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KHARTOUM – Sudanese women helped organize protests that resulted in the removal of former President Omar al-Bashir in 2019 after three decades of rule with an iron fist.
After their removal and the creation of a new transitional government, women are playing a prominent role in the politics of Sudan.
A woman has been appointed president of the Supreme Court, the first, not only in Sudan but in the entire Arab world.
Four unprecedented women were appointed to cabinet positions in the new government, including the country’s Prime Minister of Foreign Affairs, Asma Mohamed Abdalla.
But the women are still marching to amend the laws and restore the rights that were taken away from them under the strict Islamic code imposed by the Bashir government.
The Sudanese Professionals Association, or SPA, was one of the key groups behind the demonstrations that led to Bashir’s impeachment. Samahir Elmubarak, who heads the SPA’s pharmacists association, is still active in politics.
Elmubarak says he has never felt that they have reached a level where they should stop. She says that the motivation that drove people to overthrow the Bashir regime is the same motivation that drives people to continue to achieve the revolution’s goals of freedom, peace and justice.
The June 3, 2019 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Khartoum killed more than 120 people, including Amira Kabous’ eldest son.
The death of her son did not deter Kabous from participating in the democracy movement, and she is now the deputy head of an organization of people who lost relatives in the uprising.
Sitting next to a portrait of her late son in her Khartoum home, Kabous insists.
She says that what they are doing is the continuation of the martyr’s role and their sacrifices, but they have not yet achieved their goals. They will continue, she adds, until they achieve all the goals of the revolution that their children sacrificed themselves for, and until they see Sudan the way their children dreamed, and everyone is dreaming.
Kabous and Elmubarak recently received the Freedom House Award 2020 for their role in advancing democratic change in Sudan. The award was given under the theme “The power of protest.”
