Culture and women's rights to political participation in Bosaso, Somali
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Date
2016-11
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Kampala International University.College Of Humanities and social science
Abstract
The research study was on culture and women's rights to political participation in Bosaso,
Somalia,was guided by the following research objective; (1) To assess the engagement of
women's political paiticipation in Bosaso, Somalia .. (2) To assess the effect of early maiTiage,
boy preference ai1d clan based politics as dominant cultural nonns in Somalia on women's rights
to political participation in Bosaso Somalia (3) To find out the relationship between the culture
and Women's rights to Political Pm·ticipation in Bosaso, Somalia. This study employed
descriptive survey design specifically the descriptive comparative and descriptive co-relational
strategies. The study findings revealed that clan based politics is still a highly practiced culture in
Bosaso, Somalia. This is because Women are not allowed to participate in politics as established
by clan leaders. Fmthennore, the study revealed that early marriage is a highly practiced culture
in Somalia. This is ath·ibuted to the fact that there is still a persistent high level of poverty among
the local communities hence early marriage is seen as a source of income from dowries. in
conclusion, the study estatlished a high level of cultural practices that hinder women's
pmticipation in politics. There was also a significm1t relationship between culture and women's
level of political pmticipation. Cultural practices such as clan based politics, early maniage and
boy child preference were also found to be highly practiced in Somalia hence marginalizing
women in a political representation since they are considered inferior. The researcher
recommends that Constitutional measures to uphold the rights of women and girls, such as
equality, non-discrimination and protection from violence, m·e critical m1d cm1 shape the response
of governments to eliminating clm1 based politics. Examples applicable to clan based politics
include: "women's protection from harmful practices"; prohibition of customs or traditions that
are "against the dignity, welfare or interest of women or which undermine their status", and
abolition of "traditional practices" injmious to people's health m1d well-being. Such
constitutional protections can provide guidance for drafting laws m1d policies and for
implementing them. They cm1 also require the revision or abolition of laws m1d policies that are
not compatible with these principles
Description
Thesis report presented to the School of Postgraduate Studies and Research Kampala International University Kampala, Uganda in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Human Rights and Development
Keywords
Culture, Women's rights, Political, participation, Bosaso, Somali