Ms. Raham was born in Somalia to the Darod clan (the clan of Siad Barre). She was the victim of a number of militia attacks while living in Somalia. In 1991, the militia attacked her aunt’s house in Mogadishu, the house was looted and Raham’s cousin was raped in front of her. Raham fled to Walowein with her aunt’s family but came back to Mogadishu when UNOSOM arrived.

In 1995 the militias again attacked the house where Raham was staying and abducted her. She was detained for a month and tortured with burning metal bars while being asked questions about her father who was a soldier of the Barre regime.

Raham escaped and moved to a small village in Beydaba with her aunt’s family, and later moved to Marka with her husband. However, she did not find peace. In 1998, Raham and her husband were attacked by militias on the way to the hospital. Raham’s husband was severely beaten and she was taken to a big house outside the town, where she endured forced labour and sexual slavery for six months.

In 1999, Raham fled to Mogadishu, where a friend of the family helped her with a passport to travel to Djibouti to find her sister. She arrived in Djibouti in 2000 and spent two months looking for her sister with no success until she was told her sister went to Egypt with the family she was working for. The Somali community in Djibouti helped her to get a ticket and a visa and she arrived in Egypt in 2000, and after a short period she found her sister there.

Raham was denied on her first claim to asylum with the UNHCR office in Cairo. Her file was subsequently closed and she was told she was no longer a person of concern to the UNHCR. Raham came to AMERA-Egypt for assistance and a legal advisor took on her case. Raham’s testimony was prepared along with a legal argument and AMERA assisted Raham is acquiring medical documentation of her torture scars. Upon resubmission of her case to the UNHCR Raham was accepted as a refugee. She is now an active member of AMERA-Egypt’s psycho-educational support group for Somali women.