Legal Analysts and Commentator

"You have to applaud for the ladies... No, women, stop applauding; men should applause for you," the president remarked. In a stirring address at Hargeisa University's recent graduation ceremony, the president 's words echoed a resounding call for recognition and applause for the accomplishments of women. As the applause erupted, he quipped, "You have to applaud for the ladies... No, women, stop applauding; men should applause for you." It was a moment that encapsulated the shifting narrative of gender acknowledgment and appreciation. The ceremony bore witness to a remarkable statistic: 54% of the graduates were women, a testament to the strides made when access to education transcends societal barriers. Even more striking, 22 out of 29 honors were bestowed upon female graduates, underscoring their academic prowess despite the considerable burden of household responsibilities that often falls upon them. Amidst these celebrations, the president's acknowle...

  The 2018 law faced backlash from religious leaders and the president allowed them to revise it to permit child marriages, blood money payments for rape and femicide, among other stunning provisions. In August 2018, Somaliland president Muse Bihi Abdi signed Somaliland’s first ever Rape and Sexual Offenses Act into law. It aimed to reduce the nation's rape rate against women and girls, which is rising every year. Somaliland's human rights organisations and the international community hailed it as a great feat for the president’s legacy. At the time, he had held office for less than a year. But Bihi quickly undid this legacy and as a result, survivors of sexual violence are in legal limbo to this day.  Survivors are dependent on the Somali penal code which we inherited from Somalia, a country from which we seceded 31 years ago . That penal code is incompatible with the types of sexual offences which occur today and the circumstances in which they are committed. This was the ...