SOMALIA: IRIN interview with Maryam Arif Qasim, member of Somalia's transitional parliament

DJIBOUTI, 4 Sept (IRIN) - A 245-strong Transitional National Assembly (TNA), having been elected during the Djibouti-hosted Somali peace talks, then elected a new president, Abdiqasim Salad Hasan, on 26 August. The TNA was elected on a strictly clan basis, but includes a 25-member women's group. Sitting together as a block, the women delegates say their strength of representation in the new parliament is unprecedented in Somali politics. IRIN interviewed Maryam Arif Qasim, TNA member, on her political hopes for women.

QUESTION: How did you feel about the swearing-in of a new president for Somalia?

ANSWER: I was delighted. I was very excited. I felt a strong sense of nationalism rising in us and in our nation when I saw the president receive the Somali flag. I had tears in my eyes a number of times, especially when the flag was being handed out accompanied by the sound of a 21-gun salute.

Q: Why do you think it was possible at Arta to achieve the election of a new president after all the other efforts elsewhere over the past 10 years had failed?

A: I used to follow all the previous conferences. What was different with those is that often the people who attended them were not really representative. They did not represent what the Somali people wanted. They did not want what we, the Somali people, want. They were holding us, the people, hostage. They used their clans for the wrong purposes, for clannish, selfish purposes. In Arta, there were people from the civil society, there were women, there was a real cross-section of society, and actually represented what the people really wanted. That is the essential difference.

Q: How was the 25-seat women's parliamentary group chosen?

A: When we first came to Arta, the women were assigned to form a group of 100 delegates, and we called ourselves the "sixth clan". During the formation of the transitional parliament the women were looking for 25 seats along clan lines, by virtue of the way the parliament was put together [on the basis of clan representation]. We had to do it that way in order to avoid any clan imbalances. So each of the five main clans [Dir, Digil-Mirifle, Hawiye, Darood, and Alliance of Minorities] were allotted five seats within the women's group. That's how we reached the figure of 25. The five seats given to each clan were allocated by the women of that clan, not by the men of the clan.

Q: So far, have you voted on a clan basis, or as a women's block?

A: Well, 70 percent of the women voted as a block. The rest voted in conformity with some clan allegiances or associations.

Q: Is this is a first time for women to have so many seats in a parliament?

A: During the civilian administration there were no women parliamentarians and no women in the government. During the military period there were, I think, four or five women parliamentarians, and I think two vice-ministers were women.

Q: So the civil war has brought benefit to women?

A: Yes, you could say we benefited from the civil war. The women acted differently from the men. The women proved that they are hard working, that they are compassionate and that they are human. Today, it is the woman, more than anyone else, who supports the family. It is the woman who has taken her children away from the civil war with whatever resources - with her teeth, if necessary. It is now the woman who is sending remittances back home to her family and to the diaspora. So yes, the women have come a long way and they have become very strong.

Q: Do you think women can introduce anything new into the political scene?

A: Yes, we have already performed a very important role within the delegations and the parliament. For example, during the delegates' conference, the women's group intervened on a number of occasions when it looked as if there were going to be problems; we were a pressure group. At one point we persuaded a clan who had walked out to return to the conference.

On another occasion we persuaded clans to withdraw people they had sent out, to take them back into the fold. I believe we can perform a very important role in the coming government: we can be mediators whenever there are problems between the men. I think we can improve the chances of the government inside Somalia: we can organise and mobilise the women and the children, to make sure that the new government has basic mass support.

Some women did take part in the war effort, that is a fact, but now we can become an instrument for peace. We are becoming instruments of peace.

Q: Do you see any issues you would focus on specifically as women's issues?

A: Yes, there are certain issues we would like to focus on - women's issues, if you would like to call them that. First of all, we would like to strengthen the role of women in the government. Secondly, we would like to draw attention to those issues which affect women and children, such as health care and income generation for women. We would like to address women's education and schools catering for the education of women and girls. And we want to make sure that women realise that this is their government, not one just for men.

Q: You make things sound straightforward, but inasmuch as this this is a first time for women, don't you fear that some people might try to obstruct you?

A: Our greatest fear was from the religious leaders, the religious groups, but I am glad to be able to say that those who said women should not be in parliament constituted a very small minority. The majority of religious leaders said yes, we need women in the parliament.

Q: Have you managed to talk with the new president since his inauguration today?

A: I haven't seen the president yet, but what we will talk to him about is that, inasmuch as were are represented in parliament, we would like equal representation in the government, from the minister on down to the lowest level of government. We want representation in the government.

Q: Did you make any deals on cabinet posts before he was voted in?

A: Yes, we talked to both the main presidential candidates, and we made deals with them. We asked them for cabinet positions, we asked for ambassador positions, we asked for director-general positions - all political positions, in fact. Each of the candidates said that if he was supported, if he was elected, he would be more than happy to give us positions.

Q: I heard the women's vote actually favoured the losing candidate, not Abdiqasim Salad.

A: We talked to both candidates. Both of them indicated to us that they were supportive of women, of the women's group and their aspirations. There was not really any particular candidate we thought was better for us.

Q: Critics of Abdiqasim say he is allied with Islamic fundamentalist groups. Was that an issue for women?

A: When we met Abdiqasim we asked him exactly that question. He assured us that this was not so, and that he would be supportive. He said he was a Muslim, he believed in his religion, but there was absolutely no truth in that rumour. And we had absolutely no reason to believe that what he was telling us was otherwise.

Q: Are you nervous to return to Somalia as a new - and in some quarters opposed - government?

A: No, I am not nervous. It is very important for us to go back to Somalia, and the women we talked with in Mogadishu told us that we would be welcome in the capital and nothing untoward would happen.