Somali society is also highly patrilineal. Indeed, women in the country have no rights to property or titles; the man of the family is the only person to have that right, which ensures that women cannot be independent and emancipate themselves.

In addition, certain privileges and titles belong solely to men, where women are forbidden to attempt to attain one of them: for example a Sultan, Imam, clan-chieftain, Pacifier, Ugases or Malak can only be a man. Therefore, men manage to maintain their supremacy by having exclusive access to positions of power and respect.

Finally, many idioms and proverbs[1] in Somali culture perpetuate the domination and oppression of women: "every bad thing belongs to a woman", "verdict decided by a woman goes no further", "drought you survive through women and sheep" or even "a woman can live together with a man who is like her father in age" to make young girls accept older men as their husbands. Thus, there are deep-rooted gender issues in Somalia that stem from customs, traditions and religion in which women are completely and utterly disregarded and clearly treated as inferior to men.