About a Girl
Growing up in a Muslim household gender difference was seen throughout everything
people did back in Somalia. When I was six years old I told my mother I wanted to play
soccer with the neighborhood boys but I remember her telling me that girls don’t play
sports because its something that men do. I grew up in a Muslim household and the
religion has a lot of influence on gender roles. Growing up as a child I remember how my
father and brothers never sat, prayed, or even eat with the women in the family. In the
Somali culture as well as the Muslim religion, most of the women roles includes in taking
care of the babies, house chores, and providing the meal for her family. Where as the men
are responsible for providing for the family financial and being the discipliner in family.
As a child I didn’t see my father for often because he would travel all over Somalia. While
my father was away my mother has step up to take the responsible of the family and she
would make sure that we had enough food. My father was married to three other women
while he was still married to my mother. My mother knew about the other women and
since the religion allows men to have 4 wives there wasn’t an issue between the women. In
the Muslim religion, men are allowed to marry up to four wives as long as the men is
financial stable and he can provide for each and one of the wives including the children as
well.
As a young child, I remember going to Madarasa, which is a Sunday school where you
learn about the religion. My brother and I would go through different doors once we
entered the mosque and we won’t see each other until it’s time to go home. At school,
every Thursday we do a skit or drama in front of the whole school. Majority of our skits
were about falling in love and being an excellent housewife or some were about educating
the students about diseases like HIV. Even though I was only twelve years that’s when I
started learning about gender difference and when I moved to Kenya and saw how diverse
it was, that’s I was able to explore for of my sexuality and gender as young women. At first
I was shocked to see that there were no division between the girls and boys in school.
