Zahra Mohamed Ahmad (born 1952) is a Somalian human rights activist and lawyer. She is the founder of the Somali Women Development Center. She was awarded the

International Women of Courage Award The International Women of Courage Award, also referred to as the U.S. Secretary of State's International Women of Courage Award, is an American award presented annually by the United States Department of State to women around the world who have ...

in 2021.

Personal life

Ahmad was born in 1952 and had seven siblings. Her father was a police officer. Ahmad became the deputy manager of the customs at

Mogadishu Airport Aden Adde International Airport ( so, Garoonka Caalamiga Ee Aadan Cadde, ar, مطار آدم عدي الدولي) , formerly known as Mogadishu International Airport, is an international airport serving Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. I ...

. She was married to a former airforce and commercial pilot General Mohamud Sheikh Ali and they had five children. In 1991 the structure of Somalia broke down and there was civil unrest. In the following year she and her family left, with regret, for Tanzania. They lived there until 2000. Somalia was still not a good place to live but Ahmed and her family moved back to help with the rebuilding.

Career and education

She went to work encouraging schools to reopen and war lords to give up violence. The organisation she formed was called HINNA. Later, in 2000, she founded and led the Somali Women Development Center (SWDC) in Mogadishu. In 2005 she returned to university to gain a degree in International and Sharia Law at Somalia University. They support women who are on remand or on trial and the survivors of sexual violence. The SWDC also report on abuse and violence in Somalia. The SWDC provides legal assistance and she is the main legal advisor. Her organisation's workers were harassed and threatened, her only son has died and she was also at risk. In 2013 two of SWDC's other lawyers were killed in an attack on Mogadishu's courthouse in which 27 other people died and 60 were wounded. Her organisation established the Ceebla Crisis Line 5555. The line offers support in both Somali and English to those women who are involved with violence and abuse. The line had support from

Lydia Wanyoto Lydia Wanyoto Mutende (née Lydia Wanyoto), is a Ugandan lawyer, politician and diplomat, who served as the Deputy Special Representative of the Chairperson of African Union Commission (DSRCC), based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. From July 2014 un ...

who was Head of the

African Union Mission to Somalia The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) was a regional peacekeeping mission operated by the African Union with the approval of the United Nations Security Council. It was mandated to support transitional governmental structures, imple ...

and Somalia's first lady, Zahra Omar Hassan.

Recognition

Ahmad was nominated by the US Ambassador to Somalia,

Donald Yamamoto Donald Yukio Yamamoto (born 1953) is an American diplomat who served as the United States ambassador to Somalia from 2018 to 2021. Before that he was the acting assistant secretary of state for african affairs with a term of appointment startin ...

, and she was awarded the

in 2021. The award was presented virtually by the

First Lady First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non-monarchical A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state fo ...

Dr.

Jill Biden Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden (born June 3, 1951) is an American educator and the current first lady of the United States since 2021, as the wife of President Joe Biden. She was the second lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017 when her hus ...

and the Secretary of State

Antony Blinken Antony John Blinken (born April 16, 1962) is an American government official and diplomat serving as the 71st United States secretary of state since January 26, 2021. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and ...

International Women's Day International Women's Day (IWD) is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against wom ...

. There were fourteen living women given awards that year. The awardees were from fifteen countries as the 2021 awards included an extra seven women who had died in Afghanistan.

References

External links

Zahra Mohamed Ahmed
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahmad, Zahra Mohamed Somalian human rights activists Somalian women activists 1952 births Living people Recipients of the International Women of Courage Award Somalian jurists