Araweelo News Netw

Somalian presidential elections are set to take place at the end of November, and among the 18 candidates is Fadumo Dayib — the first female in the country’s history to run for president.

Ms Dayib, 44, is a refugee from Mogadishu, whose family sold everything for her escape to a better life in northern Europe in 1990, where she began a lifelong love of studying, leading to her winning a fellowship at Harvard University.

The decision for Ms Dayib — now a public health expert and an award-winning activist — to stand for the presidency, has attracted death threats, but she also said she had received massive support from the country she once left behind as a teenager.

Asked why she thought now was the right time to run, Ms Dayib told the ABC’s The World program she had spent too long “watching from the sidelines for the past 26 years as the country continued in [its] prolonged conflict.”

“I have come to the conclusion that we must do something about the situation in Somalia,” she said.

Ms Dayib furthered that she believed this year was the right year due to initial prospect of having free elections.

source:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/