Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Midwife and campaigner; built a maternity hospital in Somaliland, became first female foreign minister, publicly condemning FGM.
On the island
Eight records
The keepsakes
The book
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:48What can you remember about the very first birth at your hospital?
The Vice President of the country was there and a lot of dignitaries. and a whole lot of women singing and dancing and joyful event. and a few hours later a woman was brought in labor. That little boy is now fifteen, sixteen years old. And hopefully he will become a doctor one day, because that's what he wants to become. And were you present at the delivery? But of course. Why would somebody else have all the joy of delivering my baby and my hospital, the hospital that took my whole life to build?
Presenter asks
15:00What do you remember about the day that [FGM] happened to you?
Uh pain. Pain that I have never known. The same since my mother's friends, my grandmother was there. There was a big fat sheep there waiting to be slaughtered because they were going to have a feast because the doctor's daughter had been purified. And they just grab you. tie you down, grab your legs, and an old woman reaches between your legs, and with a knife cuts away No anesthesia. You bleed, you scream, you faint, and the wound is sutured together, not with needle and thread, but with acacia thorns. and tied together. So when my father came home at night and found that this had been done to me, this was the first time I saw tears in his eyes. And seeing the anger of my father, and how he he was angry at his own mother, and at my mother, his wife, that gave me the message that what had been done to me was wrong.
Nicholas D. Kristof
It has a chapter about my hospital as well. And um I haven't had time to read all the other chapters.
Presenter asks
What sort of things did you do in Britain that you couldn't have done at home in Somaliland?
I went to the Borough Polytechnic, by the way, now the University of the South Bank, but a college where boys and girls studied together. We played sports together, we were in the same courses together, we rode the same buses, so I was just a person like every other student. And did you learn to drive here as well? I learned to drive, yes, and I loved driving. And were you allowed to drive when you went back to Somalia? Oh, no, oh no, that was a big. It took them six months to accept me to drive. And then they would go to my father and say, Doctor Rather, we saw your daughter driving your car again. Don't let her. And why not? But she's a girl. And he was like, well, do you think I do not know that my daughter is a girl? And it took them six months. And I refused to give up and continued and eventually became the first female to get a driving license. And I continue ever since. And by the way, I took part in a rally once when it was required that it would be a driver and a female companion. So my brother's wife became my companion, both wearing trousers and caps. How did you get on? I was the fifth car, and I should have been given a reward or a trophy. But because I was impersonating a man I was fined and uh well I was not impersonating anybody. A driver is a driver.
Presenter asks
19:10This was a time of explicit, casual, ingrained racism in the UK. Did you meet any of that?
Very often I would be the only black face in the class, but um I made friends with everybody. I loved what I was doing. I was a very passionate student. And in fact, I had a lot of Scottish friends and I used to be called Edna Mac Ishmael. And when I had Irish friends, I would be Edna O. Ismail.
Presenter asks
20:47Your first husband, Mohamed Egle, you'd met in London and then out of the blue you received this proposal. What actually happened?
Mohammed Brahim was born to one of the richest men in my country. So for him, you know, sending beautiful flowers and picking me up in his ... How glamorous. Yes. Curtains would be, you know, flickering to look at this little Somali girl and this Somali man in this convertible red M G. And then he disappeared. We haven't heard from him for a long time. Didn't know what happened to him. But it seems that his father had a stroke, so he had to rush back. I forgot to write, and until one day he asked for my hand. And I was so angry, I thought, Well, my goodness An educated man, he should get to know me first, and he should ask me whether I want to marry him or not. Being a rich man doesn't buy my emotions. So he asked your father. He asked your father, which was the right thing in the culture to do. But I rebelled against him. I said, You should have asked me first.
Presenter asks
32:23You've recently celebrated your eightieth birthday. What are your plans for the future?
I continue to work for as long as I can, for as long as it's safe for me to work, for my patients. And I hope to die with my proverbial boots on. And if I can contribute to women's education, to fighting harmful practices, don't think of yourself as I'm just a girl, what can I do? I was a girl once, and look what I've done. Get up and go and do it.
“Why would somebody else have all the joy of delivering my baby and my hospital, the hospital that took my whole life to build?”
“Don't you ever dare show such an ugly face to my patients”
“I was not the ideal Somali wife. I think. I work. I voice my opinion. I have a brain. I try to use it. I'm a hopeless cook.”
“I hope to die with my proverbial boots on.”
“I was a girl once, and look what I've done. Get up and go and do it.”