‘They will not break us’: Sudanese protesters denounce sexual assault Women’s News

Khartoum, Sudan – Hundreds of women have taken to the streets in and around the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, to protest against sexual violence and harassment, including alleged rape by security forces in a pro-democracy protest.

United Nations he said At least 13 women and girls have been raped or gang-raped by security forces in a mass demonstration outside the Khartoum presidential palace on Sunday.

Suliema Ishaq, head of the Gender Violence Unit at the Ministry of Social Development, told Al Jazeera that eight women between the ages of 18 and 27 had approached her department for treatment.

“Two of them were treated 24 hours a day and six more came later, but I think the number is higher than that,” Ishaq said.

Doctors also said security forces had killed at least two people Sunday concentration against a military coup in October and against last month’s agreement to reinstate Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdo.

Demonstrators handed over a memorandum to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Khartoum on Thursday calling for an investigation into cases of sexual and physical violence. The document was signed by 40 human rights groups and a so-called “resistance committee” – a horizontal group of neighborhood leaders who have led the pro-democracy movement in Sudan.

Shaihinza Jamal [Zeinab Mohammed Salih/Al Jazeera]

“We are here to put pressure to prevent this from happening,” said Shaihinza Jamal, a member of the resistance committee, and a prominent figure in the Sudanese women’s rights movement in protest of Al Jazeera.

“We will never allow such things to happen, and we can stop them.”

The 46-year-old, wearing a blue dress, was at the head of the demonstration, chanting various slogans praising women. Other protesters were repeating, “They won’t break you.”

Similar protests took place in Omdurman, the twin city of Khartoum on the west bank of the Nile River, as well as in North Khartoum.

Dozens of rapes were also reported in June 2019, when security forces violently dispersed a pro-democracy sit-in outside the Khartoum military headquarters. More than 100 people were also killed, according to doctors, and surviving security forces, mostly members of the Rapid Rescue Forces, dumped their bodies around the Nile River.

Rights groups have also said that rape and sexual violence have been used as weapons of war in the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Sudanese authorities have not commented on this week’s allegations, but several western states on Thursday called on them to “conduct a full and independent investigation.”

In a joint statement, Canada, the European Union, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States also condemned the use of sexual violence “as a weapon to keep women away from demonstrations and to silence their voices.”

Statement on Sexual Violence Against Women in Protests pic.twitter.com/Q8oS4vJ5Kb

– United Kingdom Sud (@UKinSudan) December 23, 2021

Sudanese women were the driving force behind the month-long popular protests that led to the ouster of Omar al-Bashir in 2019 and the subsequent sharing of power between generals and civilians.

They have also been massively involved recent demonstrations initially denouncing the coup and later the military’s deal with Hamdok, which has been demonstrated by pro-democracy protesters. accused “Betrayal.”

But many women said they often have to overcome family pressures in order to add a voice to the movement.

Muzan Alneel is an activist who was arrested along with her husband and sister during protests against Bashir in 2018. Many of the detained women feared that their relatives would be more afraid than the security forces when they returned home after being released. punish and prevent him from going out again.

Other protesters also said they had to fight for the right to protest.

“My father and siblings are more open, but my husband doesn’t let me out on the streets all the time, so I missed a lot of protests and processions,” a mother of three girls said at a rally in Khartoum on Thursday.

He added: “Every time my daughter and I want to go out, we have to negotiate our rights. We work harder at home the day before and leave food and clean the house and everything else is not easy for us.”