This archive report was first published on 11 July 2019.
June 27, 2019, marked a turning point for Sudan as women took to the streets demanding change. Khadija Saleh, a 41-year-old activist, was among the protesters who gathered near the Defence Ministry in Khartoum. She was beaten with sticks during the June 3 raid and still wears bandages on her wounds.
"I came back from a safer place because I want a better future for this country," Saleh said.
Women played a significant role in the months-long protests against President Omar al-Bashir's 30-year rule. However, the protests didn't stop after Bashir's ousting, with demonstrators demanding the military hand power to civilians swiftly.
Nahid Gabralla, a 53-year-old activist, was beaten and threatened with rape during the June 3 raid. "Sudan can be better," she said. "My daughter deserves to live in a nice country...We will fight for a democratic Sudan, real change and for our rights."
Physicians for Human Rights, a US-based group, cited local medics as saying women had their clothes torn off and were raped. Local women's activists reported soldiers holding up women's underwear on poles to symbolize the women they had sexually assaulted.
"None of the Sudanese women will officially say that they were raped because of the stigma," said 42-year-old activist Hadia Hasaballah.
The military council has denied reports of rape, but the head of Sudan's Human Rights Commission has launched an investigation into violations committed during and after the dispersal of the sit-in.
Under Bashir's rule, women's lives were tightly controlled by men. Morality laws meant a woman could be arrested for wearing trousers. For that reason, 35-year-old Mahi Aba-Yazid wore trousers while she campaigned for change at the sit-in.
"There was already a bullet in my arm. I was bleeding but they continued to beat me," she said.
Despite the violence, Sudan's military rulers and a coalition of opposition and protest groups agreed to share power for three years ahead of elections.
