She wore an ankle-length sequined gown and her crown of veiled head frames a no non-sense face, but also a gentle one that glitters with hope and determination.
Mrs. Dekha Ibrahim Abdi is a veteran of years of civil right activism and a community peace builder from the marginal Muslim region of Northeastern Kenya, a region devastated by years of inter-clan conflicts.
And because of her aspirations to rid wars and conflict she had recently received international recognition after wining the Hessen 2009 peace award in Germany.
"I think it is electrifying in the sense that I was getting recognition from the world as a person and above all as a Muslim woman who has contributed to peace building in contemporary times," she told IslamOnline.net.
"It has never been an easy venture to preach peace in our province, but all the while we had to rise above all obstacles to realize sanity."
The award that she had received comes together with a whooping 25,000 euros and is one of the most prestigious appreciations in recognition to persons advocating for stability in the world.
"I believe my efforts were recognized because of being a Muslim peacemaker."
In her years of community service, Mrs. Abdi has spoken about every issue affecting her predominantly pastoral Somali community, but addressing peace was her priority.
Two decades ago when, she first started setting her pace towards peace building, much of her region was groaning under the weight of protracted conflict fueled by scarcity of resources such as water and pasture.
And from her experience of death and destruction she started holding a peace vigil with signs that says "war is not the answer but peace"
"In those days, women, the aged and children were the most vulnerable groups in tribal conflicts and so we believed that we should make our voices heard to end what seemed an endless destruction."
She never knew how long it would take to heal the wounds of conflict but she had nursed a brimming hope that one day her Somali community in Kenya will embrace peace.
"So it was an enormous thing for women to take the difficult initiative of preaching concord and more comprehensively we started to search out opportunities to realize our dreams."
Women for Peace
In the summer of 1993 there was raging conflict between two clans in Kenya’s Wajir town amid widespread anarchy, fear and fire.
As fighting engulfed her community, Mrs. Abdi and a group of other women hatched their peace campaign at a wedding hall in one of the villages.
"This was a turning point and it was around this time that we formed Wajir Peace Group," she recalls.
"The wedding then provided a formidable opportunity for us to unite and separate the conflict from the social fabric of our society."
Since that day, Wajir women never missed to stand with groups, friends and families just to preach peace.
They have incorporated the views of both pacifists and non-pacifists within the community in their desperate demand for pacification.
"We refused to be victims of conflict, we developed home-grown solutions and we started going homes to talk about the conflict and its effects," the 46-year-old mother of four says confidently.
True to her own words, she helped develop a campaign of pragmatism to turn the battlefield into a beacon of hope and success.
For her, through building peace, she had learnt to work holistically and understand it from multiple perspectives to transform society from violent past to peace.
Over the past few years Northeastern Kenya emerged from the edge of an abyss and it has become one of the most peaceful regions in the politically-polarized East African country.
In recent years an increased participation of Muslim women in building unity has helped transform the region from a grisly crime zone to one under sanity.
"We are very much happy about the role Women in our region have taken. We are happy that now we are enjoying peace, and without them it would have been a hard nut to crack," says Mr. Musa Abdi, a village elder in Wajir.
"I think it is necessary that women should join us men in the search for development too."
These days Mrs. Abdi has started reaching out to the outside world to talk about Islam and peace.
"Many of the Western people have an ill-presumed presumption that Islam is volatile and they cannot imagine that a Muslim person can advocate for peace."
For a woman like her, who has worked within the tenets of Islam, religion is the basis of her success and now her greatest ambition is to change the perception of the West.
"Over the years, I have loved to work with Muslim religious leaders, they have always allowed me to work within the conformity of my religion," she explains.
"It is now my role to preach to the West that Islam is peaceful and can make a peace maker."
Mrs. Dekha Ibrahim Abdi is a veteran of years of civil right activism and a community peace builder from the marginal Muslim region of Northeastern Kenya, a region devastated by years of inter-clan conflicts.
And because of her aspirations to rid wars and conflict she had recently received international recognition after wining the Hessen 2009 peace award in Germany.
"I think it is electrifying in the sense that I was getting recognition from the world as a person and above all as a Muslim woman who has contributed to peace building in contemporary times," she told IslamOnline.net.
"It has never been an easy venture to preach peace in our province, but all the while we had to rise above all obstacles to realize sanity."
The award that she had received comes together with a whooping 25,000 euros and is one of the most prestigious appreciations in recognition to persons advocating for stability in the world.
"I believe my efforts were recognized because of being a Muslim peacemaker."
In her years of community service, Mrs. Abdi has spoken about every issue affecting her predominantly pastoral Somali community, but addressing peace was her priority.
Two decades ago when, she first started setting her pace towards peace building, much of her region was groaning under the weight of protracted conflict fueled by scarcity of resources such as water and pasture.
And from her experience of death and destruction she started holding a peace vigil with signs that says "war is not the answer but peace"
"In those days, women, the aged and children were the most vulnerable groups in tribal conflicts and so we believed that we should make our voices heard to end what seemed an endless destruction."
She never knew how long it would take to heal the wounds of conflict but she had nursed a brimming hope that one day her Somali community in Kenya will embrace peace.
"So it was an enormous thing for women to take the difficult initiative of preaching concord and more comprehensively we started to search out opportunities to realize our dreams."
Women for Peace
In the summer of 1993 there was raging conflict between two clans in Kenya’s Wajir town amid widespread anarchy, fear and fire.
As fighting engulfed her community, Mrs. Abdi and a group of other women hatched their peace campaign at a wedding hall in one of the villages.
"This was a turning point and it was around this time that we formed Wajir Peace Group," she recalls.
"The wedding then provided a formidable opportunity for us to unite and separate the conflict from the social fabric of our society."
Since that day, Wajir women never missed to stand with groups, friends and families just to preach peace.
They have incorporated the views of both pacifists and non-pacifists within the community in their desperate demand for pacification.
"We refused to be victims of conflict, we developed home-grown solutions and we started going homes to talk about the conflict and its effects," the 46-year-old mother of four says confidently.
True to her own words, she helped develop a campaign of pragmatism to turn the battlefield into a beacon of hope and success.
For her, through building peace, she had learnt to work holistically and understand it from multiple perspectives to transform society from violent past to peace.
Over the past few years Northeastern Kenya emerged from the edge of an abyss and it has become one of the most peaceful regions in the politically-polarized East African country.
In recent years an increased participation of Muslim women in building unity has helped transform the region from a grisly crime zone to one under sanity.
"We are very much happy about the role Women in our region have taken. We are happy that now we are enjoying peace, and without them it would have been a hard nut to crack," says Mr. Musa Abdi, a village elder in Wajir.
"I think it is necessary that women should join us men in the search for development too."
These days Mrs. Abdi has started reaching out to the outside world to talk about Islam and peace.
"Many of the Western people have an ill-presumed presumption that Islam is volatile and they cannot imagine that a Muslim person can advocate for peace."
For a woman like her, who has worked within the tenets of Islam, religion is the basis of her success and now her greatest ambition is to change the perception of the West.
"Over the years, I have loved to work with Muslim religious leaders, they have always allowed me to work within the conformity of my religion," she explains.
"It is now my role to preach to the West that Islam is peaceful and can make a peace maker."
