الاتحاد النسائي السوداني | |
| Founded | 1952[1] |
|---|---|
| Founders | Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim,Fatima Talib,Khalida Zahir |
| Focus | women's rights |
Area served | Sudan |
TheSudanese Women's Union (SWU,Arabic:الاتحاد النسائي السوداني, transliteration:Aletahad Elnisa'i Assodani) is a Sudanesewomen's rights organisation that is one of the biggest post-independence women's rights organisations in Africa.[1]: 43
The Sudanese Women's Union (SWU) was created in 1952 during thestruggle for independence fromBritain, withFatima Talib,Khalida Zahir andFatima Ahmed Ibrahim forming the executive committee.[1] The first president of the Union wasFatima Talib.[2] In 1956, Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim was elected president of the SWU.[3]Khalida Zahir was elected president in 1958.[4]
The 17 January 1952 founding meeting of the SWU included the following leadership and founding members.[2]
President –Fatima Talib
Secretary –Nafisah Ahmad al-Amin
Members –Khalda Zahir,Thuryia Al Dirdeiri,Nafisa Al Mileik,Suad Al Fatih Al Badawi,Batoul Adham,Thuryia Umbabi,Suad Abdel Rahman,Hajja Kashif Badri,Azziza Meki,Khadmalla Osman,Fatima Abdel Rahman,Suad Abdel Aal,Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim,Khadija Mohamed Mustafa
The SWU wasPan-Africanist in its early years. It organised women's solidarity actions for women and againstapartheid in Zambia, South Africa andNamibia; in protest against the 1961 execution ofPatrice Lumumba in theRepublic of the Congo; in protest against the arrest ofDjamila Bouhired,[1] an Algerian anti-colonial activist who in 2019 participated in2019 Algerian street protests;[5] and in support ofPalestinian women activists.[1]
In Sudan, the SWU campaigned in favour of girls' education during theBritish colonial period in which education was only organised for a small minority of boys and the British authorities opposed formal education for girls. The SWU created schools for girls inKhartoum andOmdurman and in 1970 organised an international conference against women's illiteracy that was attended by manywomen's organisations from around Africa. The SWU created evening classes for adult women, encouraging literacy and women's health education and opposingunderage andforced marriages.[1]
The SWU also campaigned forpolygamy to be regulated;[1] for the right to consent to marriage; against laws requiring abused women to return to their husbands;[6] for women's employment, for equal pay, and against discrimination against "Africans".[1]
AfterSudanese women gained electoral rights in theOctober 1964 Sudanese Revolution, Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim became, in 1965, the first woman elected as a member of theSudanese parliament (at the time called the Constitutional Assembly)[1] and, according to authorCaitlin Davies andMiddle East Monitor, the first woman member of any African parliament.[7][3]
The post-1964 prime ministerGaafar Nimeiry banned the SWU and Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim was held under house arrest for two years.[6]
Campaigning by the SWU and other feminists continued during the 1960s and 70s and led to improvements infamily law andequal rights for men and women in the1973 Constitution.[1]
The SWU (along with many other citizens' associations) was officially dissolved in 1989 whenOmar al-Bashir took power in a coup d'état.[1] The SWU continued to operate unofficially. Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim, in exile in London, created a London branch of the SWU.[6]
On 13 July 2012, the SWU together with other citizens' groups organised protests in cities in Sudan against the repression of demonstrators and against the torture and abuses of female activists by theNational Intelligence and Security Service (NISS).[1]
In August 2019, during theSudanese transition to democracy period that followed the first 2018–2019civil disobedience, coup andmassacre phases of theSudanese Revolution, the SWU argued that since women had played as significant a role in the revolution as men, positions chosen by civilian–military consensus in theCabinet of Ministers should be allotted equally between men and women, stating that Sudanese women "claim an equal share of 50–50 with men at all levels, measured by qualifications and capabilities".[8]
The SWU was awarded theUnited Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights in 1993, along with eight other groups and individuals.[9]
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