Stories from Our Reality: Journey of a Darfurian Woman

He spotted her, wearing her school uniform, standing with a bunch of girls in front of an all girls’ school. To him, they all looked plain... dull, even. But she, on the other hand, stood out ever so elegantly. In all certainty she was the most beautiful young woman he’d ever seen. Even from afar, her big brown eyes were gleaming with splendour, and her dark chocolate skin was the fairest he’d ever laid eyes on. Their eyes met for a split second of majesty… she caught a glimpse of him and gave the most radiant smile, emerging her glistening teeth that to him appeared whiter than pearls, then timidly looked away.

Finally, he gathered the courage to approach her in the midst of the crowd of girls… but this was far from a normal situation. This was not merely the case of a guy approaching a girl whom, after only one glance, knew was the one for him. It was not as simple as a love-at-first-sight scene where the guy expresses his feelings and the girl forces a bashful smile.

In reality, it was a time of war, and he, a 26-year-old Northern Sudanese soldier, has fallen for an 18-year-old Darfurian girl. It was a critical position to say the least, where a state filled with bloodshed, racism and political unrest that suffered from harsh economic measures knew very little about racial tolerance. Yet, even though the chances of something sparking between the two of them were next to nil, the army soldier refused to hold back.

“Marry me,” were the only two words he uttered to her. Her friends, astounded by what had just happened, all turned to see her expression; which was blank. He anticipated for her to articulate something for what he felt was an eternity, but in fact were purely a few moments. Finally, she responded. “Our house is right over there,” she said, pointing at the old brick house just down the end of the road.

Later that night, he made an appearance at the house that she had earlier described. He was welcomed inside and introduced himself as Emad. The old man who invited him in appeared to be the young woman’s father, and Emad did not hesitate to ask for his daughter’s hand almost immediately. He anxiously awaited the response of the old man, only to hear him voice out the name of his future’s wife for the very first time; “It is up to Khadija, my son”.

Just like that, two weeks later Khadija and Emad were married. She moved to Khartoum to live with her husband at the housh, the big family house. It wasn’t very big though, or at least their share of the house wasn’t. Khadija and Emad were crammed in the tiniest room in the house. It was a room that had a very small kitchen with very few utensils, a tiny bathroom, and two metal beds joined together. Khadija didn’t mind the simple life… all she cared about was taking care of her husband.

Little did Khadija know that she was about to embark into the most difficult journey of her life. Dealing with her sister-in-law Nadia, who objected to this marriage from the very beginning, was a daily struggle. Nadia’s disapproval of her brother’s marital union was purely racist-driven. She was ashamed to tell people that a young woman from the West was part of their family, so she kept Khadija isolated in her part of the house and forbade her from engaging in any family activities around the housh. Khadija was patient about all of this, but it was very gruelling for her especially since Emad was always away.

It was manageable for Khadija at first; she would wait for Emad to return home every few months and would then make the best out of it. The little quality time she would spend with him was well worth all the suffering she was forced to endure day to day. Khadija was beginning to get used to how things were, until a few months later she became pregnant. As much as she and her husband were ecstatic about welcoming a new baby into their family, Khadija couldn’t help but worry about their current living arrangements and their financial situation. Emad did not make much money, and with the baby due they would not be able to afford basic things like food and electricity.

Khadija found herself taking matters into her own hands. She started working privately for women around the neighbourhood as a beautician. With her stomach expanding, she still managed to circulate around the area, going door-to-door offering her services to married women. She would wax, scrub and sell her home-made natural face scrubs, and shortly after her business took off.

Initially, Emad was typically not happy about his wife working and occasionally bringing in more money than him. But as life got harder and basic commodities became more expensive, he eventually accepted it. In a week’s time, Khadija would earn more money than her husband does in a month. Things were looking up for the young couple as Khadija’s business bloomed.

