Asha Haji Elmi (Caasha Xaaji Cilmi)

Who is she?

Asha Haji Elmi is a Somali peace builder and politician. She made sure Somali women had a place at the peace table after 1991 (Right Livelihood, Asha Hagi Elmi). She served in the Transitional Federal Parliament from 2004 and was selected to the Federal Parliament in August 2012 (Wikipedia, Asha Haji Elmi).

Early life and study

She was born in 1962 in Galgaduud (Right Livelihood). She studied economics at the Somali National University and later earned an MBA from the United States International University in Africa (Right Livelihood).

Save Somali Women and Children, 1992

In 1992, the year after the civil war began, she co-founded Save Somali Women and Children (SSWC). She had seen that women and children suffered most in the fighting (Right Livelihood). SSWC handed out food and hygiene kits in Mogadishu during the conflict, and works against violence, poverty and the sidelining of women (same source).

The Sixth Clan, 2000

Somali peace talks were built around the clans, and the delegates were men. At the Arta peace conference in Djibouti in 2000, she and other women founded the "Sixth Clan", a clan of women to sit beside the traditional clan groups (Right Livelihood). It was the first time women were represented in a Somali peace process (same source).

At the peace table

She took part in the Mbagathi talks in Kenya from 2002 to 2004, which set up the Transitional Federal Government. In 2004 she was the first Somali woman to sign a peace agreement, on behalf of civil society (Right Livelihood). She was part of the Djibouti talks in 2008 and 2009 (same source).

Right Livelihood credits her work with these gains for women:

• a 12% quota for women in the Transitional Federal Parliament
• gender-inclusive language in the transitional charter
• a Ministry for Gender and Family Affairs

(all from Right Livelihood).

She is also known for speaking against female genital cutting in Somalia and abroad (Wikipedia).

Awards

In 2008 she received the Right Livelihood Award "for continuing to lead at great personal risk the female participation in the peace and reconciliation process" (Right Livelihood). In 2009 she received a Clinton Global Citizen Award (Wikipedia).

In her words: "Women are no longer passive observers, but instead active participants" (Right Livelihood).

In short

Founder of Save Somali Women and Children and of the women's 'Sixth Clan' at the Arta conference in 2000.