A Muslim woman is defying Islamic radicals to help to bring peace and stability to war-hit Somalia Fadumo Dayib is an optimist. She has not been to her home country, Somalia, since January, but is determined to become its first woman leader.This is despite the fact that all the other 18 candidates for the Somali presidency are men. And despite the fact that she keeps getting threats telling her that because she is a woman running for president, she is no longer a Muslim and should be killed."I am not scared of al-Shabaab or death - that's a natural thing that will happen to each and every one of us," Dayib said, referring to the Somali Islamist militant group affiliated with al-Qaeda. "[Death] is the only thing that we are certain about."Somalia has been embroiled in a catastrophic civil war for the past 26 years, and has not had a national government for two decades.story_article_left1In 1991 rebel forces ousted the socialist leader General Mohamed Siad Barre. Turmoil, factional fighting and anarchy ensued. One million Somalis were killed and millions displaced. Siad Barre, who had ruled for more than 20 years, fled the country and died four years later.Dayib, 43, a mother of four, was born in a refugee camp in Kenya and only learnt to read and write at the age of 14 after she and two younger siblings were accepted as refugees by Finland - where she is still living.In Finland she excelled academically and went on to study in the US, becoming a Mason Fellow at the John F Kennedy School at Harvard University, where she received a master's degree in public administration and another in health sciences and public health.The Harvard programme accepts about 80 candidates a year from developing countries for an intensive one-year course on addressing development challenges.Dayib is now a PhD fellow at the University of Helsinki, where she is researching women, peace and security issues in the Horn of Africa.In Dayib's words, gender is a global barrier all women in every part of the world have to fight - even, she says, people like US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.Dayib has a comfortable life in Finland, but feels she must work for a better future for her fellow Somalis."I've watched from the sidelines as the country descended into chaos for almost 26 years and have always been waiting ... that a person would come and save the country and bring all of us back, and that has unfortunately not materialised," she said."I have come to the realisation that I am actually waiting for myself, because if each and every Somali sat back and waited for someone else to come and save them, that would never happen."block_quotes_start Women have every right to sit at the head of the table and we are not negotiating that or begging for that any longer block_quotes_endAfrica has one woman head of state, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who has been president of Liberia since 2006. Dayib wants to change leadership patterns on the continent by encouraging more women to seek positions of power."There is no sole female leader that I can say has inspired me or influenced me. There is a mixture of female leaders at points in my life who have provided inspiration and insight," Dayib said."Women are breaking barriers every day, the country runs on the backs of Somali women. They are informally leading the country."Women have every right to sit at the head of the table and we are not negotiating that or begging for that any longer."Dayib has not been able to campaign in Somalia due to the attempts on her life.In January, during her last visit to Somalia, she went to Liido beach in the capital, Mogadishu, and posted pictures of herself there. Hours later gunmen affiliated to al-Shabaab killed 20 people in an attack at the beach.Dayib uses social media to engage with her supporters. "Majority of Somalis want #DemocraticElections. They want to exercise their rights by voting for their leadership. Is the #UN listening?" she tweeted recently.story_article_right2After Siad Barre was ousted in 1991, Somalia did not hold elections again until 2012. In that vote MPs were chosen by 135 "elders" and then those lawmakers chose Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as president.Somalia had hoped that this year it would be able to hold elections in which all citizens had the right to vote, but abandoned that plan due to security challenges.So next month about 14,000 people (out of a total population of about 11million) from federal states will choose 275 MPs. The MPs are scheduled to elect a new president at the end of October. Among Dayib's rivals will be the incumbent, Mohamud, who is standing for re-election.Dayib said the system was unfair, comparing herself to a boxer entering a ring with her hands tied behind her back. She is starting a crowdfunding initiative to support her campaign."What happens in Somalia can happen anywhere else in Africa," she said."We need to change the perception of leadership on the continent. We are not the future, we are the present and we are supposed to be leaders today to ensure we have a tomorrow."If we sit back and believe this hype, that 'we are the leaders of tomorrow', we will not have a tomorrow to lead."- Additional reporting by Reuters..