This article was published for the first time on the symposium on Women orgnised by Darb al intifada
Women and Politics in Sudan
Darb Alintifada Women's Symposium:
A Memorandum to The NDA Leadership Council (NDA LC)
Darb Alintifada Women's Symposium:
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A Memorandum to The NDA Leadership Council (NDA LC)
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The Arabic Text of the Memorandum
Copy To:
NDA Secretariat of Organization And Administration ,NDA Secretariat of Information,Sudan Human Rights Organization ,Sudanese Political Parties ,Sudanese Trade Unions ,Al-Itahdy Newspaper .Al-Fajr Newspaper,Al-Khartoum Newspaper, Arabic News Agencies
Dear Sir/Madam,
Greetings,
Darb Alintifada Coordination Committee initiated a Symposium on Women's Rights In Sudan over the global internet. The Symposium started on Monday October 12th, 1998, and ended up with a final communiqué' on December 4th, 1998.
The participants included members of Darb Alintifada, scholars on Sudanese affairs, and human rights activists. The names of the participants are:
(*) Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim (*) Sondra Hale
(*) Zeinab Osman Al-Hussain (*) Nada Mustafa Ali
(*) Nahid Toubia (*) Zahra Elbahi (*) Asma Abdelhaleem
(*) Magda Mohamed Ali (*) Majdoleen Abdelhaleem (*) Nazik Hammad
(*) Souad Ali (*) Mohamed Elgadi (*) Mahgoub El-Tigani
(*) Jamal Mahgoub, (*) Mutasim Elagraa (*) Adil Abdel Aati
(*) Jabar Mustafa (*) Khalid Mustafa (*) Muaz Ata Elsid
The agenda of the Symposium included these important themes:
(1) Women's Participation in Sudanese Social Structure, which focused on gender relations in the Sudan in light of production relations in the country, as well as the other structural factors concerning the root causes of female/male differentials of the country.
(2) Performance and Policies of the Sudanese Governments regarding Women's Rights in the Sudan. This accounted for the policies and practices of post-independence governments and the existing NIF rule towards the women's rights in Sudan, including performance differences between dictatorial regimes and democratically-elected governments.
(3) Women's Representation in the NDA which invited participants to expose NDA to a critical assessment regarding its policies and practices towards the Sudanese women's participation and their representation in the NDA Leadership Council and the other NDA activities.
Because many of our readers might have lost the opportunity to read what has already been said in this comprehensive discussion, Darb Alintifada Committee will continue to ensure the contacts between all participants and readers for a continuous dialogue on these themes through the Symposium Follow-Up.
Finally, although the Symposium themes touched upon a wide range of political, cultural and religious issues in which a large number of women and men actively participated, the focus of the discussions and recommendations submitted below to the NDA-LC are specifically addressed to women's concerns.
(1) Women's Participation in Sudanese Social Structure:
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The Sudanese women have continuously played a significant role in motivating the people of Sudan to fight for public freedoms and human rights with bravery and passion. It is true justice, and it is good morals, to solemnly ascertain that the Sudanese women are the mothers of the Sudanese bravery and noble struggle, and that they deserve full political recognition as national leaders as much as they deserve as equal citizens.
The Sudanese women are so diverse and can not be lumped in one group or class. The existing political organizations are important, but they can not be the only representatives and they can not attract every woman. The women who are part of these political bodies are not always willing to work with grassroots women. The creation of NGOs full time staff to professionally work in all aspects of women is highly recommended.
It is important for Sudanese women to learn from the experiences of women's movements in other parts of the world, and recognize their differences first. Regardless of their political and ideological differences, they should unite their efforts with the rest of the opposition movements to achieve the common goal of democracy in Sudan.
Women must form their own theory and stand and organize in and outside Sudan to influence the situation in the Sudan. Nonetheless, there is no one way to organize women. What we have on hand now is not and will not be enough. The only way is to involve in the women's activities at different locations and stages and to be open to whatever structures will evolve due to these activities.
One way to work together can be attained through networks evolving around specific issues. These can provide for a fora through which women can learn how to work together and how to differ. A progressive party or an independent national women's organization or local grassroots units need to build onto extant socio-economic, consciousness-raising, self-help experiential, occupational, and neighborhood networks.
