A woman who is pressing officials in the United Kingdom (UK) to grant her and other women asylum status, has been named Woman of the Year by a women advocacy group, Woman on the Move.
Mariam Ibrahim Yusuf was born and raised in Somalia. When the Somali civil war broke in the early 1990s, Mariam escaped to a refugee camp in Kenya. At the camp, she was raped and impregnated. Unfortunately for her, just when she became pregnant, Kenyan officials closed down the camp, forcing her to go back to Somalia, despite the instability.
When she arrived home with the pregnancy, to avoid disgrace, her father forced her to marry an elderly man. She gave birth and became pregnant for the man again. When she delivered the second child, the war got worse in their village: her brother was killed and her father advised her to flee the village and seek refuge elsewhere. She fled the village, leaving behind her children in the care of her elderly husband.
According to how Mariam got to the UK, the Huffington Post narrated that after she fled the village, as advised by her father, she was smuggled into Kenya with help. Having arrived in Kenya, she was later helped to a plane bound for England. Mariam said, at that time she never knew where she was heading.
The Post quoted Mariam as saying “I didn’t know where I was going. I didn’t know any English and I didn’t know what asylum was.”
A few days after she arrived in England, Mariam is said to have been moved to the controversial Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Center. Authorities wanted to deport her because they suspected her claims were false.
“At first I saw I was surrounded by a big wall and I felt safe. But when I talked to other women I realized I was in a prison that I cannot leave, and I wondered why? I haven’t hurt anybody,” Mariam said.
But she was lucky. Two weeks later, she was freed. Mariam then began her application to seek asylum. The British authorities rejected her claims for asylum, saying her tribe does not come from Somalia because they speak Swahili. Activists have criticized the British authorities for using this to refuse her asylum request. It is said Mariam’s dialect is very close to Swahili, but in actual fact, isn’t – the Bajunis language Mariam speaks, is of its own.
Despite living in the UK without any status, Mariam managed to find similar women who are facing her situation. They introduced her to the organization, Women Asylum Seekers Together (WAST). Since joining WAST, Mariam is said to have distinguished herself. She took up a leadership role in the organization, and is now WAST’s lead public speaker. In the 2015 Christmas celebrations, she led WAST to the British Parliament, where they sang, telling law makers in the house, of their plight.
She also seized the opportunity to advocate for the freedom of people fleeing violence. After the event, many admired her courage and her determination.
An associate of the UN Refugee Agency, Laura Padoan who was one of the judges of the Women on the Move awards, said the decision to award Mariam with the Woman of the Year was taken unanimously by the judges.
Laura said“Rather than give up hope she dedicates all her time to helping other women and making sure that something positive comes out of her experiences of detention and destitution.”
Activists are now pressing the UK officials to grant asylum status to people who are fleeing violence from their country of origin, using the story of Mariam as an example.
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