Global Roundup: Sudan Women Medics on Frontlines, Jamaica Healthcare Workers Protest Violence, Mali Women Protest Military Massacre, Trans Women Demonstrate in Scotland, Indian Women Filmmakers
Photo: The New Arab
She said she stayed up all night before deciding not to follow her husband to Egypt with her four children.
I was torn. I could either be with my children, or I could stay and do my duty. -Dr. Safaa Ali
She has not seen her family since.
Nearly two years into the war between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, she is one of the last remaining obstetricians in the capital, risking her life to give Sudanese women a shot at safe births.
In the nearly two years since, the war has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million, including more than half of the pre-war population of greater Khartoum.
Dr Safaa is one of a cohort of doctors, nurses, technicians and janitorial staff in the last hospitals standing in Omdurman, Khartoum's sister city just across the Nile.
“We find strength in our love of our country, our passion for our work and the oath we swore," Dr Safaa said in a war-damaged delivery room.
The operating theatres have been turned into battlegrounds, hospitals have been bombed and their colleagues have been killed. Yet through bombs and bullets, they turned up for their patients every day.
Bothaina Abdelrahman has been a janitor at Omdurman's Al-Nao hospital for 27 years.
She sheltered with her family in a neighbouring district for the first 48 hours of the war but has not missed a day of work since.
“I would walk two hours to the hospital, and walk two hours back," she said from the hospital, mop in hand.
For months, medical personnel have been subjected to routine accusations from combatants that they have been collaborating with the enemy or failing to treat their comrades.
Health professionals were attacked, kidnapped, killed and taken hostage for ransom. -Dr Khalid Abdelsalam, Khartoum project coordinator for medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF)
Nationwide, up to 90 percent of hospitals in conflict zones have been forced shut, according to Sudan's doctors' union, which says at least 78 health workers have been killed since the war began.
By October, the World Health Organization had recorded 119 attacks on health facilities.
"At one point, there wasn't a single working MRI machine in the country" for medical scans, Dr Khalid added.
Khansa al-Moatasem heads the 180-person nursing team at Al-Nao, Omdurman's only hospital to remain functioning throughout the war, despite repeated attacks.
It's an honour to give the hospital everything I have and everything I've learnt. -Khansa al-Moatasem
According to MSF, which supports the complex of two-storey buildings, Al-Nao has suffered three direct hits since the war began.
At the hospital gates, a sign reads: "No weapons allowed," but it frequently goes unheeded.
After the RSF stormed the nearby Saudi maternity hospital early in the war, Dr Ali, who serves as the hospital's director, steeled her nerves and went to the paramilitaries herself.
I met their field commander and I told him this was a women's hospital, only for them to storm it again the next day with even more fighters. -Dr. Safaa Ali
In July 2023, she watched one of her colleagues die when the hospital was bombed.
Eventually, the hospital was forced to close its doors after its ceilings collapsed, its equipment was looted and the walls of its delivery rooms were left riddled with bullets.
Dr Ali set up mobile clinics and a temporary maternity ward at Al-Nao until the Saudi hospital partially reopened this month.
Since army forces recaptured much of Omdurman in early 2024, a semblance of normality has slowly returned, but hospitals have continued to come under attack.
As recently as February, Al-Nao was rocked by RSF shelling as its exhausted doctors raced to treat dozens of casualties from RSF artillery fire on a crowded market.
Those hospitals which still function have been forced to rely increasingly on the help of volunteers from the local Emergency Response Rooms.
The neighbourhood groups are part of a grassroots aid network delivering frontline aid across Sudan but are mainly comprised of young Sudanese with few resources.
With no senior physicians left, Dr Fathia Abdelmajed, a paediatrician for 40 years, has become the "mother" of Al-Buluk Hospital.
For years, she treated patients at home in the Bant neighbourhood of Omdurman.
But since November 2023, she has been training teams at the small, overwhelmed hospital, "where hardworking young people were struggling since the start of the war," Dr Fathia said.
She said the work was often harrowing but the honour of serving alongside such dedicated volunteers "has made this the highlight of my career."
