SUDAN: A Message of Solidarity for Sudanese Women

Amid the horrors Sudanese women are facing, Nadra calls for global awareness and action.

Perhaps that warm heart of yours ignites the embers of love in our lands.

To all women on earth in the 16 Days of Activism Against Violence Against Women:

The women of Sudan are enduring one of the greatest holocausts in the history of women in the world. They are being killed and raped, their pregnant bellies left behind. The beautiful ones among them are being sold in slave markets across Africa.

The Janjaweed militia has violated their right to life and dignity. These women have experienced horrific violations that we know and do not know of, including starvation, humiliation, oppression, rape, displacement, and the brutal killing of their husbands and grandchildren. They are forcibly separated from their loved ones.

This violence cannot be accepted and can only be confronted through the hidden grace of God. In that spirit, I write.

To you, my beautiful lady

My Sudanese lady

The lady of the women of the earth, with pride and determination

Oh moon that has been exhausted by the years with tears and longing

Oh lamp

Sorry, we have not had enough ink to speak

Or insist

To do justice to you or raise your voice in our midst

War is the blackness of our pain

And the beautiful oppression is the voice of wisdom in us

And you paid the price

A husband and your sons

Burning the entrails of a body

Weared out by violence and acting

Damn and certain

We are not the salt of the earth nor does it cut us

We no longer own anything but a wasteland

It lives in us

And our helplessness until helplessness is healed

It has crept into us

But we realize that hope is a few seconds

To shine our time

To forgive the mistakes of life

To give you a few bottles of our reassurance

Perhaps that warm heart of yours

Ignites the embers of love in our lands

In Sudan, the one country

The moon of the world and our lands

STORY AWARDS

This story was published as part of World Pulse's Story Awards program. We believe every woman has a story to share, and that the world will be a better place when women are heard.