Fatuma Abdulkadir Adan Stuttgart peace prize: move off the sidelines with football

Fatuma does not let herself be lightly thrown off the track when at Friday prayers the Imam condemns girls playing football as sluts, for she is determined and, above all, an experienced networker.

The 33 year old attorney returned from Nairobi to her hometown Marsabit in the north of the country, where warring tribes have been involved in bloody fights for decades. As the politicians in the distant capital forgot about the north, Fatuma decided to take action and has brought the young women and girls together from the warring tribes and has organised football tournaments - much to the annoyance of the powerful local Imam.

On the football shirts she had inscribed the slogan “shoot to score, not to kill”.

The combative Kenyan lawyer was presented with the Stuttgart peace prize and the €5,000 prize money from the AnStifter group on Thursday 17.

Through the Horn of Africa Development Initiative (HODI) which she founded in 2003 she is attempting to break through the vicious circle of violence in her country. HODI is involved primarily in education, legal advice services and support for women as well as better living conditions for the poorer and most vulnerable members of society in the north of Kenya.
In July 2007 HODI was registered officially as a non-governmental organization (NGO).

Auma Obama, responsible for sport with the aid organization Care in Nairobi and the sister of Barack Obama, supports Fatuma and her projects helping girls and peace in Kenya. That is why Auma Obama came also to the peace prize press conference in Stuttgart.

Fatuma’s goal: stop the senseless killing

In the drought region in the northwest of Kenya rages a war between hostile nomad tribes. The engaged human rights activist explained: "They fight usually for water and for pastureland for their cattle and goats. But now they are also killing just for killing’s sake.” It was about inflicting harm on one another, to hurt each other. However, through water scarcity and increasing drought periods conflicts were on the ascendancy. Fatuma said her aim was to end the senseless killing.

Women are without rights

In the archaic male-dominated society the eldest men prevail, scharia law rules and women have no say, which makes the work of the young Kenyan lawyer perilous. Fatuma points out that women did not have a voice and were invisible, they were not able to decide anything. However, this was changing and she used her experience as an illustration. She was indeed the first woman from her region who had studied law and she was the first women from the area who led and leads an aid organization. Although many of her male adversaries believed that she would one day give up and move away, she has remained.

Football brings success

The woman barrister does not let herself be easily deterred, even when fanatical imams at Friday prayers try to stir up trouble against her and she receives death threats per sms. She counters with her peace message: "Shoot to score, not to kill" – football unites she claimed. Fairplay pays out as does a peaceful way of dealing with one another. She has created 138 teams and among them two all-girl teams. A small revolution in a Muslim tribal society company: "We use football in order to break the silence”. The silence over traditions such as forced marriage or genital mutilation. Her organization also helped young mothers to return to school again through football.

Author Susanne Babila, SWR International; Online editor: Heidi Keller