By Soraya Semmar Alami
Change does not always begin in parliaments or conferences. Sometimes it begins in a mosque, in a sermon, or in the quiet act of a father bathing his child.
At SIA-Africa, we believe that leadership is rooted in care, dignity, and protecting communities. These are the same values that Imam Ibrahima Diane embodies in his work. In Dakar, Senegal, Mr. Diane has become that voice of change. At 53, he leads with both faith and example, guiding men to see care and equality as essential to family life. Through the School for Husbands, a United Nations supported initiative launched in 2011, he shows that true strength is found in supporting women, protecting children, and rejecting violence.
His Friday sermons at the Great Mosque of Nietty Mbar reach hundreds. He speaks about maternal health, family planning, and gender-based violence. He reminds men that helping their wives is not only love, it is faith, and change follows. Women say their husbands, after listening to Diane’s sermons, now cook, clean, and take them to clinics. Men who once resisted hospital births now accompany their wives, ensuring safer deliveries.
These shifts matter. In Senegal, too many women still die in childbirth and too many babies do not survive their first weeks of life. When the program began, Senegal recorded around 322 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. By 2023, that figure had dropped to 237, and newborn mortality also declined from 27 to 21 per 1,000 (World Bank/UNICEF). And these numbers continue to decline, showing the importance of community-led change and the impact of voices like Imam Diane’s. Most of these deaths happen because women give birth at home without skilled medical care or because pregnancies are too close together. When men support hospital births, when they approve prenatal visits, when they share household work so their wives can rest, lives are saved. Babies survive, mothers recover, and families grow stronger.
Imam Diane’s work is also reshaping traditions: forced marriages have declined in some communities, family planning is gaining acceptance, and harmful practices like female genital mutilation are openly challenged. By grounding these conversations in faith, he makes them resonate as universal truths rather than foreign ideas.
Of course, these challenges still remain. However, talking about equality in conservative settings can spark resistance. Imam Diane shows that the message is simple: women have the right to live healthy, dignified lives, and men have the responsibility to help make that possible.
Diane’s example proves that transformation begins at home, one decision at a time. A husband choosing to carry water, a father choosing the hospital over tradition, an imam choosing to speak with courage. In those choices, he is showing that true leadership is measured not by power, but by care.
