by Latrisha Smith-Barney

Created on: March 25, 2010   Last Updated: March 26, 2010

Women in Somalia work very hard. Usually from sun-up to late at night.

According to taking it global.com

Whenever the term "female" is heard, it is apparent how much women are the subject of oppression, despise, and denial of their rights. They worry terribly from the time they conceive a baby until the day of delivery. Women plunge deep into an ocean of self-whispering in hopes of giving birth to baby boys. If a woman has a baby boy, she receives abundant and pleasant coddling, executive care and mercy; bullets are fired into the sky with glee and happiness. The man whose wife gives birth to a son becomes very satisfied. He would sit with friends in daily conversation under the shade of their homes or trees, saying that his wife gave birth to a child equal to total “blood money," a word often used to refer to boys. He raises his head up in discernible gaiety, a smile permanently on his face, his nostrils flaring with pride.

The family to whom a girl is born feels a lack of joy and happiness. The girl’s mother is bitterly loathed during her post-natal period, and her husband anxiously awaits for the time his wife can resume her daily household chores. When asked who his wife gave birth to, the father of the newly born girl answers “only a girl," in a fit of despise without even looking at the person who asked him.

Women are not encouraged to pursue an education. They are confined to the home and forced to do all of the household chores. When fathers arrive from their jobs, boys from day schools, you find only girls working around the clock. Girls and women are ordered to prepare a pail of water for bathing and then serve the males food. The men or boys go off to bed, while the women start washing the dishes.

According to change.com, last year Amnesty International called attention to Al Shabaab's, ( a militant Islamic group,) human rights violations, especially against women and girls, after the stoning to death of a 13 year-old on charges of adultery - after the girl reported being raped by three men. The human rights organization has negotiated with the group in the past in an attempt to prevent unjust sentences from being carried out, and last week also condemned the killings and torture perpetrated by Al Shabaab.

According to women of the mountains.org

Women who sell in the market from sun-up to sun-down just trying to make a meager living and avoid the widespread poverty and starvation that has gripped the country-side,

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