Linked with the West Africa Early Warning & Response Network WARN, and with the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding WANEP.
She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.
She says: « The economic promotion of women is one of the fundamental ways of giving women a sense of dignity ».
Read: Religions for Peace.
Sorry, I can not find any photo of Cissé Hadja Mariama Sow, Guinea (see also my comment ‘Brave women without photos‘).
She works for l’Union des Femmes Oulémas de Guinée UFOG, for the Coordination Office of the Associations of the Muslim Women of Guinea, (both not found in the internet), and for the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding WANEP.
Cissé Hadja Mariama Sow was born into a large Peuhl family in the region of Labé in Guinea and is a national of that country today. She is president of the Union of Oulémas Women of Guinea (UFOG) and has had a brilliant political and professional career. She is married and is the mother of eight children. Mariama Sow has never given up work despite her advanced age since, according to her, there are always challenges and it is necessary to confront them.
The success of her work is measured by how she propelled Guinean women into an African women’s movement. The fight of Guinean women under Ahmed Sékou Touré (1958-1984) was so well conducted that she served as a reference for women of other African countries, especially French-speaking countries.
Hadja Mariame Sow had a lot to do with raising the consciousness of Guinean people.
Today she is involved in her religion while being president of UFOG. She is also president of the Coordination Office of the Associations of the Muslim Women of Guinea. This structure advocates religious tolerance, the promotion of woman and the fight for freedom in Guinea. It also campaigns for equal religious rights in Guinea and in countries served by the River Mano.
Hadja Mariama has worked for women’s causes for more than 50 years. This activist favors the training and education of women so that they can better defend their rights as wives and mothers. For that she encourages mobilizing and creating awareness among women through women’s associations in Guinean civil society.
Hadja Mariama does not stop campaigning for the social cohesion in her country and in all African countries. Every day she works for this cohesion and does not forget the emancipation of Guinean and African women.
She was deeply affected by the bloody conflicts of Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast and her birthplace, Guinea. This is why she advocates peace to everyone. And God has heard her because Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia have rediscovered peace today.
Mariama Sow works in difficult economic circumstances and lacks financial resources for the normal functioning of her association. Security conditions also are not good in in Guinea, which is not democratic or free. Mariama never forgets that her country always faces a revival of the conflicts that beset the region of the River Mano.
She tirelessly strives for religious participation and for the creation of an inter-religious space. She campaigns for the community of the River Mano to unify itself further and to consolidate peace. This is what makes her doubly committed to the construction of a West African network of women parliamentary ministers. Her association’s goal is to promote the Muslim religion in the country while fighting against religious fanaticism.
Hadja Mariama Sow is a religious person who believes one can use Islam to assure the union of hearts in Guinea and in the countries in the region. (1000PeaceWomen).
links:
The Global Fund (scroll down to her name);
Participants List Global Conference, 19-21 July 2005;
Lissanga Infos, Bulletin n° 05, septembre 12, 2005;
UNIFEM-Veranstaltung: ‘Frauen stärken heisst Entwicklung stärken‘, November 2006.
Sorry, I can find no other information in the internet of Cissé Hadja Mariama Sow, Guinea.