The peaceful protests follow the physical assault of a nurse in a road rage incident in Mount Friendship, St. Andrew last Tuesday.
St Andrew businessman Robert 'Andy' Bell, 65, has been charged with assault occasioning bodily harm, assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and assault at common law. He is also facing firearm charges. The incident, which was reportedly caught on video, and shows the nurse being stomped in the head, has sparked islandwide demonstrations calling for justice and an end to violence against women. The message was spoken through talker phones and on placards - "We are tired. We are fed up. Enough is enough!"
President of the Jamaica Enrolled Nurses Association, Claudette Clarke-Waugh, didn't mince words as she stood at the start of the protest.
We're hoping that justice will be served, but also for the others out there who are hiding under the shadows, who we don't know about -- we are letting them know that it is not okay. We want to let them know that we are tired [and] fed up. Enough is enough! -Claudette Clarke-Waugh
Dawn Marie Richards, president of the Nurses Association of Jamaica, said the protests go beyond one incident.
We are trying our best to create continued awareness regarding violence against women and children in our country. We are hoping that we can impact the policymakers to ensure that when persons are caught, they are given the full brunt of the law. -Dawn Marie Richards
She stressed the need for education and prevention just as much as punishment.
We also want to help our women and our children to learn how to identify signs of domestic abuse, signs that they can speak about, and find safe spaces. As we speak there are other activities taking place across the island, Port Antonio, St James, Westmoreland, St Ann, [and] some parts of St Mary. So it's islandwide. The nurses have been mobilised islandwide. -Dawn Marie Richards
The protest happened last Wednesday, two days after the alleged massacre. Although allegations of Malian army killings are frequent in this part of West Africa, demonstrations have been rare since military rule and restrictions on freedom of expression were installed in Mali.
The women are demonstrating their anger to denounce the alleged murder of 27 people by the Malian army last Monday…The army arrested 28 men who were at the Diafrabé market to sell their animals. The soldiers crossed the river behind the village with the prisoners, but one escaped and returned to the village to report that the army had executed the others. -Diowro Diallo, president of the Fulani association Dental Wuwardé
Diafarabé, a predominantly Fulani ethnic village located in central Mali, is an area where JNIM, an Al Qaida-linked group, is active and regularly targets the Malian army with attacks.
The army said it has launched an inquiry.
Last December, Human Rights Watch published a report accusing the Malian army and the Wagner Group of deliberately killing dozens of civilians and setting fire to at least 100 houses during military operations in central and northern Mali.
Human rights associations have regularly accused the Malian army of human rights violations since the beginning of the country’s security and political crisis in 2012. In 2020, a group of military officers took advantage of the widespread discontent against democratically elected President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta to stage a coup and seize power.
Mali's military government cut military cooperation with France and the European Union, which had troops in Mali as part of the fight against extremism, and forged new security ties with Russia instead. However, analysts say that the security situation has worsened.
Credit:Ross Macdougal
Around 200 protestors took part in the demonstration at Holyrood as they set out to "confront the Scottish government's failure to respond with strength and solidarity."
The transgender woman stood outside parliament, topless, with red painted right arms as a show of solidarity with anti-fascist feminists in Europe, tape over their mouths to represent the censorship of trans voices in this ruling and a white rose to represent the death of transgender rights in the UK.
Sophie Molly, who took part in the demonstration and helped organise the event alongside a group of transgender women across Scotland said she felt the Supreme Court Ruling and the EHRC Interim Guidance is "a real setback for bodily autonomy" and that this ruling wouldn't just hurt transgender women, but all women.
It went really well. Lots of support for trans and non-binary people. A good turn out of around 200 people. A joyous atmosphere of resilience and determination. We were joined by pro-Palestine campaigners. A good show of solidarity. -Sophie Molly
It comes after Pride Edinburgh suspended political parties from participating in this year's pride march in response to the ruling.
This year, political parties won't be invited to give the traditional pre-march speeches, political parties will not be able to have stalls at the community fair and they will not be permitted to partake in the march.
