A Somali female friend of mine instructs a business training class for upcoming Somali entrepreneurs. At the end of the four weeklong course, she distributes certificates of accomplishment stamped with a gold seal featuring the business training center’s logo. Seal is pronounced as SIIL, the Somali word for vagina—phonetics at work. Hearing SIIL, some of the Somali men, due to their lower proficiency level in English, thought the instructor is generously awarding them with great sex for their success. Their hearts pounded with excitement. Others noticed that the words are phonetically parallel but distinctive in meaning. The noises that run deep inside their head were saying, “it must mean something else”. When the instructor reiterated, they felt weird and out of the norm to hear the name of the organ that is every man’s fantasy.
Discussing sex and sex life candidly is a taboo within the Somali culture. It is a culture that treats (not always but often) sex as a means of reproduction, not of attaining pleasure and emotional attachment. Or one that puts more emphasis on the former than the latter.
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