No matter what one thinks, or in what color one tries to see the appointment of Fawzia Yusuf Haji Adam as the first woman Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Somalia it is the historical significance of a woman reaching this far in tribal-based Muslim society, where women are seen only as an appendage if not indeed a property to their menfolk, that should not escape any conscientious person’s attention.

Given the suffering and humiliation that Somali women went through over the last 20 years despite being the pillars that sustain the existence of the Somali people, both inside the country and the Diaspora, what better image is there to see than an educated and refined woman being the face of Somalia to the outside world?

What better answer to Al-Shabab who couldn’t see women as anything more than a body to be shrouded and hidden away in dark houses? What better answer to the Arab world where women despite spearheading the Arab Spring are being pushed to live in the 7th century by religious fanatic who themselves aren’t shy to indulge in the 21st century luxuries including smart phones and who spread their reactionary ideologies through modern social media? What better PR for the Islah-led government of President Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud; what a better bridge to use to bring Somaliland to the fold than a woman who does not only hail from Somaliland but also contributed more than anyone else to making a better future for the youth there and whose own children hail from Mogadishu, a symbol of unity through her own life like numerous other Somali women?

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=14344