Safia Abdi Haase

Safia Abdi Haase was born on May 5, 1959 in the capital of Somalia - Mogadishu , in a poor family belonging to one of the country's main religious clans - Shekal. Her father, Yusuf Abdi Hilole, was a Koran teacher and preached in Kenya , Tanzania and Uganda , and her mother gave birth to 14 children, of which only four Safia’s brothers and sisters survived ^[4] . At the age of nine, Safia underwent female circumcision , which lasted several hours, with the filing of her mother and her friends without anesthesia, while her father protested against it. The nomadic life of her father-teacher saved her from forcibly marrying a cousin. However, at the age of 18, under the compulsion of her mother, who threatened to curse her daughter, Safia married her cousin. Three daughters were born in the marriage, but the family was not happy: the husband beat, raped and insulted Safia. She and her daughters lived in Kenya, while her husband went to work in Iraq , Iran and Syria . After 14 years of constant beating, Safia fled with her daughters to her home, but she was not accepted there, and she had to go to her husband, who beat her again. Then she went to the police station, but no action was taken, after which Safia began to look for ways to divorce her husband, turning to the Sharia court of Kisumu , the third largest city in Kenya. Having received a divorce with the help of her father’s testimonies, Safia sold all her property to leave Africa , but the amount was not enough, and she was forced to “ sell her body ”, becoming pregnant ^[5] .

In 1992 , during the Civil War , Safia flew to Norway with her daughters, and after some time had an abortion. The family lived in immigrant shelters in Valdres ^[6] , among immigrants from Kosovo and Bosnia . In 1993, Safia began working as a translator at the center for immigrants in Harstad ^[5] . Then, with a formal education, Safia graduated from primary and secondary school at 34, and received the qualification of a nurse at Harstad University College in and in 2003, a master's degree in international social security and health policy from the University of Oslo ^{[7] [8]} . After that, she began to work with the Amathea Charity Foundation and the Norwegian Ministry of Justice , participating in the creation of a government plan against female genital mutilation. ^[9] In the 2000s, she moved to Halden and participated in helping immigrant women get involved in the work and social life of the city, while contributing to the improvement of the lives of girls and women in Somalia and the Somali community in Norway, the fight against racism and the development of understanding between different cultures ^{[10 ] [11]} . In 2002, Karl E. Rikardsen shot the documentary Safia and Her Daughters about their meeting with Norwegian culture , and in 2005 Safia became an honorary member of the Norwegian Women's Public Health Association ^[12] . Safia's parents died in 2007 , having seen Norway, and she was able to forgive her mother ^[5] .

In 2014, the King of Norway, Harald V, awarded Safiy Abdi Haase the title of Knight of the Order of St. Olaf I class for work for the benefit of women and children's living conditions ^{[13] [14] [15]} .

In Norway, Safia married a second time ^[4] and currently lives with her family in Halden and works as a nurse ^[16] .