THIS IS THE REASON WHY I SUPPORT THE UIC

[xaseey]

Marrying across Somalia's caste lines
By Mohammed Olad Hassan
BBC News, Mogadishu



The family of Sahal Abdi-kafi no longer talk to him following his wedding to his long-time girlfriend Zamzam Ahmed, a member of Somalia's lower caste Yahar community.


Sahal says the Islamist edict persuaded him to go ahead with the wedding

Despite his family's strong disapproval, the couple went ahead with their marriage, encouraged by an edict from the Islamist group which has taken control of the capital, Mogadishu, and much of southern Somalia this year after 15 years of lawlessness.

Sahal and Zamzam had been seeing each other secretly for five years but neither ever really believed their romantic dream would end in marriage.

"We were very different - in lifestyle, in thinking, in tastes," said Sahal, who runs a big electronics shop in Mogadishu's main Bakara Market and who comes from a prominent family of merchants.


In contrast, Zamzam's father has died and her mother sells the popular stimulant khat.

"Yet we fell in love, we expected the heavens to fall when my parents would come to know of our affair, we expected the worst and were prepared for the worst," Salal says.


After centuries of deep divisions, cross caste weddings like Sahal and Zamzam's are now becoming more common.

Prejudice

Union of Islamic Courts leader Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed recently said Somalis should marry good Muslims, whatever caste they were from, in an effort to break down centuries of prejudice.

"Islam recommends choosing your partner according to whether they follow their religion and whether they are of good character but not because of their social level," he said.

Sometimes life is indeed like a Bollywood movie

Zamzam Ahmed
Sahal, 35, supports the Islamists and says Mr Ahmed's speech convinced him to go ahead with the wedding, despite his parents' opposition.

Somalia's caste system is extremely complicated.

While some members of the lower castes, such as the Yahar, Midgan, Eyle, Boon, say they face constant discrimination, several members have risen to occupy prominent positions in society.

Many members of the lower castes perform jobs such as metal-working, hunting with dogs, shoe-making and hairdressing.

Marriage is the area where traditional prejudices remain strongest, with men who marry lower caste women often ostracised by their families.

Beloved

Sahal knew his family would be upset by the wedding and felt unable to tell them that he and Zamzam had gone ahead and tied the knot.

When he did break the news, his father immediately told him to divorce his new wife and choose another, higher caste, woman.

"My parents promised me they would pay a large amount of money for the cost of my wedding if I married a woman of my caste, but I could not disown my beloved one," he said.

"She is beautiful, polite, obedient to me, pious and God-fearing, so there was no reason not to marry her."

Zamzam says she only knew that she loved Sahal and never thought about their difference in social background.

She said it was beyond her wildest dreams to see herself sharing a life with Sahal.

"Love knows no age, no caste, and no creed. There can be no other explanation why Sahal could have fallen in love with me," she said.

"However, he married me against the wishes of his parents, jeopardising his relations with his relatives and friends and that of the community he comes from," she added.

"Finally, he was mine and I was his. Sometimes life is indeed like a Bollywood movie," she said, smiling.

Source: BBC, Dec 12, 2006

[Cawar]

War wuxu magac xumaa??

xaseey WTF is that??

[Samatr]

Xaaseey naag mise nin?

dont reply if your a dude.

[Cawar]

^^Qaldaan sempre qaldaan..

[Samatr]

I wonder if she has a jealous cousin too.

[Jeffrey Dahmer]

Masha'Allah, however, why did he require the edict of ICU when the Prophet himself passed th eedict that we shouldn't make nasab the main factor but taqwa.

ICU are not legislators but enforcers. You do not need their approval to do something that has been outlined in Islam. It reminds me of an example I once heard where a bigoted and fanatic muqallid witnesses the Prophet passing a command but is in doubt and asks Imam Abu Hanifa if it is correct.

[TZ Somali]

This is why i support UIC.


Instinctive identity: sense of belonging and difference being inherent rather than political construct. Subconscious allegiance to the people and culture one finds similar and familiar. Thus the foundation on which the contemporary Somalia is based upon. The group based on commonalities in ancestry, societal custom and belief system is has always dictate the politics within and moved society for years in this war ridden country.

This broadest sense of identity: the nation-state, however detrimental it is the subconscious allegiance to tribal custom was nothing else but a mere step in political evolution that has to be overcome in order for peaceful coexistence to be a reality by all members of the society thus off course require a mature political systems and leaders who has the reflective faculty to enquire first, whatÂ’s is the interest of the nation and above all the interest of his subject (s), secondly oneÂ’s innate sense of personal greed both in terms of monetary sense or that of political terms should never supersede a leaderÂ’s love for his nation however the awkward/ dangerous or compromising political and social position he found himself in, is in this criteria the current president of T.F.G has failed to meet.

The current political stand-off between the T.F.G and the UIC his partly the attribute of Abdullahi Yussuf lack of political charisma and most importantly lack of intellectual capacity to ascertain the social and political reality in northern Somalia. The invitation of the Somali’s arch enemy (Ethiopia) troops in the ground to counter the rise of UIC was a product of instinctive imprudent political calculation that based on the fact that UIC and its leadership are mainly from the Hawiye tribe. However legitimate his concern was, it was fair to look beyond the tribe of the men but the political ideology they spouse and above all their agenda for the country. Having observed the political quagmire that led to the inception and subsequent rise of UIC; Firstly the formation of Islamic court was born out of the necessity to drive the malignant cancer that is the ‘warlords’ that for so long held the country and its citizen for ransom most notably in the capital, where the city was broken into fiefdom ruled by ruthless men and the foot soldier whose solely purpose of life have for long been to extract ransom from the inhabitants and business of this city. Second there were no one central authority in the city with ability to address the concern of the inhabitants, thus has made the security situation dangerous, but this insecurity has been addressed by Islamic Court to the excitement of the citizen of Mogadishu and surrounding vicinity.

Thirdly its only natural we give credit where is due, UIC has been able to achieve so much in limited to time, and so far should they be granted the opportunity I do not doubt that their capable of repeating similar political and security feats evidence in Mogadishu. Although I do have a reservation with regard to their ability to adopt of enforce social stance similar to that of Taliban, in Afghanistan, I so far inclined to support of them on one fact, unlike Abdullahi Yussuf who seek to redeem himself politically from a foreign entity that strife to see Somalia in tartar and in infinite chaos, I have personally opted to support UIC irrelevant of its leaders their tribes, because the source of their agenda is derived from religion and teachings that I prescribed to thus Islam. For peace to prevailed and become a permanent feature in Somalia, we ought to propagate a one unified voice that seek to build Somalia for all its inhabitant, a voice that is relevant for all and does not have qabil tone, I so far found this voice not from Abdullahi Yussuf and his henchmen but from the likes of Sheikh Aweys and his foot soldiers, although with the involvement of foreign troop in the conflict the dream of many peaceful loving Somalis like me will remain on hold for the time, but we all know that time will not posed indefinitely as the power of ALLAH is superior to that of a mere Abdullahi Yussuf and his political coach in Adisababa.