Somaliland women queue to vote © Mark Bradbury/ Progressio

Although there are differences between Somaliland and Timor-Leste - Somalilanders are Muslims, whereas most of us Timorese are Catholics - there are also many similarities, writes Ivete de Oliveira. Both our countries are poor and have seen conflict in recent years. In both, grass roots organisations supported by Progressio have been playing a strong role in helping to rebuild our countries from scratch. And for me, a crucial similarity is that Somaliland's culture, like that of Timor-Leste, has historically been deeply patriarchal and resistant to letting women's voices be heard anywhere but in the kitchen.

In 1998 I became a founding member of a new women's network in Timor-Leste called REDE FETO. At this time our country was in transition to independence from illegal occupation by Indonesia, and we wanted to organise ourselves to make sure that women were involved in our new nation's political life. REDE FETO was incredibly active in promoting women's participation in decision-making during Timor Leste's first years as an independent nation and by 2001, 27 per cent of the members of our first independent parliament were women. I continued to support REDE FETO and Progressio's development worker with the organisation when I went on to work in Progressio's Timor-Leste office to promote women's rights and participation.

I have now left Progressio, but this July I met women working with Nagaad, a similar network of women's organisations supported by Progressio in Somaliland. Like REDE FETO, the Somaliland women's organisation promotes women's rights and participation.

Nagaad was founded in 1997 in the wake of a national peace conference in Hargeisa to end the 1994 civil conflict and elect a president and parliament. Women were excluded from the conference: their lobbying to be included was rejected because they did not represent clans, or ethnic groups. Eventually, after increased lobbying, six women were allowed to participate, followed by a further seven, as observers in the peace-making meetings.

On my visit I met two inspiring and feisty women, the executive director of Nagaad and the minister for family affairs, and discovered that Somaliland women's experience of post-conflict reconstruction was similar to ours in Timor-Leste. In both, some women stayed and promoted women's rights from within, often in very difficult and repressive circumstances, while others left and benefited from education, particularly on gender justice issues, and then returned to found new organisations, movements and NGOs. In both countries, women had to grapple with the resulting tensions, common in grass-roots movements during reconstruction after war, when the approach of those who have lived abroad during the conflict clash with the strategies of those who stayed.

I was frequently asked by the women in Somaliland about the role of religion. There were a lot of misconceptions about why we Catholic East Timorese rejected Indonesian rule. I was asked whether it was because Indonesia is a majority Muslim country. It was clear to me that the people of Somaliland are more suspicious of Christians following world events since 9/11. While I'm aware of the Christian-Muslim tensions which sometimes arose in Timor-Leste, we know our conflicts were at root never about religion. Timorese people rejected Indonesian rule because of the brutality and illegality of their occupation and because of our desire to rule ourselves - that's all. But the influx of Indonesian Muslims into Timor, and indeed the conversion of some Timorese to Islam, are things which we now are learning to respect and to learn from in Timor-Leste. Progressio and its partner, the East Timorese Muslim organisation Unicet, helped organise an interfaith conference last year, as part of Progressio's interfaith peace-building programme. This examined how the different faiths practised in Timor-Leste can co-exist peacefully and relate constructively to the state.

I was asked many questions about how my country's women organised themselves to participate and influence the decision-making process. I explained how the Timor-Leste women's movement organised a national women's congress to lobby for a 30 per cent quota of women candidates in the 2001 parliamentary elections and the empowerment of women. We discussed how get involved in political parties and become elected, and how to use a women's caucus to influence women MPs to push for women's issues to be addressed.

It was an intensive week, but an amazing opportunity to meet with a group of truly strong and inspiring women. I will be reporting my visit to REDE FETO on my return, and we'll be looking at how we can deepen our mutual knowledge, distilled from two continents, to further women's fight for justice and representation.

Support this and Progressio's other work to enhance understanding between faiths.

Ivete de Oliveira is a former Progressio women's advocacy officer in Timor-Leste and founding board member of REDE FETO.