The ABCs of Sustainable Development Goals and Sudan’s situation VI

Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

By Dr. Hassan Humeida

“This essay is dedicated to A gift to the Asia Journalists Association (AJA) and to its magazine AsiaN on the anniversary of their establishment.

A special tribute to AsiaN founder and publisher Mr. Lee Sang-Ki. The essay is also dedicated to the Korean Journalists Association for its strong support of journalists in the Republic of Korea and across the world.

As Goal 5 of the United Nations Sustainable Achievement Goals is to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls,” I hope that all our female colleagues and friends in the field of journalism may enjoy gender equality in rights and duties.”

Kiel, Germany: The fifth goal of the Sustainable Development Goals seeks to achieve gender equality in rights and duties. Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world.

This can be achieved by obtaining equal rights to education, health, protection, decent work opportunities, and career progression to the top of the work hierarchy.

Achieving this goal is based on eight targets:

First: End violence of all kinds against women. Violence includes exploitation in its physical and sexual forms, extortion and human trafficking.

Second: End discrimination against women everywhere, especially in educational and work institutions.

Third: sharing family duties and unpaid household chores between the partner spouses.

Fourth: End harmful customs, such as female circumcision, genital mutilation, child marriage, early marriage, and forced marriage, especially consanguineous marriage, which has genetic effects that are harmful to the health of future generations.

Fifth: Ensure the possibilities of sexual and reproductive health for birth control and determination for the sake of women’s health and the protection of girls.

Sixth: Ensure women’s right to work, the opportunity to rise to leadership positions in decision-making, implementing it and adopting its consequences, and keeping women abreast of modern technology, especially communications and information technology.

Seventh: Empower women with their rights to wealth and economic resources, accept their ownership of land and other property, and guarantee their right to inheritance in accordance with the development of individual rights laws prevailing in each country.

Eighth: Enact laws and legislation to be implemented by all countries, for the sake of equality in the rights and duties of women and girls.

Based on statistics related to this goal by the United Nations for 2022, there are an estimated 18 countries in which a man has the right, under the law, to prevent his wife from working. The percentage of women who own agricultural land globally is about 14%, but 43% of women work in agricultural fields. About 60% of women work in the informal economy, which makes them vulnerable to poverty.

Women’s representation in women’s political positions does not exceed 24% on average, and in only 46 countries, it exceeds 30%, with the percentage of women’s parliamentary seats exceeding 30%.

In 39 countries, women do not have equal inheritance rights with men. There are about 750 million women and girls who were married before the age of eighteen, and every fifth girl is subject to forced marriage of children and minors.

Around 200 million girls in 30 countries suffered female genital mutilation (FGM) affected, and 49 countries do not have laws that protect women from domestic violence.

Sudanese women have a significant role in society, as they were pioneers in leadership in the ancient history of Sudan, and were pioneers in the country’s reemergence domestically and at the African and Arab levels externally.

Sudanese women have been positive in their management of family life and community duties for a long time, and their influence in several areas in the Sudanese society is evident.

Sudanese women shined in their own development and the progress of their country. They were pioneers in medicine, science, law, media, sports, politics, economics, and the arts.

Sudanese women have contributed massively in several fields, such as education and eradication of illiteracy, health and prevention, combating poverty and hunger, rural and civil development, and establishing and consolidating the foundations of peace in society.

If we review the definition of the word Kandaka or “Kandaqa” as mentioned in Wikipedia, we find that it is considered a title for ruling queens or a title that means the first royal wife in the African Kush civilization in ancient Sudan.

Among the well-known Sudanese kandakas throughout history are Amani Shekhito, Amani Terry, Amani Rinas, Nawi Damak, and Mulagirbar.

Sudan also has kandakas in the modern era in various fields. Some of the names are: Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim, Fatima Abdulmahmoud, Ihsan Mohammed Fakhri, Zainab Al Obaid Youssef, Zuri Sarkissian, Khalida Zahir Al Sadati Sorour, Donia Suleiman Okasha, Laila Zakaria Abdulrahman, Sarah Al Fadel Mahmoud, and Nafisa Abu Bakr Al Malik, Malikat Al Dar Mohammed Abdullah, Aisha Al-Bashir Mohammed, Fatima Abu Bakr, Afaf Safwat, Laila Al Maghribi, Esssia Abdulmajid, Asma Hamza Bashir, Hawa Jah Al Rasul, and Aisha Musa Ahmed Idris.

