Leniency to Perpetrators of Violence Against Somali Women Is Unacceptable

[Deeq A.]

Luul Abdulasis died of burn wounds she had sustained.

Mogadishu (PP Editorial) — A husband burned his wife, Luul Abdiasis, who later succumbed to the wounds she had sustained. The husband, Cali Macallin Daa’uud, is at large. He may have evaded capture by the police with the help of government officials who are believed to have facilitated his possible departure from Mogadishu Airport. The slain mother left behind six children. One of her daughters recounted the moment she heard her mother screaming. Just before the husband had set fire on his wife the daughter thought she heard them having “light-hearted jokes.”

The legacy of the civil war still affects how some men treat women. Men who commit violence against Somali women are seldom brought to justice. The religious approach to dealing with crimes such as murder or grievous bodily harm are rendered less effective by the influence of militia-based clan power structures. The family of a victim from a locally marginalised clan is forced to accept blood-money even if the family of perpetrators agree to account for the crime a kinsman had committed. The victim’s family accepts blood-money under duress.

Cali Macallin Daa’uud, the suspect, still at large, is believed to have fled Somalia with the help of corrupt government officials.

Crimes against Somali women and children are mostly driven by embedded political inequalities that saddle some Somali clans with vulnerability to abuse and marginalisation. Why the police failed to arrest the suspect after he set his wife ablaze is difficult to understand.

The practice of recruiting police officers on a clan quota and planning neighbourhood policing on the basis how sub-clans gained control of Mogadishu in 1991 remain a stumbling-block to fair policing in Mogadishu.

The Mogadishu Police Commissioner vowed to arrest the suspect even if he “fled Somalia”. If the suspect had fled Somalia, question will have to be asked about the safety of the airport. If the suspect does not give himself up the Somali Police Force must explore the possibility of sharing his biometric details with the police of countries to which the suspect is believed fled to escape justice.

© Puntland Post, 2024

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