Sharing this decision on social media, organisers wrote:
It is clear those in power and the combined voices of political parties across the UK, by their silence and inaction, are not hearing the voices of our community, and it would be wrong for Pride Edinburgh 2025 to give political parties a platform at our event…Therefore, the first time in our history, Pride Edinburgh is suspending the participation of all political parties from our 2025 event. -Pride Edinburgh
(L-R) Kani Kusruti, Chhaya Kadam, Payal Kapadia and Divya Prabha at the Cannes Film Festival in 2024. Sameer Al-Doumy
"More and more women are writing their stories, turning them into films," said writer-director Reema Kagti, who believes the trend brings a more "real and healthy perspective" to movies, with complex, outspoken women characters who are masters of their own story.
The world's most populous nation churns out 1,800 to 2,000 films in more than 20 languages annually -- and Hindi-language Bollywood is one of the largest segments, with more than 300 productions.
Yet the films have often failed to portray women authentically, choosing instead to box them into being passive housewives or mothers who bow to societal pressure.
A 2023 study by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) found that female characters in most chart-topping Indian films play the role of a romantic interest -- and are "fair skinned with a thin body type and a small screen time".
But industry insiders point to a slate of women-directed movies earning international acclaim that have also scored well at the tough domestic box office.
Malayalam-language film "All We Imagine as Light", a poetic tale about two nurses forging an intergenerational friendship, was the first Indian production to win the Grand Prix at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
Director Payal Kapadia shunned the one-dimensional portrayal of women on Indian screens which tends to mimic "unrealistic standards set by society", she said, in favour of one that allows women to "just be ourselves, authentic and true to how we are in everyday life".
India's official entry for the 2025 Oscars was Kiran Rao's "Lost Ladies" -- "Laapataa Ladies" in Hindi -- a comedy which challenges convictions surrounding marriage and womanhood, a sign of a shift -- even if it missed the final shortlist.
It is not only arthouse films that are winning hearts.
Mainstream movies with strong women co-leads are filling up theatres as well.
"Stree 2", a horror comedy featuring Bollywood star Shraddha Kapoor, smashed box office records last year, beating earnings by superstar Shah Rukh Khan's action flick "Jawan".
And "Crew", a heist comedy about flight attendants, was widely seen as a win for women-centric movies.
Women still face challenges in telling stories from their perspective. However, the increasing presence of female directors, producers and writers is paving the way for more inclusive narratives. -Dia Mirza, said actor-producer
Movies can also tackle the way regressive traditions manifest in the daily lives of Indian families.
"Mrs.", a Hindi-language film released in February, dives into the unseen labour of a newlywed housewife, her silenced aspirations and the societal conditioning she struggles with.
Lakshmi Lingam, a Mumbai-based sociologist, points out that there was no backlash to the film.
Across social media, you can see people posting -- that the majority of women in India go through this turmoil….The voices of women saying, 'Yes, this is true and I can see myself there' is very high. So, there is that kind of ecosystem of women resonating with many of the ideas these women filmmakers are making. -Lakshmi Lingam
Industry figures suggest progress is being made, albeit slowly.
Last year, 15 percent of Indian movies surveyed hired women for key production positions, up from 10 percent in 2022, according to a report by Ormax Media and Film Companion Studios.
Konkona Sen Sharma, an actor-director who is a champion of women-oriented cinema, is cautiously optimistic about the role women will play in the future.
Women are increasingly present in the film industry, but "we still don't have enough women in positions of power," she said.
Mona Eltahawy is a feminist author, commentator and disruptor of patriarchy. Her new book, an anthology on menopause called Bloody Hell!: Adventures in Menopause from Around the World, has just been published. Her first book Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution (2015) targeted patriarchy in the Middle East and North Africa and her second The Seven Necessary Sins For Women and Girls (2019) took her disruption worldwide. It is now available in Ireland and the UK. Her commentary has appeared in media around the world and she makes video essays and writes a newsletter as FEMINIST GIANT.
I appreciate your support. If you like this piece and you want to further support my writing, you can like/comment below, forward this article to others, or send a gift subscription to someone else today.