There are also the martyrs of the glorious revolution, such as Sitt Al Nafour Ahmed and her companions may God rest their souls in eternal peace.

Sudan has long traditions in the prominent role and position of women in the Sudanese society. This covenant is often governed by where the woman is and how much education she has received. This is regardless of the type of education, be it education in isolation or at the university.

Women’s levels in reading and writing are the key to their chances of enjoying equal rights.

Sudan, as a country, differs by virtue of its educational and cultural development over the years, from its neighbors. Educated women with work experience can occupy the highest ranks and be leaders of mixed groups whose members heed their views, follow their decisions, and implement their recommendations without feeling inferior to them.

However, this bright situation has suffered lately because of the unfair totalitarian rule that forced a large number of qualified and competent women into a maze of unemployment due to the unfair distribution of jobs, scholarships, promotions, and the usual professional progression in the work ladder.

The reference for women’s opportunities and progress is an unfair and unequitable distribution inked to political inclinations or activities in a political party that the totalitarian regime fears will prevail in the institutions.

Such negative practices will disappear only with the establishment of a lasting peace and optimal governance for the country and its people.

Injustices and suffering have increased since the beginning of the war in mid-April 2022 and continue until today. There are many girls who have attended schools and universities, but with the ongoing war, education and training, the most important thresholds for working life, have been disrupted.

The absence of school and educational institutions for girls means wasting women’s potential for advancement and progress and, eventually, achieving gender equality in employment opportunities, management, and decision-making.

The war may have set back the advancement of women in Sudan for many years, due to the loss of work opportunities or to early marriage for students who could not complete their education.

This deplorable situation has thrown many girls into the drama of forced marriages and consanguineous marriages mandated by traditional thinking to preserve the honor and dignity of the girls’ families or due to the inability of some families to meet the requirements of a segment of children who were previously busy with their schools and education.

Such hasty and forced marriages that invariably result in early pregnancies and birth of children lead to a decline in family planning.

The ongoing war in Sudan is also a cause of women’s economic and financial deterioration. Women have lost work opportunities in various fields in which they have traditionally made great contributions. Because of poverty, women can also be exposed to both physical and sexual blackmail, often the first step towards human trafficking. This is when a woman loses her opportunity to work and make money.

Although this is not the case of every woman or girl in Sudan, it has become more common, especially in disintegrated and broken societies where there is no generous social solidarity between its members, based on the principle of the rich help the poor, and the poor help the needy, as is usually the case in Sudan, especially during wartime.

There are people and mercenaries with vile souls and a total disdain for values who promote strife among the people of Sudan, and use violence against women. They force the Sudanese men into the pit of physical and sexual violence against women.

Their aim is to ensure that the wars in Sudan become overwhelming and the country is divided into small states before it disappears forever.

Sudan is among the leading countries in reducing domestic violence against women, although this is not compatible with some types of sexual violence related to the circumcision of girls or early marriages in Bedouin areas.

Even the physical and sexual violence that occurred against women and girls during the war has nothing to do with the Sudanese army or police.

We have never heard in our lifetime in Sudan that a Sudanese girl or woman was raped by a police or army officer whose motto are pride and dignity.

To take serious steps towards the fifth goal of the Sustainable Development Goals, and to achieve gender equality in Sudan, the current war must end immediately.

The end of the war would be crucial for the advancement of women in Sudan and would empower them to play again their critical role in the regional and economic development of the country.

In fact, the growth of Sudan across several fields before the war was achieved in partnership with Sudanese women thanks to their remarkable education, specialization, experience, leadership, and decision-making, sense of responsibility and courage.

Sudanese women have been the core of the national feminist advances and development since the Kushite and Meroitic civilizations.

In fact, they are the are the mothers of the queens of the Nubian civilization in Africa as a whole.

They can live in peace and security and contribute effectively to the development of the Sudanese society and help it reach the glory and honor it rightfully deserves.