Sudan: Darfur and the Displacement of Women

Blog Entry #1

Sudan: Darfur and the Displacement of Women

Name: Dua Saleh 

Course: WST250_2013SEM1-S12

Due Date: 17 October 2013

Darfur is often used as a focal point for socio-political analysis on racial strife that eventually transcends into genocide-- which is a result of many interlocking axes of oppression. Such forms include covert institutionalized racism, overt tribal tensions, internalized classism, and many more factors. The analysis that goes into research about racial warfare in Darfur is very important, but such research often overlooks the effects that the conflict and war has had on women who are from this infamously known region. Women’s’ issues are often put onto the back burner of all political agendas and are often left out of the discussion of human rights or only discussed at a shallow or hyper fetishized manner.

Internal conflict arose between nomadic Arab tribes and domestic African cattle farmers in Western Sudan that eventually proliferated into the formation of warfare in 2003. The Arab-lead Sudanese government sided with the nomadic Arabs, arming Arab militias (the Janjaweed) alongside the national government to prevent an up rise from the African farmers and the African rebel groups (the Sudan Liberation Army [SLA] and the Justice and Equality Movement [JEM]) who were fighting for rights to land. Approximately 400,000 people were killed in this war and about 3 million were displaced as a result of large efforts taken by the government to stifle any form of resistance and attempts at social reform from rebel groups and their associates. Some of the crimes against humanity that are recognized in this genocide are ethnic cleansing, systematic rapes, the pillaging of towns, the exploitation of children for warfare and sexual pleasure, etc. Eventually, this war was declared to be the 21st century’s first official genocide by UN Security Council Resolution 1564 of 2004 by authorizing an International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur.

Women have been particularly easy targets for people on both the Arab militia and the African rebel groups. Women and young girls are often raped, physically tortured, psychologically traumatized, widowed, and ultimately marginalized by male counterparts on either side of the playing field. The social residue of the war may have left the girls susceptible to violent attacks, but institutional and domestic violence has always played a role in the lives of rural women of Darfur—just as they have in nearly every single society on earth.

Many people who are victims of the war in Darfur are often left without a home because their village or town was destroyed by militias. A large sum of Sudanese people from Darfur are displaced and stripped from the right to live in their indigenous and ancestral homelands. This is one issue that often goes unaddressed in the overarching conversation about Darfur: There are a tremendous number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) -- specifically women-- who migrate from Western Sudan to shantytowns in the southern division of the capital of Sudan, Khartoum due to the preposterous level of violence in the area.

Let us take into consideration the implications encrypted in a migration from far West Sudan to far East Sudan. Imagine being a rural, illiterate, impoverished woman who has recently been displaced from home because of guerilla warfare. Now, say this woman wants to have a chance at a more prosperous future, she must now travel approximately one thousand kilometers to get to Khartoum-- mind you, this is a journey through war zones, conflict areas, rugged terrains, and completely unfamiliar land. Now, imagine having to travel throughout the terrains of Sudan without knowing any possible means of transportation, without being literate, without any money to travel from place to place, without the liberty to be independently mobile because you must be weary of your children, without reasonable safety from any predators and thieves, without any contextual framing to societal norms outside of a rural area. This is a terrifying feat that would be intimidating to any person placed in that situation, but because of unfettering determination and lack of other options, this is what millions of women have done in order to survive.

        Many people that migrate to Khartoum are often forgotten about in the grander scheme of government reparation and are often pushed into IDP camps, or more appropriately shantytowns. People who have been displaced are usually unfamiliar with the city and usually seek refuge in shantytowns and impoverished and squatter areas to survive. These squatter areas are placed in many different regions of the city, but the primary places that people squat are in the Southern Khartoum. The conditions of these shantytowns are very poor and badly kept. People who stay in those areas are usually surrounded by urban debris, trash, famine, and unhygienic drinking water. These are problems that play a prominent role in the lives of squatters that live in those areas.

        Although many of the powers of women from Darfur were stripped from them through an intermixing of injustices, women still retain dominant roles of power within their communities. Women of Darfur stay true to native administration power structures that were present in their rural areas. The IDPs that migrated use tribal roles of traditional governance within the IDP camp sites and shanty towns to uphold a sense of control over their livelihood. Women outnumber men in these IDP camps, which leaves many women with more opportunities to gain a leadership position in their small societies. An example of a leadership position held by women of Darfur is a Sheika. A Sheika is a women assigned to represent women’s issues and concerns that links them to the overarching patriarchal system of governance. These representatives act as a link between the males in the IDP camp sites and the women at the sites. This may only be one minute role to some, the fact that there is a power that allows women to have a say in law systematic ruling and law making is remarkable.

        Women also play a large role in creating solutions for systematic injustices such as displacement. Humanitarian efforts taken by people in the city of Khartoum to assist women who have been displaced have been set in place. Many of these programs provide people with many different resources to assist them with the after effects of displacement. Some programs are specific to the psychological needs of victims of the genocide. Psychological impairment is often caused by large sums of terror, usually due to violent acts. If they are not addressed accordingly, long term effects could put a hamper on the lives of those who are inflicted by it. These programs offer counseling or therapy to women and children who have witnessed or been inflicted with a traumatizing event.

Other privately funded programs directly provide women and children clean drinking water, sanitary food, proper fuel and cooking oil, and grains to help maintain nutritional value. Another program is known to provide women with free sexual education classes and health classes. These are important resources that are provided by Sudanese women and men all throughout Khartoum to displaced people from Darfur.

         The leadership positions that women hold within the IDPs and outside of the IDPs are important for helping to erode some of the oppressive injustices that are forced onto displaced victims of war. Women in power are aware of the issues that are important to other women and are more successful at understanding how certain tactics are more effective than other tactics. The methods that the women take to create solvency in their communities are usually ones that are sensitive to the geographical contexts of other women who are in a similar position. Creating administrative roles for women in IDPs and people who assist other women in IDPs is an important step that ought to be taken in order to help create change for the problem.

Works Cited

Abusharaf, Rogaia Mustafa. "Competing Masculinities: Probing Political Disputes as Acts of Violence Against Women from Southern Sudan and Darfur." Human Rights Review 7.2 (2006): 59-74. Web.

Puente, De La. "Women's Leadership in Camps for Internally Displaced People in Darfur, Western Sudan." Community Development Journal 46.3 (2011): 365-77. Web.

Badri, Alia,. "Experiences and Psychosocial Adjustment of Darfuri Female Students Affected by War: An Exploratory Study." International Journal of Psychology 48.5 : 944-53. /z-wcorg/. Web.

Kim, Glen, Rabih Torbay, and Lynn Lawry. "Basic Health, Women's Health, and Mental Health among Internally Displaced Persons in Nyala Province, South Daffur, Sudan." American Journal of Public Health 97.2 (2007): 353-61. Web.

Bechtold, Peter K. "Darfur, the ICCand American Politics." Middle East Policy 16.2 (2009): 149-63. Web.