Edna Adan Ismail (Somali: Edna Aadan Ismaaciil / Adna Aadan Ismaaciil; born 8 September 1937) is a nurse midwife, activist, and was the first female Foreign Minister of Somaliland[1] from 2003 to 2006. She previously served as Somalia’s Minister of Family Welfare and Social Development.
Ismail was born in Hargeisa, in what was at the time British Somaliland, on 8 September 1937,[3] the daughter of a prominent Somali medical doctor.[4] She was one of five children born to her mother, but two died at the time of delivery.[5] At the time girls weren't educated in Somaliland, but her father hired a tutor for some local boys and she learned to read and write with them. She later went to a school in Djibouti where her aunt was a teacher.[6] When she was eight years old, she underwent FGM. It was arranged by her mother and grandmother when her father was on a business trip; when he returned he was furious.[5]
She is said to be "the first Somali girl" to study in Britain,[7] Somalia’s first qualified nurse-midwife[7][8] and the first Somali woman to drive.[7]
In 1980, Ismail began building a hospital in Somaliland's capital of Hargeisa, but was forced to leave the country due to the beginning of the Somaliland War of Independence in 1981.[9]
She returned to Somaliland and built from scratch a maternity hospital, which she continues to run. The Edna Adan Maternity Hospital officially opened on 9 March 2002, in land donated to her by the regional government at a site formerly used as a rubbish dump. The region lacked trained nurses to staff the hospital[10] – as most had either fled the country or been killed during the civil war – and so Edna recruited more than 30 candidates and began training them in 2000 while the hospital was still under construction. The hospital now has two operating theatres, laboratory, library, computer centre and a complete wing dedicated to training nurses and midwives. As of 2018,[update] the hospital had 200 staff and 1500 students.[6]
The mission of the Edna Adan Hospital is to help to improve the health of the local inhabitants, in particular the high rate of maternal and infant mortality. The facility is a non-profit making charity and a midwifery teaching hospital that is also undertaking the training of student nurses and Assistant Laboratory Technicians.
Charity work
Ismail's work is supported by charities in the United Kingdom and the United States which help her raise support and awareness to train additional midwives and fight FGM in Somaliland.[11][12]
Ismail was the only female minister in the Somaliland government until July 2006, when she was replaced as Foreign Minister by former Minister of Information and National Guidance Abdillahi Mohamed Dualeh. In addition to her work in government, she continues to be a voice for the Somaliland peoples' democratic will. In March 2022, she was elected as President of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization.
Awards and recognition
Ismail was a recipient of the AMANITARE 2002 Annual Award for her efforts to open a private maternity hospital in Somaliland in 1998.[13]
In 2012, Ismail was featured in the documentary Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, premiering on PBS 1 and 2 October. The series introduces women and girls living under very difficult circumstances and bravely fighting to challenge them. The Half the Sky PBS TV series is produced by Show of Force along with Fugitive Films. She was the castaway in the long-running series Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 on 22 October 2017.[17]
She has been called "The Muslim Mother Teresa" by Kate Grant, CEO of the Fistula Foundation.[18]
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