This archive report was first published on 25 November 2019.
On November 25, 2019, as the world marked the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, Halima Abdalla, a Sudanese woman, shared her harrowing story of flogging and violence at the hands of the authorities.
Abdalla, 41, was flogged 100 times in 2010 under Sudan's public order law for drinking alcohol, which is banned in the country. The judge, provoked by her confident demeanor, cropped hair, and Western clothes, ordered the flogging, which left her broken and bitter.
"Flogging breaks you from inside," Abdalla said, her voice choking as she narrated the ordeal that remains imprinted on her mind. "Since that incident, I have become violent myself... I get angry easily and I break things... all these changes in me happened because I'm a victim of violence."
Abdalla's story is not an isolated incident. Thousands of women were flogged and handed hefty fines under the public order law during the rule of autocrat Omar al-Bashir, who came to power in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989. The law, which was used to restrict the role of women in Sudanese society, was a major factor in the nationwide protest movement that erupted against Bashir in December 2018.
After Bashir's ouster in April, a transitional authority comprised of civilian and military figures was established, sparking hope that laws encouraging violence against women could be scrapped. However, Abdalla says it is not just the flogging under the old regime that has made her bitter, but society's enduring attitude towards women, including that of her own family who refused to stand by her at the time.
"What hurt me is that my family and friends didn't understand me... they prefer to love us only on their terms," she said, fighting back her tears. Since she was flogged, Abdalla has largely lived outside Sudan, but she has now opened a centre for women's rights and wants Sudan to be part of all international conventions and to scrap laws that abuse women.
As the new government led by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok vows to uphold women's rights, activists in Sudan say the road ahead remains rocky. Local police continue to harass female tea vendors, and the problems of violence against women are deep-rooted and need to be completely uprooted, according to Awadiya Mahmoud Kuku, a campaigner for the rights of female tea vendors.
"This revolution belongs to us, we women," Kuku said, who was among a dozen "women of courage" from across the world honoured by the US State Department in 2016.
