Women in Sudan: „We won’t be silent in the face of the tyrant“(Alaa Salah)
by Clay Ikarus, Revolution Deutschland, in Fight! Revolutionary Women’s Magazine, 13, März 2025
In 2019, thousands of voices responded to activist Alaa’s promise
with “Thawra!” (Arabic for “Revolution!”). Today, Sudan has
been embroiled in a bitter war for almost two years, keeping the
entire population in a state of fear and terror. Women and children
are particularly suffering from the current situation. Most recently,
reports of a mass suicide of Sudanese women fearing sexual violence
shocked the media. But how did it come to this, and how can the
struggle for liberation evolve?
A brief historical overview
The history of the Sudanese civil war began in 2018/19. The
dictator Omar al-Bashir (also: Umar al-Bashir) was in power at the
time and wanted to introduce massive austerity measures. This was the
last straw, as the population was already facing several crises: a
housing shortage, a broken health and education system, and most ATMs
were empty, so people couldn’t access their money. Meanwhile, any
political opposition activity was violently suppressed. Nevertheless,
the masses took to the streets. The initial demonstrations and
strikes, initiated by the SPA (Sudanese Professionals Association, an
umbrella organization of 17 individual unions), grew into a movement
of resistance fighters who organized themselves in neighborhoods
across the cities. They succeeded in overthrowing the dictator. Women
were at the forefront of this movement, making up more than half of
the protesters. They also became the face of the movement
internationally. Some may remember the famous image of Alaa Salah, a
23-year-old student who motivated the crowds. She later spoke as a
representative of Sudanese civil society before the UN Security
Council, demanding that those responsible for the old regime be held
accountable.
The revolution improved the situation of women in Sudan. The
Public Order Law, which not only suppressed political struggles but
also dictated women’s behavior and dress code, was abolished. The
practice of female genital mutilation was criminalized. However, even
though the revolution was mainly carried out by women, they did not
achieve full equality in the new transitional civilian government
under Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. Only a fifth of the cabinet was
made up of women, even though fifty percent had been demanded. With
the implementation of economic reforms dictated by Sudan’s foreign
creditors, Hamdok gradually lost more and more of his support among
the population.
Unfortunately, the history of the Arab Spring repeated itself in
Sudan. The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) under the leadership of
General Abdel Fattah Burhan, which supported the revolution and
promised to oversee the transition to a democratic system, ultimately
turned against the civilian government. Together with his deputy
Hamdan Daglo, lieutenant general of the paramilitary unit RSF (Rapid
Support Forces; Islamist paramilitary group), they overthrew Abdalla
Hamdok in 2021 and introduced a military regime that ruled with
violence and crushed the achievements of the revolution.
Unfortunately, the massive protests against this military coup came
too late. The civil revolution ended in a counterrevolution. We must
not forget that Saudi Arabia and Egypt provided significant support
to the military in Sudan, as they had hired Sudanese mercenaries for
their own war in Yemen and were financed by the US with several
billion dollars.
Sudan itself is only part of the arc of crisis that stretches
westward across the Sahel zone and also includes Chad, Mali, Burkina
Faso, and Niger. These countries have experienced military coups that
have massively weakened French hegemony or replaced it with
others—militarily, often with Russian involvement, and economically
through China. In the east, this arc of crisis even extends to the
states on the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia, Eritrea, and
Somalia are strategically located on the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which
connects the Indian Ocean with the Red Sea and from there with the
Suez Canal. Twenty percent of the world’s container ship traffic
passes through this strait. It is no wonder that rival imperialist
groups also want access to Sudan’s geostrategic location on the Red
Sea, and obviously also to it’s ressources. Once again, it is US
imperialism and its allies, competing with Russia and China, as well
as the involvement of regional powers such as Saudi Arabia, which
supplies weapons to the RSF: they have all interfered in Sudan and
ultimately want to see their warring faction ruling over Sudan in
their interests from a throne built on corpses.
The current civil war
In April 2023, the conflict between the SAF and the RSF escalated,
leading to an ongoing war and one of the world’s largest humanitarian
crises. Entire neighborhoods and villages have already been destroyed
by the fighting. More than 14 million people have been forced to
leave their homes, over 40 percent of farmland is uncultivated,
causing the country’s wheat production to decline by 75 percent.
Twenty-six million people, about half the population, are suffering
from famine. Tens of thousands of civilians have already been killed
and many more injured. The atrocities committed against the
courageous and militant women of Sudan are particularly alarming.
They are subjected to torture and mass rape. The fear of this drives
them to suicide. On one day, more than 100 women took their own lives
at the same time to escape this fate. The RSF is particularly
notorious for this violence against civilians. They repeatedly take
women and children hostage, torture and kill them.
In addition, medical care has largely collapsed, leading to a
massive increase in the spread of diseases: cholera, malaria, dengue
fever, measles, and rubella are now causing death alongside hunger
and war. At a donor conference in Paris in April 2024, €2 billion
in aid was pledged. Not only is this insufficient, but the supplies
are intercepted by the warring parties and do not reach the
population.
But what about liberation?
Unfortunately, the revolution failed due to the same problems that
plagued the Arab Spring: as long as the army’s high command, the
Islamist parties and the state bureaucracy remain intact, the danger
of a counterrevolution persists. What is needed is a revolution that
goes all the way, smashes the repressive power of the state, takes
control of the economy from the corrupt capitalist class, and puts
power in the hands of the working people. This means that democracy
alone cannot survive; a socialist revolution in the sense of
permanent revolution is necessary, because the imperialist world
system will always try to make Sudan a pawn in its own game. The
people in all these countries have already proven that they have the
courage and the power to overthrow dictatorships. They have learned
to organize themselves into resistance units and have thus defied
entire armies. It is necessary to rebuild this strength, to network
across national borders, and to resume the struggle for liberation.
In doing so, it is important to learn from the mistakes of the past
and not repeat them. The goal of a popular front with the bourgeois
forces must be discarded and replaced by the creation of a
revolutionary program and a party for the workers.
In Sudan, this means that people within the military forces must
raise their weapons against their corrupt generals, and workers must
collect every weapon they can find and reorganize themselves
underground. Workers in neighboring countries must also reorganize
themselves and take up the struggle so that they can support their
class brothers and sisters in Sudan. However, this process must be
linked to a revolutionary program in order to be successful. It is
therefore necessary to oppose any imperialist intervention, to have
aid deliveries to the population monitored by committees to ensure
fair distribution, and to convene a constituent assembly that places
the means of production under the control of the workers.
For us in the Western countries, it is important to fight against
any interference by our states in the uprisings in African and Arab
countries and to seek solidarity with Sudanese activists. Together,
we must oppose all economic embargoes that weaken the Sudanese
economy and dismantle dependencies that arise from so-called
development aid from Western countries. Instead, Sudanese society
should draw up a reconstruction plan that demands reparations and
ensures that these demands are met. Together with the unions, we must
stop our governments from supplying weapons to warmongers, whether in
Sudan, Yemen, or Gaza!