Theyve come out in droves saying stuff like "somalinimo is a disease". Its so obvious. Good to know I wasn't imagining things. I wonder what their end goal is besides the obvious sowing of chaos and division?

"Coordinated airstrikes on territory held by al-Shabaab are driving the civilian population to find refuge alongside a river where rising water levels are a threat to safety. Is it a deliberate military strategy?"

This comes after nearly a year's long online and media effort to push anti-Somali sentiment, culminating in a catastrophic disaster in Southern Somalia along the Juba River, with many regions becoming uninhabitable due to escalated US drone attacks.

I've seen several videos of Oromo migrant workers in parts of Somalia, especially Somaliland and Puntland, being harassed. It's wrong. Xenophobia is xenophobia, whatever is happening in Moyale. Nobody deserves hostility because of their ethnicity.

The Oromo are our neighbors. Many are Muslims, we are both Cushitic peoples, and we share a lot. We even intermarry, and I know Somali and Oromo mixed families.

Somalis travel and settle everywhere, and we talk about our own people facing xenophobia and afrophobia in South Africa and hostility in the West. What we ask for ourselves, we should give to others who want to live with us in peace. From what I've seen, many Oromo migrant workers work hard, often in difficult and low paid jobs.

So let's control our emotions. How migration is managed is a fair policy discussion, and we can have it. But you can't attack someone because of their ethnicity, and there is no excuse for treating people with hostility over who they are.

I’m turning 30 soon, and honestly, the thought of not being married by 30 has been weighing on me more than I’d like to admit. As a Somali woman, sometimes it feels like there’s so much pressure around marriage and age, and I can’t help but wonder when it’ll happen for me. I know everything happens in Allah’s timing, and He is the best of planners, but some days it’s hard not to overthink. For Somali women who got married after 30, or are still waiting, how do you deal with these feelings and the pressure? For those who got married after 30, did you end up finding your person, and how was your experience?

I’ve been feeling really self-conscious and emotionally drained at my job lately. This was my first corporate job, and I started from a pretty low position before working my way up and getting promoted several times. I’ve worked extremely hard to get where I am, but sometimes I feel like my contributions are overlooked. For context, I’m the only Muslim woman on my team, and all my coworkers are cadans who grew up relatively well-off. I genuinely cannot relate to most of their experiences. I didn’t attend private school, I don’t drink, I still live at home with my family, and I come from a completely different background. I grew up around cadans my entire life, but wallahi, there are levels to it, especially in corporate America.

What makes it worse is that my coworkers have made uncomfortable comments and jokes about my race and religion. Sometimes they’ll randomly bring up how they voted blue and look directly at me, almost like they expect me to applaud them. Other times, they’ll make strange comments about race and religion while looking at me, almost like they’re trying to prove they’re not racist or Islamophobic. It’s just fucking weird. My boss is also a POC, but he grew up in predominantly white spaces, and I genuinely feel like he treats me differently. During our rare one-on-ones, he’ll be distracted by his phone or make me feel incompetent. A couple of weeks ago, he yelled at me over the phone about something completely outside of my control. Our office is small, with about four or five people sharing the same space, and he was so loud that everyone around me could hear him. I ended up crying because I felt so humiliated. I’ve never witnessed him speak to the other women in the office that way.

I feel like I’ve been dealing with this sense of not belonging my entire life. I’ve been applying to so many other jobs because I genuinely want to leave, but despite having years of experience and working my way up, I keep getting rejected. Sometimes I wonder if my name, background, or hijab plays a role in how employers perceive me. I love my deen, and I’m proud to be Muslim, but wallahi, I’m starting to hate wearing the hijab, and it genuinely hurts me to even admit that. Not because I hate my religion, but because I’m so exhausted by how differently people treat me because of it. Sometimes I wonder what my life would look like if I weren’t visibly Muslim. Would people take me more seriously? Would I have more opportunities? Would I finally feel like I belong somewhere? I hate that these thoughts even cross my mind. When will things ever get better for us? Are we just expected to spend our entire lives proving ourselves in spaces where we don’t feel welcome? I don’t want to compromise my faith or identity just to be respected. I just want to work, build a career, and be treated like everyone else without my race or religion constantly being a factor.

I guess I’m wondering if any other Somali women, especially hijabis, have experienced this. How do you navigate these environments without letting them affect your confidence or relationship with your deen? Because wallahi, I’m exhausted.

Cities that have bigger population than Somalia!!!

The current population of Somalia is estimated to be 20.5 Million, and here are metropolitan areas that bigger population than the entire country.

1: Jakarta, Indonesia: 41 Million

2: Dhaka, Bangladesh: 36 Million

3: Tokyo, Japan: 33 Million

4: Delhi, India: 30 Million

5: Shanghai, China: 29 Million Million

6: Guangzhou, China: 27 Million

7: Cairo, Egypt: 25 Million

8: Manila, Philippines: 24 Million

9: Kolkata, India: 22 Million

10: Seoul, South Korea: 22 Million

11: Karachi, Pakistan: 21 Million

I wrote this while crying, because I am so heartbroken and angry at the foolishness and self-destruction of our people. None of these cities are war-torn, and they have more population than our entire country from Kismayo to Zeila. Why can’t we sit down and have political compromise that works for everyone. Why can’t we lay down the weapons, the militias, and agree on the settled political order (Carta:Federalism) at least temporarily for 10 years or two presidential terms. I swear even if we agree upon a 10 year old as our leader, we will make more progress in these peaceful 10 years than the last 35 years since, the fall of government in 1991.

Source: Wikipedia: List of the largest cities

So I'm planning on a painting of the negative stereotype of how people think of us which is the American propaganda to portray us in a barbaric way to dehumanize us as pirates or gun craze. For example I have learned that these so called "pirates" are just costal fishers and guards who have taken matters in their own hands to prevent outsiders and foreign ships in stealing and dumping waste since government couldn't be bothers to stop or prevent due to failure and corruption. Again, I'm here to learn and understand yall points. There is so much you can learn from the internet but I want to hear it from yall directly. The painting is similar to the French painting "the son of man" by Rene Magritte but I want to twist it to the false narrative of Somali people.