After giving birth to Ahmed, the young boy found himself dragged to his mother’s beauty calls at a very small age. She was unable to leave him at the house unattended, and Nadia refused to do any babysitting for her while she worked. Predictably, Nadia was very critical of Khadija’s job, and at times expressed her jealousy in unsubtle ways.

While Nadia thought of Khadija’s job as demeaning, Khadija didn’t care. All she was concerned about was maintaining her customers, who loved her pleasantness and soft-spoken nature and often tipped her well.

Singlehandedly, Khadija was able to support her child and help out her husband. Like any young Darfurian woman with big dreams, she came to Khartoum expecting to lead a normal life away from the depressions of the war and the harsh circumstances back home. Instead, she was met with discrimination, punitive living conditions and desertion. While this may have been enough to shatter the hopes and dreams of any woman in her shoes, Khadija persevered and beat all odds, and did not care for or respond to racism and intolerance, as ‘hate’ was not a word in her vocabulary.

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Disasters following the ICC decision

The indicted president had his share of dancing today as the cheering crowd marched by the Republican Palace, demonstrating to the whole world his indifference about the ICC's decision.

As a form of retaliation for the ICC's decision, 11 aid agencies were ordered to leave Darfur and cease operations and move out of the country as of today. This is a disaster for the 2 million and something people in Darfur dependent on such aid agencies for food, shelter and medical supplies. They are now mostly worried about possible disease outbreaks in the absence of health workers.

All this happened in the twenty four hours following the court's decision... but let's wait and see the repercussions after a longer time frame, say a month. The ICC made a huge mistake and needs to figure out a way to fix what it broke.

Arrest warrant issued for El-Bashir

So you heard. The ICC has officially issued a warrant of arrest for El-Bashir, but only on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity you see, the genocide charges were dropped!

I am not a big fan of El-Bashir, in fact I despise the man (would be an understatement) for what he has been putting our country and our people through for the past god knows how long. But the ICC just could not delay this decision, which we all knew was coming, and felt the need to make it today and ignore the fact that the first democratic elections in more than twenty years are expected this year.

The effects of this decision are not going to be trivial, considering this is the very first arrest warrant to be issued for an actual head of state. The actual president of the largest country in Africa. By now I’m guessing a lot of Arabic and African leaders are probably worried to say the least.

So what is next? We must all thank the ICC for the coup that is going to take place once again and cause the country to witness more turbulence. We must all also kiss the presidential elections goodbye if this coup ensues and kiss with it all our hopes and dreams of a better president and a better, more stable and more peaceful Sudan.

The Sudanese people think this is all a western conspiracy, and I for one can’t help but feel extremely furious that the international community stood and watched while Luis Moreno-Ocampo and the ICC judges single-handedly jeopardized the Comprehensive Peace Agreement by now causing more conflict between the Sudanese government and JEM.

There is not a chance that El-Bashir will turn himself in which means that Sudan will remain a politically isolated country which is vindicated since the only way to defend Sudan will be by completely ceasing to cooperate with the international community.

For us Sudanese citizens all we can do at this point is worry about the future of our country. Today marks one of the most critical days of Sudanese history.

Dang!

“Dang!” doesn’t even begin to describe it. It’s been almost a year and a half since I was last here. And a lot of things went down during that time. Here are just a few highlights:

1. I joined facebook.
2. There’s a global economic crisis going on and it’s on the rise.
3. Obama was elected president of the United States.
4. Israeli troops attacked Ghaza killing and injuring hundreds.
5. The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Omer El-Bashir on charges of war crimes.
6. I graduated.
7. Sami El-Haj was released from Guantanamo Bay. (I obviously have a lot of editing to do).
8. Gillian Gibbons was arrested for a “teddy bear blasphemy case” in Khartoum.
9. The rebels reached Khartoum and attacked everyone.
10. I quit facebook.

Did I mention that I finally graduated? I also joined facebook for a considerably long time, but just last night I made the decision to deactivate my account. Apparently, you can’t delete your own account. You can deactivate it, but you can reactivate it easily by logging back in. So I sent them a request to delete my account, though they haven’t done anything about it yet.

