Empowered Somali Women – After The Event
On the 7th of March this year, Somali young women came together to celebrate one another. It was a day like no other. We shared with you all the vision and plan behind Ladan Takow’s event ‘Empowering SomaliWomen’ in a pervious article. We are now incredibly excited to fill you in on how the event went.
“We don’t need to be empowered – we are.” – Ladan Takow
Ladan’s event was a huge success in its aim to empower women through educating, inspiring, networking and building relationships.
The event started with women taking the stage and sharing their stories. Each speaker told their tale of how they were empowered or how they empower others. The stories told were powerful. We were on a journey with all the speakers; how each woman learnt who they were and found their passions – in turn empowering themselves!
The speakers included;
Idil Hassan a community developer at Midaye Somali Development Network, spoke about the work she does to help Somali communities and other ethnic minorities.
“Women are the core of our community. So empowering the women means the rest of Somalia will be empowered too.” – Idil
Samra Said is a poet, charity aid worker and a fundraiser working in the international development sector. She is currently working for Human Appeal, however she is also known for her work with the Somali Relief and Development Forum (SRDF). Samra spoke about the work she has done in the charity sector. She shared with us; how she was empowered through her understanding of what she felt was important – growing our society.
Another truly inspirational woman was Nadira Mahamoud who was the producer of The Stream (Al Jazeera). She spoke of how she discarded other career ideas like fashion blogging until she truly found the job she loved. She taught us that we could be empowered by understanding what our passion is.
Once the talks came to an end, the evening was still young and the guests took the dance floor and enjoyed a mixture of Somali, and other music. It was a great way to celebrate one another and the evening.
The definition of empowerment we quoted above talks about making yourself stronger, more confident and taking control of your life. The power in the word empowerment is that each individual can empower themselves or others in their own way. There isn’t a set rule or steps to follow. To one woman empowerment may mean knowledge – that education they were previously denied. Another may see it as the true learning of one’s self, and being confident in their own skin and life.
Looking at Ladan’s event it is clear that it is not just a one day event, it is a movement. Us Somali women are empowered and we shall continue to be so.
Looking around the room I was overwhelmed by the turn out. Seeing all these welcoming, open minded and hopeful faces warmed my heart. What better way to connect with your Somali sisters than to make each other rise?
To me? To be empowered is to know who I am, and how I can contribute to what is important to me: the bettering of our world.
