeland to a better future.

She says: “I have been waiting for over 25 years, and nobody was taking that responsibility seriously, and that’s when I have decided to do it.”

“I have never been involved with the Somali politics before, so I am really coming in with a clear record,” she said.

She further goes ahead adding, ” I have not pillaged, I have not raped, neither have I stolen nor been accused of corruption. I have not been involved in the skirmishes and am not affiliated with any religious group or organization (i.e Al-shabab). I’m coming here as an independent candidate.”

Somalia subscribes to a patriarchal political culture where those selected to hold public office are mainly men and women leadership remains a pipe dream.

At the backdrop of Trump election in the US, a man who had a low opinion of women throughout the campaign period, Fatuma’s case in the Somali context will prove a hard nut to crack.