It appears as though the world seems to love listening good looking women, no matter how intelligent, incoherent or  ignorant  they sound. A couple of weeks ago, the  BBC aired  ‘Returning to Somalia – Samira Hashi’  - a documentary about an eighteen year old British Somali model returning to war torn Somalia. Naturally I was excited to watch a documentary about my country of origin. Well, that was until I saw that the presenter was a model. Drop me out.

Mainstream media seems familiar with Somali women and our struggle. Turn on the news, there is most likely a news bulletin about the Somali unrest or a famine in the nation.  But who speaks for the women of Somalia? Not sure?  Iman, the supermodel and wife of David Bowie does.  Waris Dirie  does too, another supermodel. Ayan Hirsi too, the former Dutch-Somali  politician’s looks have been spoken about fondly too. The BBC3 documentary assured me that there will be many more Somali part time spokeswomen-supermodels to come.  As a not-so-slim, five foot two, hijab wearing Somali woman, this worries me.

If you think that I have a problem with Somali models then you’ve missed my point. I applaud the fact that these women utilize their fame to highlight issues women in Somalia face. Waris Dirie, for example, wrote the book  Desert Flower, a moving account of her journey from being a young nomad who faced sexual  harassment  and FGM before fleeing and becoming an international supermodel. Her story is one that many African women can relate to. However, I do have an issue with the fact that society and the media gives a platform to Somali models to represent a whole nation.

I never had much of an issue with models representing me until I watched the BBC documentary. I was appalled at how oblivious and uninterested in Somali culture, history and politics the presenter was. But of course, she made good television. Would the BBC perhaps have considered giving the chance for non-modelling Somali girl to go back to her country? Probably not.

It’s a shame because there are so many stories to be told from Somalia. Somali women are outspoken, whatever their dress size, wage or education. The world needs to hear from the women who have fought against  oppressive  regimes, the women who are raising children in refugee camps, the women who speak up against FGM. They are not all supermodels.