This article was published for the first time on the symposium on Women orgnised by Darb al intifada
Women and Politics in Sudan
The Contribution of Ms. Majdoleen Abdelhalim
member of Darb
Alintifada-the Democratic Alliance on the
internet
Dear fellow Sudanese around the world:
Please allow me first to acknowledge the great efforts made by DA in organizing this important forum. Your matured and well prepared contributions to the political debate stand out as a serious forum with focused direction and actions. Writing about Sudanese women issues and challenges is an agonizing experience to me.
I would like to start my contribution by sending a great salute to my late sister in struggle, and the martyr of democracy, AL-TAYA ABUAGLA, the courageous Sudanese woman who was brutally murdered by the wicked NIF security criminals. I also send my salute to my sisters in south Sudan who are deeply suffering every day from the ugly war and famine created by the NIF regime.
My due respect and appreciation for all Sudanese women who are scattered all over the world in exile, for their struggles and sacrifices side by side with their husbands and brothers, facing the tough challenges of exile, adjusting, raising kids, working hard to earn money, attending schools, supporting their families back home, and to those who actively participate with writing their political opinions, and thus adding a positive integer to the Sudanese women struggle for democracy in Sudan.
But above all, my due respect and admiration goes to the Sudanese women in Sudan who face the repression of the NIF regime and the grip of poverty and hunger resulting from its policies and miscalculated actions. To those women, I have no words to say but my ultimate respect.
In my contribution, I would like to concentrate on the pressing issue of women representation in the NDA leadership council and how we, the hundreds of Sudanese women who now live in exile, can play a major role to remedy this situation and restore to the Sudanese women their legitimate rights of equality, dignity and respect.
First, to define the current problem, it is simply that the NDA and all its parties have deliberately continued to discriminate against the Sudanese woman by ignoring her great role and struggle in the process of restoring democracy in Sudan. In addition, the NDA has intentionally continued to down play the issue of women representation and to date, has not shown any genuine attempt to remedy this critical situation.
The call by the NDA for women to create a national organization before they can join the LC of the NDA, is at its best a big joke. It is an undemocratic and dangerous behavior. Effective organizations were never created by decisions or wishes of leaders. They rather establish themselves to satisfy a certain objective and subjective needs. You can't tell some one who came seeking to support you to go and grow up before they can come back and join you !! In its struggle against the NIF regime, the NDA can't afford to lose the support of any group, let alone the Sudanese women !!
Second, the Sudanese Women Union headed by Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim who is now imposing a lot of pressure on the NDA to be represented as a political organization, needs to go to the surgery room to undergo a major change in its objectives, directions and tactics in order to attract the hundreds of Sudanese women in exile to join its ranks and support its struggle. Even though I may not agree with Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim in some of her thoughts regarding women emancipation, but she definitely earned the respect of many Sudanese men and women for her life struggle for women cause and her devotion and sacrifice. We need an SWU who is independent from any political affiliation to be able to carry its own agenda and be able to move freely in the political arena to serve women interests. We need a more aggressive and organized body that adopt a political vision which is capable of attracting more women who are now either inactive or chose to alienate themselves from what is happening because they don't feel that the SWU represent their real interests or agenda. Women in Sudan have gone through a lot of changes at all levels and their perspectives and agenda have changed accordingly, and the SWU need to mirror these changes and be able to adjust to that to gain more women support and participation. Some of women issues can't wait til we restore democracy first or change the socio economic structure for women's problem to be resolved. We need to start working on that now and we need a more aggressive voice and actions to carry such changes and demands.
We need to encourage more women participation and especially the women in the DUP and the UMMA. The SWU can open more dialogue with the more progressive women in those parties and have them apply pressure on their party leadership to achieve more for women. The different women organization, including SWU can work more closely with representatives from the different labor and professional union abroad to gain their support in its struggle and open communication channels with some of the NDA LC members to win their support and impose more pressure on the main parties of the NDA.
Our cause and struggle in a society like Sudan is not easy, but there must be a way out! There must be a light at the end of the tunnel, and that is only if we work together and join hands, all women from all political and non political organizations. The NDA is not a property of any one. The NDA is owned by the millions of Sudanese people who oppose the ugly NIF regime inside and outside Sudan. We must join the NDA as individual women members and put the maximum pressure from the bottom up until the Sudanese women are fully represented in all its leadership offices. We must continue voicing our concerns every where and even nominate some of us as National Figures and ask the NDA to represent them in its leadership offices.
We should also look into means of supporting the political struggle of the Sudanese women inside Sudan. We can provide financial support and expose all the NIF undemocratic practices against women inside Sudan to the international media.
In conclusion, I suggest that at the end of this forum we draft a strong memorandum and launch a campaign to have it signed by the hundreds of women in exile and men who believe in their cause and send it to the NDA Leadership, with copies to all concerned human rights organizations including the United Nations. The Sudanese women in exile must continue their struggle and resistance to all sorts of discriminations and conspiracies against them. We have to start this process now before democracy is restored, otherwise, it will be too late and very hard when the same old leaders sit on the same old chairs and get carried away with their own agenda and deliberately forget about us !!
Sincerely,
Majdoleen Abdelhalim