Adan: Emblem of new hope for Somalia

Rebel with a cause. Despite being the deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Somalia, this firebrand politician straddles two extremes: Unification of the war-torn country, and secession of her native Somaliland

“She also hoped to lead Somaliland as the first female president of the unrecognised state,” he adds. But Fawzia was stopped in her tracks on a technicality. In April 2012, Somaliland’s Political Parties Registration and Verification Committee (PPRVC) disqualified her NDB party, together with eight other parties. That officially ended her dream of ascending to the presidency one day.
“She felt like she was being targeted for being a woman,” says Ahmed.

A one-time deputy chief of protocol of Somalia’s foreign affairs ministry in 1970s, Fawzia has continually challenged the Somaliland administration through street protests and by using her ties with media, but had little to show for her activism.

However, when her long-time friend Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, a civil society activist and an academician, unexpectedly won the presidential elections in September last year by beating the former president Sharif Sheikh Ahmed in parliamentary elections in Mogadishu, Fawzia was thrown a life-line. In November 3, she was appointed Somalia’s first female deputy Prime minister and minister for foreign Affairs in Africa’s smallest Cabinet.

“My nomination as the Foreign minister is historic for Somalia and particularly for the women of Somalia, it turns a new page for the political situation of our country and will lead to success and prosperity,” she said after the nomination.

Abdiwahab Sheikh Abdisamad, author of Somali Conflict: A Somali Problem? — to be released this year — believes that recent history has proved Somali women are more responsible than men, adding that “Fawzia’s appointment is recognition of their [women’s] efforts”.

“It is because of her vision and creative leadership that drove Fawzia to change course and work with Somalia at a time when there was so much need for born-leaders like her to lift the country from its dark history,” says a member of Fawzia’s family who wants to remain anonymous.

As a daughter of northerner (Somaliland) and a wife of southerner (Somalia), Fawzia, whom some people describe as “a breath of fresh air to politics” in this recovering Horn of Africa state, could become a symbol of unity that eventually brings Somalia and Somaliland together.

Nevertheless, controversy stalks her like an unwelcome guest, both in Somalia and Somaliland. In Somaliland, she is perceived as a traitor to the secessionist cause, while in the south her integrity is questioned because of that same secessionist past. “One thing that is clear is that she is a secessionist-minded person and she never abandoned that cause publicly as far as I know,” adds Abdiwahab.

A friend indeed
However, relationships and friendships overcome integrity in Somali politics. It appears President Hassan has come through for his friend Fawzia at a time of great need. It also appears that her appointment is an olive branch to the Isaaq clan in Somaliland.

However, Fawzia has a tough time ahead with regard to Somaliland. Last April, she supported Somaliland’s decision to withdraw from talks with Somalia because it was thought that then the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) was against the interests of Somaliland. Her former colleague and Somaliland’s current foreign minister, Dr Mohamed Abdilahi Omar, whom she described earlier as “a true son of Somaliland”, is now threatening to put her behind bars should she ever set foot in her house in Hargeisa.

Although Abdiwahab concedes that Fawzia is a veteran diplomat who served Somalia’s mission in the Soviet Union, the US and East Germany before the civil war, he says that there’s nothing that makes her unique for the position other than being a woman.

In her first interview with BBC Somali Service, Ms Adam caused a diplomatic faux pas. She was quoted as saying “Somaliland is my country, Somalia is my country, both are my countries and I am for both”.

“It is unfortunate to hear a foreign minister referring to another part of her country as a sovereign country,” says Abdiwahab. “Somalia is one country and there is nothing like Somalia and Somaliland.” Many called for her outright dismissal after the BBC interview, but she still holds on.

About Fawzia Yusuf Adan

Fawzia Yusuf Haji Adan has just recently been named the first woman Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Somalia. She was appointed to this position by newly elected president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. Along with this position she is one of two women who joined Somalia’s new cabinet. Prior to being appointed minister, Adan had already taken steps in becoming a prominent female figure in Somalia. In the late 1990’s, she served as an instrumental role in founding the University of Hargeisa in the self declared independent state of Somaliland. Because of her gender, she was not allowed to sit on the board. In 2008, she launched RAADTV, which strove to provide a different image on Somalia other then the unstable, war-ridden failed state as portrayed in the media. Adan served aso a diplomat in Berlin Germany prior to the collapse of the Somali government.