[ti:Somaliland's All-girls Basketball Team Looks for Recognition]
[al:Arts and Culture]
[ar:VOA]
[dt:2024-06-10]
[by:www.voase.cn]
[00:00.00]Hafsa Omer wears the red, white, and green flag of Somaliland while playing basketball.
[00:09.26]The 21-year-old is the captain of the team. Her dream is to one day play for her nation. 
[00:17.94]But there is a problem: Somaliland is not a recognized country.
[00:25.56]The breakaway territory in the Horn of Africa has struggled to gain international recognition from any foreign government. 
[00:36.62]The territory has been governing itself and enjoying comparative peace and stability since declaring independence in 1991.
[00:48.42]Omer and her two sisters play for Hargeisa Girls Basketball.
[00:54.60]It is the first all-girls team in the territory. 
[00:59.97]She and her sisters aim to put Somaliland on the map. 
[01:05.52]They plan on doing so by using their more than 10,000 followers on social media.
[01:13.70]She said, "Somaliland is looking for their recognition and we believe that we could be part of bringing the recognition..."
[01:25.43]She said they could do that "by wearing the flags, by talking about our country, by promoting it through the short video TikToks or Instagram pictures," she said.
[01:39.66]TikTok and Instagram are two popular social media sites.
[01:44.59]Somaliland's sovereignty came into question in January.
[01:49.97]That was when local officials said they would give landlocked neighboring country Ethiopia access to the Red Sea.
[02:01.93]The territory said it would do that in return for recognition as an independent country. 
[02:09.46]That caused diplomatic conflict with Somalia's federal government.
[02:15.63]Somalia considers Somaliland part of its territory. 
[02:21.12]It rejected the deal permitting Ethiopia to lease 20 kilometers around the port of Berbera.
[02:30.25]It would have given Ethiopia access to the Red Sea for 50 years for its navy and large shipping boats.
[02:40.60]Somaliland officials say they have a strong case to become Africa's 55th nation.
[02:48.32]Once under British control, the territory now has its own police force, coast guard, passports, and money.
[02:58.64]It also has a government and a working democratic political system.
[03:04.42]That record is very different than the situation in Somalia.
[03:10.18]In Somalia, government forces have been fighting the militant group al Shabaab.
[03:17.06]The group has links to the terrorist group al Qaeda.
[03:22.57]Omer sees her support of Somaliland's independence as part of her father and uncles' armed struggle in the 1980s against the dictator Siad Barre.
[03:36.16]"My dad talks about it every day, what he and his friends had been through, while he watched his cousins dying in front of him," she said.
[03:47.01]While the territory of around 3.5 million people may not gain international recognition soon, Omer has made progress in supporting women's rights in the conservative territory.
[04:02.89]Since she founded Hargeisa Girls Basketball in 2018, other female teams have come together for an all-girls league.
[04:14.17]For her sister Fatima Omer, basketball serves both goals.
[04:20.91]She said, "We just want the world to see us."
[04:25.84]I'm Gregory Stachel.