DISSENT!

ANONYMOUS of SUDAN

Anonymous photo by Pulitzer-prize winner Eddie Adams

Freedom House, an organization based in Washington, D.C., describes the dire state of repression in Sudan, so perilous for human rights that it is the only place in the world where we were asked not to reveal the identity of the defender: "The Sudanese government and its agents are bombing, burning, and raiding southern villages, enslaving thousands of women and children, kidnapping and forcibly converting Christian boys, by sending them to the front as cannon fodder, annihilating entire villages or relocating them into concentration camps called "peace villages," while preventing food from reaching starving villages. Individual Christians, including clergy, continue to be imprisoned, flogged, tortured, assassinated, and even crucified for their faith.”

Sudan gained independence from Britain in 1956. Thirty years later, Islamic extremists based in Khartoum seized control of the democratically elected government, launching a holy war against their own Christian citizens in the south. This war has led to the deaths of 1.5 million people and the displacement of 5 million more. Another 2.6 million people are at imminent risk of starvation, due to the regime’s scorched-earth campaign and refusal to allow access to international relief agencies. The reign of terror reaches far beyond the Christian community, to every person, animist and Muslim alike, who is suspected of failing to adhere to the government’s arbitrary code of conduct. Against all odds, and under threat of certain brutal torture and death, this human rights defender we call Anonymous spreads the word of liberty, offering Sudanese compatriots a path to a better future.

- Kerry Kennedy

[Interview excerpts]

When I lost my job in 1989 along with ten thousand others, I became involved in human rights because of the political situation in Sudan. The government wanted to ensure that those not affiliated with the official agenda were marginalized. I felt that we who were lucky and who had an education needed to help those with the greatest need: People who lost their basic rights and who were arrested on a nearly daily basis. We were able to extend our activities in refugee areas and around some parts of the country.

We began by raising public awareness of the negative effects of the government policy of organized mass marriages [Khmer Rouge!]. These marriages were one of the crucial points in the political agenda. The idea was to encourage marriage to promote an image of "a good Muslim", and to discourage promiscuity and sexual dissidence. […] So these young girls marry, become pregnant, and then after collecting the money and the land, their husbands run away. In the end the women are left alone with a child to raise. They go to the Sharia courts in the hope of gaining maintenance fees from their husbands, but this rarely works.

Instead, as Sudan PANA (the Pan African News Agency) reported on February 1, 2000, courts in Sudan have divorced some twenty-five thousand husbands in absentia in the past three years. In such cases, the law gives the defendant a month’s notice to appear before the court, after a divorce advertisement is published in a newspaper. If the ultimatum expires and the husband does not comply, the court will automatically divorce the wife "in his absence." […]

The vast majority of families in squatter communities are headed by women. The husbands are usually soldiers or unemployed men, so the women are forced to work. […]

As a consequence of the war, all the young people in our country, after taking university entrance exams, are drafted and sent to jihad. […]

The best way to stop these abuses is for people to be aware of their rights. Over the past few years about seventeen NGOs working in women’s rights have been formed. Women are forming cooperatives, developing income-generating projects, and the good thing is that these women are coming together independently of their ethnicity, religion, and race. This activity is even having an effect among Sudanese women outside the country. What is going on today seems to transcend political affiliation, and while it is slow, it is very encouraging.

Women have a particularly difficult situation in Sudan. […] The government also changed family law to encourage polygamy and to give men more freedom, including making it easier for them to obtain a divorce. According to Islam, women are supposed to have access to divorce just as easily as men do. In practice, it is extremely difficult for a woman to ask for divorce while a man can proceed with no explanations whatsoever.

Under the new family law, a man can declare nashiz (violation of marital duties) when a woman does not obey. The husband is then allowed to place his unruly wife in an obedience home. He can refuse to divorce claiming that she, for example, goes out without his permission. This is considered sufficient justification. The government has also imposed a series of new inheritance laws that are also discriminatory to women. These new moral codes have terrible implications for society. Even if you, a woman, are just walking with a man, you have to prove that this man is your brother, or your husband, or uncle.

If a woman is walking in the street without a veil, she can be arrested and lashed by the popular defense police. The same rules apply even if the women are pregnant, which is why there are so many stories of women aborting while being lashed. On buses, women have to sit in the last two rows in the back. It has been really difficult for women.

My father was a doctor. He worked in different parts of Sudan. […] My mother worked with different groups; Girl Guides, first aid, charity as well as church groups. Our home was always a busy home. We always had somebody who was coming for treatment, or giving birth in our house. My parents taught us how to love our people, however simple, or poor. We felt attached to them, and my parents loved our family. My grandfather was a farmer and we still feel very attached to our extended family. I think my love of family made me love Sudan and regard all the Sudanese as my own family. I feel very much tied to my country. And I always had the feeling that I have to do something for my people, the same way my parents did and the way my father did for his patients. This atmosphere contributed to my taking on the work that I do today.

[…] Everyone is aware that the government takes advantage of the overwhelming poverty and pays people to spy on others. Youngsters are encouraged to spy on their own families, and are kept on a payroll of one of the security forces.

[…] Because of this war we lost one and a half million lives and we are expecting more conflict. The south is a tragedy, but equally all the west, the north, everywhere. The country is really collapsing; the health system, education, everything. Yet at the end of the day, it is not the government who decides—it’s the people. Since 1993, I have noted a new mood in the civil society. All Sudanese, and especially women, are becoming more aware of the importance of forming alliances, of trying to improve their lives, and trying to change what is going on. These special groups can do a lot for change. Ultimately, I don’t think that the government will greatly alter in the coming five to ten years. But through this network that we are developing, and through the confidence and the hope of all human rights activists, change will come. I don’t think I will witness this, but if you start moving things, there will be an effect.

Courage means a lot of things to me: it means commitment, it means hope. It means thinking first of others. It means a strong belief in human rights, a strong belief in the power of the people, and it means turning our backs on the power of the rulers. Courage will bring change to us in Sudan.