BSCC’s International Women’s Day celebration last week

SOMALI women celebrated their community and role models with a special International Women’s Day programme last week, coming together to “call for change” in the face of the cost-of-living crisis.

On Thursday, members of the British Somali Community Centre (BSCC) gathered to listen to speakers, hand out awards and share home-cooked food.

Among many women celebrated as role models, gynaecologist and BSCC co-founder Dr Faduma Haki was handed an award for her work tackling Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), along with BSCC vice-chair Zaynab Saiid, and businesswoman Hafsa Isse Salwa.

BSCC director Khadija Shireh with some of this years’ award winners

BSCC director Khadija Shireh said the centre was “celebrating… women globally, because we know if women had not fought for their rights for gender equality, for parity, we wouldn’t have some of the rights which we now exercise.”

“But we know that as refugee women, we are striving to really reach that limit – western women are working or fighting for equal gender salary, and we are fighting for the basic life,” she added.

“As you know, there is a cost-of-living [crisis] today, people are really struggling to live the basic life,” she said.

Camden Square councillor Sagal Abdi-Wali said: “The cost of living is definitely having a massive impact on their lives and obviously that’s going to carry on for the next year, and so alleviating that is what the organisation is trying to work towards at the moment.”

Cllr Abdi Wali said BSC is “an organisation that started in 95 by a group of refugee women and it’s continued to be that all these years later, all of the roles are women-run.”

“[This place] brings them together, it helps them find networks amongst themselves, it helps them strengthen the bonds that they have,” she said, adding:  “I grew up in Camden, this was the main youth organisation I grew up with.”

As well as organising support for the cost-of-living crisis, BSC has also run a programme aiming to bridge the “cultural gap” between young people and their “elders” in the Somali community.

The audience was shown a short video documenting the centre’s recent project to bring young people into contact with the older members of their community, including an activity that saw young people translate Somali stories into English.

Other social activities run by BSC include a “Sister’s Circle”, run by Faduma Ibrahim, who was one of the women to win an award in recognition of her work.

“I started up a club for young women from all backgrounds called Sister’s Circle. We do sporting activities, we do debates and discussions about current events and issues that affect the Somali community,” she said.

Ms Ibrahim’s group serves 17 to 35 year olds. “I’m 27 and I feel like we’re the forgotten age, so I wanted to accommodate us young adults as well. Because oftentimes in spaces like this we get left out. It’s like a mentorship situation: the young girls can talk to the older girls and they can make connections.”