Asha Haji Elmi
Asha Haji Elmi Amin (also written Asha Hagi Elmi ; * 1962 in Galguduud , Somalia ) is a Somali peace activist and women's rights activist.
biography
Asha Haji Elmi was born into an upper-middle class family and therefore had more opportunities than many other Somali women. She used this to study economics at the National University in Mogadishu as well as in Nairobi , Kenya , management and organizational development and business development. For a short time she worked in the Ministry of Finance, then in civil society.
After the outbreak of the Somali civil war , Asha Haji Elmi founded the organization Save the Somali Women and Children (SSWC) in 1992.
When peace negotiations for Somalia were under way in Arta (Djibouti) in 2000 , which largely concentrated on the five large Somali clans , Asha Haji Elmi co-founded the Sixth Clan women’s network to emphasize the importance of women as the “sixth clan” for the peace process . This was the first time that women were represented as a separate group at the peace talks; they had hardly been involved beforehand, as they traditionally do not play a political role within the clans. Asha Haji Elmi is herself married to a man from a rival clan, which her clan and that of her husband viewed with corresponding suspicion. Sixth Clan achieved, among other things, that 12% of the seats in Somalia's federal transitional parliament are reserved for women.
Asha Haji Elmi also campaigns against the widespread circumcision of girls in Somalia . She has been a member of the transitional parliament since August 29, 2004 until 2009. She was among the nominees for the 1000 Women Project for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize .
In 2008 Elmi received the Right Livelihood Award .
literature
- Asha Haji , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 19/2009 from May 5, 2009, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
Web links
- Asha Haji Elmi Amin, Woman and Peace Activist
- Portrait at rightlivelihoodaward.org (English)
- BBC interview with Asha Haji Elmi, 2007 (English)
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Elmi, Asha Haji |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Elmi Amin, Asha Haji (full name); Elmi, Asha Hagi |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Somali peace activist and women's rights activist |
DATE OF BIRTH | 1962 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Galguduud , Somalia |