Neha Wadekar
Every morning, 28-year-old Officer Shamis Abdi Bile rises before dawn to make breakfast for her three young children.
She bustles around the house, taking part in a few of the traditional tenets homemaking, something that is arguably still expected of Somali women. But once her family has eaten, Bile takes on an unexpected role.
Bile becomes a warrior; fighting for the prosecution of rape and sexual violence in Puntland, Somalia.
She changes into her khaki police uniform, neatly pressed and spotless, and walks several miles through the dusty streets of Garowe — the small capital city of Somalia’s vast, barren Puntland state — to the local police station.
Bile is the only female officer in her unit, and the only woman handling issues of sexual violence in the area.
The girl’s angry sobs are barely audible over the sound of dozens of flies buzzing around the tiny space. It has no doors or windows to ensure privacy; any number of the men in the office will be able to overhear the girl’s testimony.
A young boy from her neighbourhood held her down for the purpose of raping her, tearing at her clothes as she screamed.
The girl has been once to the police station already, several days ago, but this is the first time she’s been given a proper hearing by a woman.
This is why Bile gets up every morning and goes to a job that can barely offer her a basic living wage. She’s furious, and she’s the only one determined to help push through change.
‘I feel driven to help when a woman is being abused,’ Bile says passionately. ‘And do whatever I can do to catch those who are harassing her.’
The girl’s dark eyes glint as she keeps the rest of her face covered. She won’t give her name, afraid that being labeled a rape survivor in Somalia’s ultra-conservative society would ruin her and her family’s reputation.
Shamis Abdi Bile – a police officer on a mission to change life for women in Somalia
Bile, a fierce and unconventional woman, is determined to be heard in the police department on the matter, stamping her neon orange sneakers and bellowing loudly.