There are other spheres of women's activity that have been ignored and which, because of their nature, may give others ideas about organization and mobilization. Women know how to organize, that they have had to do it to survive in our communities. We need to think about organizing women in the informal sector and women merchants.
The women should try to politicize the networks of everyday life, not just taking them for granted. Why build new collectives when old ones exist today? Included in these networks are many institutions that fall under the rubric of "women's culture." Many of these are prefigurative political forms, and are, therefore, overlooked or are even thought of as "backward" by established political organizations.
The Symposium acknowledged the Sudanese women's brilliant record of political striving for the rights of the Sudanese people, despite all gender and culture differentials and the hardships women continue to face in the Sudan. Indeed, the United Nations Prize for Human Rights constituted a most distinguished recognition by the international community to the life-time struggle of the SWU as a national women's organization. To further strengthen the women's movement, the SWU is advised to promote objectives, directions, and tactics of its organizational work in order to attract the hundreds of Sudanese women in exile to join its ranks and support the struggle.
In addition to the other women's organizations, such as the Sudanese Women's Alliance (Sudan), the Sudanese Women's Forum (Cairo), the Ramadan Martyrs' Family League, the SPLA Women's Bureau, the SAF Women's Secretariat, the SHRO-Cairo Women's Office, etc., we need to encourage more women participation and especially the women in the DUP and the Umma as large political parties. The SWU, being the oldest and biggest women's political organization, can open more dialogue with the more progressive women in these parties and have them apply pressure on their party leadership to achieve more accomplishments for women.
The Symposium saluted with high appreciation the struggles of Sudanese women inside the Sudan led by the Sudanese Women's Alliance, as well as many other women's groups. The Symposium agreed on the need to provide means of supporting the political struggle of the Sudanese women inside Sudan through adequate financial support and the exposition of NIF undemocratic practices against women inside Sudan to the international media.
This may be a time when it is wiser for Sudanese women to engage in a period of political education among themselves. It is truly time to be more inclusive of other Sudanese women, especially women from the historically underrepresented areas of the south, west, and east. This is an undeniable chance for Sudanese women, from the north and the south, to exchange general ideas about building gender egalitarianism into the movement from the start, or before it is too late. Northern women may not have been as effective in organizing so far, but may have more resources to work with right now. Women from the two regions may be able to pool their knowledge and resources for an egalitarian movement on behalf of women.
Women should not allow their energies to be sapped by having to fight only for equal representation in the interim organizations of the government-in-exile. By the late 1960s, we began to see the greater effectiveness of women in revolutionary movements, the emergence of powerful women's organizations, and the challenging of the old order of revolutions. The development of rural women is a direct responsibility of the State, political parties and trades unions, and the women's independent organizations. It is in the interest of our country that women's organizations be committed to accomplish this goal as well as other strategic goals in close cooperation with men.
Sudanese society is so deeply conservative and antagonistic to true equality and freedom for women. The family is where much of the oppression occurs. We need to facilitate the development of institutions that will give autonomy to decisions, and to provide the services, including birth control, child support benefits, and other fundamentals to reduce the burden of child birth and child caring for women.
Women are seen as the progenitors of culture, the social reproducers, but they are also seen as the ones who must abide by culture. Established parties, including leftist ones, have done
very little tampering with the religious traditions that some see as negatively affecting women. There is also a tendency on the part of progressive parties to relegate all sex/gender conflicts to the realm of culture and consider the cultural as private. This is a significant evasive strategy because much of the oppression of women takes place in private, in life considered personal.
The liberation of Sudanese society from the misconceptions and harmful habits that undermine the women's status and role is a national mission for all men and women of the Sudan. Any genuinefemale emancipation movement has to offer a thorough criticismof our culture, values and norms, because it is precisely thesecultural norms that are at the root of the Sudanese womenpredicament. Such a scheme would question the authority offathers, brothers, and religion over women's life.
The Symposium recognized the fact that a "New Sudan" will not come about without a profound change in gender relations and hierarchy, without releasing the potential of all humans, including women. Everyone, women and men, are required to advance women's rights. The progression of women is not solelyconferred on women. Men shall equally take the responsibility with women to achieve a steady increase in women's progression. The progression of women is directly related to the application of international human rights instruments, especially those concerned with women's rights.
