When Zakia Hussen Ahmed attended her first meeting in the Somali police force as a director of community policing, a junior male officer asked her to “get up and fetch some tea” for him assuming that the 29-year-old was a secretary to one of the senior officers, since she was not in her uniform.
She decided to use the incident as an opportunity to give a lesson. “I realised whatever step I take next would determine how the rest of the team and senior officers would view me,” Hussen, now 38, said.