I recently discovered that there has been an economic crisis in Sudan since forever, which explains why no one can get a job without knowing someone way up the social chain. I have a lot of friends in the US and even Dubai who are extremely worried about losing their jobs. Fortunately I don’t have one to worry about in the first place.

Obama! I read in the paper last month that a Sudanese woman gave birth to a little boy and his parents named him “Barack Obama”. Sudanese people are way too fascinated by this guy. They are seriously expecting him to do something for them. I will not reveal my thoughts about him yet, maybe after he does at least 10% of the superb things that he promised he would. Guantanamo is a hell of start.

Sigh, the Ghaza conflict… 1.5 million punished for the actions of a few. Inhumane, to say the least.

El-Bashir’s arrest warrant. What a great disctraction from everything else going on in the world. And such double standards. I don’t see Bush behind any bars for sending American troops to Iraq which highly qualifies him as a war criminal. That said, I needn’t say that El-Bashir must own up to what he has been doing to innocent people in South Sudan for years and years.

I’ll be back later.

So Much for the Truce

We should've known better!

Darfur Rebels Agree to 60-day Truce

Good news!

Sudan's government and Darfur rebels have agreed to a 60-day cease-fire and a peace summit sponsored by the African Union and United Nations as steps toward stopping the violence in west Sudan, a visiting U.S. official said Wednesday.

"President [Omar al-]Bashir agreed to the start of a peace process that includes a 60-day cessation of hostilities," said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, while visiting Sudan.

Saying the temporary truce provides a "cooling-off period," Richardson told CNN that "I think it is a step in the right direction. ... I'm very excited about this breakthrough."

"What we were able to do is set up a political process that puts pressure on both sides to reach an agreement, not just on a cease-fire, but to have United Nations peacekeeping troops, to secure the borders, to stop some of the killing and the famine, " he said in the CNN interview.

Experts estimate 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing the government of neglect. Khartoum rejects Washington's description of the violence as genocide.

The African Union-U.N. peace summit is to be held no later than March 15.

Sudan also has agreed to let foreign journalists visit Darfur after a two-month ban and to remove a requirement for exit visas for aid workers, one of the biggest bureaucratic obstacles to the world's largest aid operation in Darfur.

Source

UN So-called Peace Keepers

I hate them.

They're abusing the children they should be aiding.

Peace keepers my foot! They might as well join the Janjaweed.

The Rape of Darfur

The heartbreaking story of Halima Bashir, a gang-rape and torture survivor that spoke out about an attack on primary school children in Darfur.

Her crime was to tell people that a group of Janjaweed militia and government soldiers had attacked the primary school for girls, raping pupils as young as eight. She paid a terrible personal price.

"They were aged between 8 and 13," she said. "They were in shock, bleeding, screaming and crying. It was horrific. Because I told people what happened, the authorities arrested me. They said, 'We will show you what rape is'. They beat me severely. At night, three men raped me.
"The following day the same thing, different men. Torture and rape, every day, torture and rape."

Read more on this article.

A Prayer for Our Darfurian Brothers & Sisters

Our mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters are being brutally killed.. mercilessly slaughtered.. taken innocent lives from.. forced to face harsh conditions on a daily basis.. impoverished from food and medical care.. deprived from the simple things in life that we take for granted.. coerced to give up the very things that make them human beings.. crying for our help.

Please.. join me on this silent prayer for our people in Darfur.

May Allah ease their pains... Amen.

May Allah wash their tears away... Amen.

May Allah bless the souls of their deceased loved ones... Amen.

May Allah take revenge on their oppressors... Amen.

May Allah give their women strength & courage... Amen.

May Allah watch upon their children... Amen.

May Allah protect their elderly... Amen.

May Allah reward them for their patience & their tolerance... Amen.

May Allah bestow upon them peace & serenity... Amen.

May Allah honor them by granting them Paradise... Amen.

May Allah help them forgive and forget... Amen.