News Center: Sudanese women took part in the protests that brought down the regime of Omar Hassan AL-Bashir and women’s participation recorded as an important women's presence in the history and the country have been turning point towards effective women's participation in public affairs, but their place in the new government isn't adequate.

Sudanese women are distinguished in every sphere of life at the Arab and region levels, and their role in the revolution and change is not new, during the period between 1821 and 1885 an effective women's participation took place in the Mahdi Revolution against Egyptian-Turkish rule that had a strong presence since the days of the Nubian kingdoms.

The struggle of women in Sudan for political rights backs to the 1960s, when the first woman entered the Sudanese parliament in 1965 obtaining her right to run for elections after October Revolution took place in 1964, but in 1989, the National Islamic group assumed power through a military coup by Omar Hassan Al-Bashir who adopted a repressive policy against women.

Since the outbreak of the uprising in Sudan on December 19, 2018, with the demand a reduction in food prices, and the overthrow of the regime, women's participation in the protests were unprecedented in country's political history and that participation led the regime and prosecute President Omar Al-Bashir to bring down in April 2019.

During the protests that lasted for more than five months, the Sudanese women started to be called "Kendakat", the name of the queens who ruled the ancient Mroy Kingdom. Among those Kendakat women, there was a student of architecture namely “Alaa Salah” who emerged at the forefront of the protests, and she delivered speeches and poems among the masses. The most popular people on social media described her as an "icon of the Sudanese revolution", and she was also known as "Kendakah grain."

A university student, Shajn Suleiman also joined the protests and wrote phrases on the signs to motivate the protesters, and she was later known among Sudanese as a "Kendakah of optimism and happiness". The demonstrations and protests didn't end until Omar Al-Bashir was brought down from power along with his regime on April 11, 2019.

Presence of women in negotiating delegation:

Several women joined the negotiations between the Alliance for Freedom and Change and the Sovereignty Council of Sudan; one of them was Mervat Hamad Al-Nil, who was elected to be among the negotiating delegation for NGOs after her active participation in the protests. And Maryam Sadic who had been elected as a negotiator, but they replaced her with Deputy party leader Ibrahim Al-Amin.

Activist and lawyer Ibtisam Al-Sanhouri also led the technical committee within the opposition to the negotiations; in addition to that she took part in the drafting committee of the agreement. Despite the prominent role of women during the protests, they were deliberately excluded from the negotiation process, and their representation was weak in all negotiating committees, that process shows that the male mindset controlled the decision.

During the negotiations, the two parties reached an agreement stipulating the power-sharing in a timetable for a transition period of 39 months, and the agreement concluded on August 17, 2019, paves the way for the formation of a transitional government and elections, and the president will be high power in the country.

40% women's participation in the transitional government formations

The percent of women’s participation was decided to be at least 40% in the Legislative and Executive Council in the constitutional declaration that resulted from difficult negotiations between the Sudanese Military Council and the leaders of the Forces for Freedom and Change.

The constitutional declaration, which was signed in the initials ended the elimination of all discriminatory laws against women and the Legislative Council consist of 300 members and the percent of women cannot be less than 40% in various levels of government, but feminist leaders in the forces for freedom and change demanded that women must have half of the seats in all organs of the transitional authority.

Despite convention, the new transitional government decided the participation of only four women in the ministry council that consisted of 20 ministers, and two women in the presidential council that consists of 11 members.

Women ministers in new government:

Sudanese women waited for many years to have democracy, and after the revolution, they drew a new path for the country, which launched a democratic breakthrough with the appointment of "Ibtisam Al-Sanhouri, the first female minister in the Sudanese government elected by the forces for freedom and change to the Ministry of Justice.

Asma Muhammad Abdullah was appointed in early September 2019 as the first female foreign minister in the history of Sudan in the government of Abdullah Hamduk, who was sworn in as a prime minister in the transitional government on September 6, 2019, and the third in the history of the Arab countries.

 Asma was also among the first two Sudanese women who joined the diplomatic delegation in 1971, they worked for many diplomatic missions, but she was removed from her diplomatic work under (separation for the general interest) law, a cover that the Bashir the government used to exclude those they saw as impeding their ideological program. After Omar AL-Bashir seized power, and Asma was removed along with many diplomats from the foreign ministry in 1990.

The Sudanese archaeologist Intisar Al-Zain Saghiroun, head of the Department of Archeology in the two periods (1995 to 1998) and (2003 to 2007) and Dean of the College of Arts from 2010 to 2014, was appointed as Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, but she was criticized on social media by activists who considered her trying to spread"Arabism" and to suppress the country's Nubian history, but she denied all of these accusations.

 Lina Sheikh Omar Mahjoub has appointed as Minister of Social Development. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a Master’s degree in Development Studies from the University Manchester, UK, and worked for CARE International, which deals with humanitarian issues.

 Walaa Al-Boushi, who holds a Bachelor's degree with first-class honors from the College of Engineering and Architecture from the University of Khartoum, was appointed as Minister of Youth and Sports, and she was the youngest minister in the new transitional government (33 years old), and Walaa became to be known by the Sudanese people after a picture of her with former US President Barack Obama In 2015 and she called for the lifting of the US economic sanctions imposed on Sudan during her training visit to Washington, and she was elected as president of the East and Central Africa Advisory Council to fellowship along with African young leaders, and she participated in the long sit-in protests in front of the General Command Sudanese army from April to June 2019.

A Christian feminist return for the Sovereignty Council of Sudan:

 The Coptic Christian minority, being absent from the Sudanese scene for more than half a century, supported the appointment of two women to the Sovereignty Council of Sudan consists of 11members. One of the women was Sudanese Aisha Musa Al-Saed, an academic and human rights and social activist representing Central Sudan is a graduate of the Teachers Institute in Khartoum. She holds a master’s degree in English from the University of Manchester.  Another one was Raja Abdel-Masih who worked as a legal advisor in the Sudanese Ministry of Justice for more than three decades, and was chosen as a member of the Council after the first Coptic candidate for the position of Nasri Morkos Yaqoub had faced an online feminist campaign accusing him of repeated sexual harassment.

The appointment of several women to the first government after the Sudanese revolution is a turning point in the issue of empowering women in Sudan. It is an important political and leadership positions for women after 30 years of being ignored in the name of law and male social norm.