海角大神

鈥⒙犅�A version of this post appeared on the blog jinamoore.com. The views expressed are the author's own.

Lots of powerful men 鈥� and a few powerful women, including the American secretary of state 鈥� are to talk about the dire "security threat" that is now Somalia. Or, in the words of Britain's foreign minister, "."聽(Because that's a rational metric...)

Nevermind that international interest in Somalia peaked only now that we've recognized that its internal strife could be an external threat 鈥� to us. Nevermind that this is a pattern repeated constantly in diplomatic rhetoric about countries all over the world. We're not suddenly discovering this idea, nor Somalia.

Pay attention, instead, to this good question: Where are the women?

It's a point raised not in any mainstream news article I've read this morning, but instead by the website . 聽In an article there,聽Asha Ahgi Elmi, of Somalia鈥檚 Transitional Federal Government, points out the obvious:聽鈥淚f women are not part of the process they cannot be part of the outcome."

She also makes two other key points:聽 the crises that have suddenly put Somalia on the international agenda 鈥� including piracy and terrorism 鈥� are not new or surprising. 聽They are, she argues, "by-products of prolonged negligence."

So when all the people running the show are being so negligent, who's stuck being responsible? 聽You guessed it: women. 聽Elmi continues,聽鈥淒uring all those years of conflict in Somalia, women have had to take up non-traditional roles as breadwinners and entrepreneurs, and it is the courage of women that keeps Somali society in existence."

I acknowledge that writing a blog post calling out the myopia of world leaders is easier than finding ways to bring Somali women into the process. 聽The article referenced above was prompted by a report that said leaked documents on the future of the state say nothing about women's rights or women's participation in whatever government comes next (assuming, you know, that you can just order these things up from London). 聽Actually doing so would be difficult; there are cultural and contextual challenges. 聽And if you're a diplomat, you can anticipate those challenges. 聽You probably think raising these issues would kill any possible agreement. 聽And you might be right.

You'd also be yet another diplomat joining in a long line of foolish and facile decision-making. 聽If Elmi is right 鈥� and from what I've seen in my own work, she is 鈥� you'd be practically guaranteeing women won't have a role in the future state.

That's a state that won't function, no matter how well-worded your conference declarations, if Somali women don't keep up the breadwinning (and bread making). 聽And those are jobs we can thank them for doing, even if we can't promise them the political moon.

There's a lot of talk among the people I interview about the tussle between "the field" and headquarters. 聽The world looks so different depending on where you work. 聽But here's the thing I think headquarters most often (indeed, reliably) misses: Women aren't an agenda. 聽They are a reality.

To say, as I imagine many in London might, that political participation for women would kill progress on Somalia in general is to treat women only as part of a political agenda. 聽They can 鈥� and often should 鈥� be there, too. 聽But whether or not the powers that be dare (or deign) to advance that conversation, women are cooking meals, sending kids to school (or teaching them themselves), maintaining relations with the neighbors, and finding some product or skill to sell so that tomorrow morning they can buy food and repeat the cycle.

If it's too soon to promise Somali women the political moon, let's at least acknowledge we know they're there 鈥� and doing a better job of running the show, quietly and often from the home, than the men have done.

鈥揓ina Moore is a freelance multimedia journalist who covers Africa, human rights and women in conflict zones. She blogs .