A note to Somali women, who have normalised carrying it all on their backs, for generations!!! No one will ever appreciate you, until you stop giving your all. That mindset is enslaving, it needs to go. #Somalia https://twitter.com/drthema/status/1316586062509084672

Pay attention to how ungrateful and entitled those you give become. The more you give, the more they take & expect! A simple example: you go through hell, sacrifice your whole life to raise kids, often without spousal support. Then they bring you grandchildren to raise for them!!

Somali women = geela la rarto, oo markey daasho, waayeel noqoto, laga kala tago, oo cid u naxariisato aysan jirin!! Meesha ka kaca oo naftiina xishmeeya. Have some self-respect, stop giving it all to most ungrateful family/qabiil/society I have ever known!! Take back your power.

In the years I have been back and working in #Somalia, the stories I have come across and witnessed of how women are treated by their own families and society have left me in shock and seriously depressed!! One a research project I did in #Kismayo, a story that still haunts me...

We interviewed group of women on 'resilience'. Lady shared her story. Husband died, his family tried to take her 2 girls. She escaped to Kismayo. Married a soldier, she fell in love and believed he would help her raise her girls. Soon as she got pregnant, he started beating her..

And her little girls, so badly that she feared for all their lives, escaped him. She now sells qaat/miraa on the streets of Kismayo, to feed her three kids. When she shared that story, she broke down and cried in a voice I had never heard, shrieking with pain uncontrollably!!!

What we say and how we behave, as a society, are very far apart. All preachy and morally right in words but treat the vulnerable, especially women, in the most inhumane ways!!! This woman & her kids have absolutely no protection from society, qabiil, religious institution, gov!!!

Her story is not unique, that is the most scary part!! In #Somalia, she is an average!! The stories of women and girls need to be heard so we know realities beyond facade of religious acts and disingenuous preaching in society refusing to set up systems to protect the vulnerable.

To reverse this heartless mindset and culture towards women, there is a need for systems and laws in place to protect them. But beyond that, what needs to change are geeljire survival old broken narratives and beliefs that girls and women are only worth their wombs and labour!!!!