It is not just about forced arrange marriages, a Somali girl or woman was and is more socially shackled back home than she is in the West.
Our culture is misogynistic. Some people like to glorify Somali culture before the Civil War but ask yourselves what percentage of the Somali population were sophisticated city dwellers? Do you lot honestly believe that the patriarchal Somali culture that has its roots in our nomadic past was magically transformed during the early post-colonial period and the Kacaan era? Even in the industrially advanced and relatively socially liberal Western societies of the late 19th cenury and early 20th century, female emancipation was a gradual elite-driven process that spanned decades, if not a century.
It cannot be argued that just because some Somali women had their hair uncovered, wore less layers during the Kacaan era and started to lead more active lives in society they were no longer subjected to patriarchal social controls. The truth is that their social freedoms were limited; they were not the equal of men.
VixR is right on the money but y'all need an essay to understand where she is coming from.
It appears that nationalistic sentiments and subjective experiences can blind people to the truth.
. The women of my mother generation are such much better then these qashin
