Women march in Sudan capital to protest against harassment

A group of young women organised a march in Khartoum on Wednesday, to protest harassment in general and by their fellow activists in particular.

Dozens of women joined the march that headed to the sit-in set up in front of the El Jawda Hospital in the El Deyoum El Shargiya neighbourhood following the June 30 Marches of the Millions.

The participants of the demonstration condemned the harassment women are subjected to both in public and private life. They carried yellow banners protesting the prevailing patriarchal order and the “guardianship by men”. They chanted slogans calling for women's rights, and “Bread, Freedom, and Intersectional Justice”.

The women denounced the threats of a number of young men, their fellow protesters at the sit-in, to beat them up if they would not dress “more properly” and “wear veils” when taking part in public activities.

On Monday, a young woman activist told Radio Dabanga that her women friends complained about being harassed at the sit-in. “Can you imagine? These men are calling for freedom and democracy, and at the same time they are interfering with our way of clothing, and violating our right to wear what we like,” she said.

Yesterday, activists in the densely populated neighbourhood of Hajj Yousef in Khartoum North (Bahri) set up a sit-in as well to protest the situation following the coup d’état of October 25 last year. An attempt to set up a sit-in in Burri, eastern Khartoum, during the weekend, was violently prevented by government forces.  

The anti-junta sit-ins in El Muassasa in Khartoum Bahri and old Omdurman continued for the fifth day. The one in the southern Omdurman at the El Rousi square continued as well despite attempts by the authorities to disperse it.