Abay Siti is a Somali

Somali people

Somalis are an ethnic group located in the Horn of Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula. The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family...

 female institution dating back to early 19th century urban

Urban area

An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...

 Somalia

Somalia

Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...

. The institution incorporated Somali tradition

Culture of Somalia

The culture of Somalia is an amalgamation of traditions indigenously developed or accumulated over a timeline spanning several millennia of Somali civilization's interaction with neighbouring and far away civilizations such as Ethiopia, Yemen, India and Persia....

 and Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

 and was established as a result of women being excluded from the numerous male dominated religious orders in Somalia.

History

At the turn of the 19th century many nomads from the interior of Somalia increasingly began migrating to urban cities such as Merka, Barawa

Barawa

Barawa or Brava is a port town on the south-eastern coast of Somalia. The traditional inhabitants are the Tunni Somalis and the Bravanese people, who speak Bravanese, a Swahili dialect.-History:...

, Kismayo and Mogadishu

Mogadishu

Mogadishu , popularly known as Xamar, is the largest city in Somalia and the nation's capital. Located in the coastal Benadir region on the Indian Ocean, the city has served as an important port for centuries....

 and adapted to their new urban environment and lifestyle. As a result many of the formerly nomadic women who in their previous way of life played an important time consuming role and therefore had no time to engage themselves in large social gatherings, now found themselves with too much time to spare. In the same era many new Somali religious orders were established across Somalia by scholars such as Uways al-Barawi

Uways al-Barawi

Sheikh Uways Al-Barawi was a Somali scholar credited with reviving Islam in 19th century East Africa.-Early life:Sheikh Uways was born in Barawe on the Benadir of Somalia coast, the son of a local religious teacher. He obtained a simple elementary education in basic theological sciences, and only...

 and Abd Al-Rahman bin Ahmad al-Zayla'i

Abd Al-Rahman bin Ahmad al-Zayla'i

Shaykh Abd Al-Rahman bin Ahmad al-Zayla'i was a Somali scholar who played a crucial role in the spread of the Qadiriyyah movement in Somalia and East Africa.-Early life:...

, but the women who tried to become members of these orders found themselves excluded. The Abay Siti religious association was then created by a group of women with the intention to serve these same women. Many of the Abay Siti sessions contain songs composed and chanted by women in praise of historical female figures in Islamic History