"Sudan has been exposed to the brutality of the dogmatic ideology of political Islam, and the people have been stripped of their dignity"

Hala Alkarib is the Director of the Strategic Initiative for women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA). In this article she speaks honestly and passionately about political Islam and the plight of women in Sudan in ways that, if a non-Muslim in the West said the same things, they would be branded a "racist, bigoted Islamophobes."

"Sudanese Women - You Can Beat Us but You Cannot Break Us," by Hala Alkarib for Pambazuka News via AllAfrica.com, October 3:

Political Islam in Sudan remains very strong and manifests itself in floggings of Sudanese women that are justified by the constitution in the Indecent and Immoral Acts. Yet, Sudanese women remain defiant and resist these unjust and misogynistic laws
While the anger is accumulating in Sudan and peaceful demonstrators are being injured and killed by the Sudanese regime forces, this comes as a natural result of years of injustices.

Sudan has been exposed to the brutality of the dogmatic ideology of political Islam, and the people have been stripped of their dignity. The story here is just a tip of the iceberg. Sudanese women are the mirror of the cruelty and disparity imposed by the ruling regime.

For 25 years now, women in Sudan have been flogged publicly. The current Sudanese regime's ideology was clear from day one; terrorizing women - which amounts to paralysing a whole nation. Like all dogma in political Islam, the regime sat and agreed that the road to secure their position was through controlling women's bodies, minds, existence and interaction in public.

Their misogynistic ideology is based on women being problematic and in need of being disciplined and controlled: that women are both dangerous and the main instigator of immorality, equally responsible for all evil in society, hence the need to be told how to behave in public.

Read it all:
[link to allafrica.com]