The Story of Heba

Based on a true story, names were changed...

At the tender age of 12, Heba changed many people around her, except her murderers.

Heba had no idea what awaited her at home when her older brother caught her holding hands with a boy.

The boy, an innocent crush, was her classmate and the pre-teen flirtations were viewed as a crime by her brother.

Her brother was so angry at the scene, he quickly grabbed her by the arm and took her home, but this was just the beginning of the story.

A few days later, her angry father went to her school to tell the principal why his daughter has been absent for days. 

"My daughter is a whore and she is being kept home and punished," he told the principal as he recounted the story.

Everything changed at Heba'a school. The young boys and girls were seperated, the classroom was no longer mixed as the school attempted to prevent such "problems" from taking place. This could, after all, tarnish the school's reputation.

Heba's friends were crying, they missed her, but little did they know that their friend was being punished severely. She was tied to her bed in a room she was not allowed to leave. Her food was brought to her. Her brothers and father took turns beating and physically and psychologically abusing the child.

Her mother wanted all of this to stop, but she could not find a voice to protest. She could not say any word to spare her daughter from this torture.

One day, Heba's bestfriend, Mias, insisted to visit. Her mother accompanied her to Heba's house. 

Heba's mother told them that she is being beaten, in an innocent gesture, she agreed to let Mias's mother see her.

Mias's mother was glad her daughter did not come upstairs with her. The scene was horrific. She saw poor Heba tied to a bed. She was helpless, a girl who could possibly be killed was in front of her.

A few days later, Heba managed to escape from her house. She went to hide in her friend's house. Mias's mother was worried about the consequences of this, she convinced Heba to go back to her house and ask for permission to visit Mias.

Mias never saw Heba again. When she returned home, her brothers and father beat her to death. Her mother was pleading for them to stop, but they could not. She was bringing shame to her family....

The police showed up to Mias's house. Her poor mother was accused by Heba's family of beating her to death. They had a solid case, in their mind that is, Heba visited Mias shortly before she succumbed to her death.

In the end, noone was charged. Heba didn't live to see her teens, Mias was traumatized for a long time, crying for her friend.

There was a silence at the funeral..... Heba's mother lost her mind, literally. She looked at her own sons and husband with blank eyes. She hated her eldest son the most, she remembered how she begged him to stop before it was too late...

The Story of Sawsan

At the height of the conflict in Higleig, the NISS summoned Sawsan Atora, a mother who was previously affiliated with the SPLM.

Atora went to the questioning and was told that she needs to leave to the South. Although she hails from South Sudan, Atora is married to a North Sudanese and resides in Khartoum.

Atora was given a week to leave "Sudan".

Even before the week was up, she was arrested by NISS and transferred to the Omdurman Women's Prison.

She had no idea where she was. A mother of six children, she spent her days worrying about her children. One of them left school to get a job as she was the main bread-winner. 

When the rainy season came, Atora worried that their roof would not survive the rain and it would collapse on her children.

She was kept at the prison since April until NISS forgot about her, in fact Atora became an unknown detainee. No one wrote or tweeted about her during her detention, in fact I only found out about her after they began releasing some detainees. 

Atora became lucky when the cells became full and she had to share the cell with a few other detainees.

A detainee released a few days ago said that when she was called for interrogation, Atora told her that she would like to meet an officer.

For over 3 months, not a single officer came to her cell, she has not faced a single interrogation.

When the former detainee told the officer that Atora wants to see him. He said "she is still here?"

She was forgotten even by NISS.

Atora was released a few days ago with eye problems. 

The Random Arrests

So I have not written a blogpost in a very long time. In fact, I've not written anything in a long time. This is long over-due, but at least I am writing it now!

Since Sudan began revolting in mid-June, hundreds have been detained. Many remain in detention , mostly men since most female detainees were released in the last few days. Since its easier to highlight the arrest of politicians or activists, many names were left off lists of detainees, in particular, the random people arrested.

The random people arrested were arrested just because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time. Let me give you a few examples.

-A good friend of mine was getting arrested by two NISS officers when the owner of the grocery shop he happened to be  standing in front interfered. The kind man told them that this young man was doing nothing wrong and why are they arresting him anyways? He was arrested with my friend and released a few hours ago. At the same time, some kids playing football were curiously observing the arrest only to get arrested along with the guy.

One man arrested randomly , an electrician who was fixing something at the house of one of the detainees when the NISS raided her house, was given a hard time. He kept telling the NISS that he was an electrician to no avail, they kept telling him that he "thinks he is smart for being in disguise" and accusing him of "pretending to be someone he is not". The poor electrician fainted in detention from all the stress after saying that he has not eaten anything the whole day. 

-When Mawahib Majzoub and her husband were arrested after NISS raided their house, they happened to have guests at the time. Yes, the guests who do not even live in Khartoum were arrested with them and released the next day. 

-When Girifna activist, Rudwan Dawood, was arrested in early July, his brother and father were arrested along with him. His brother's mental condition exacerbated due to the detention conditions and torture, this did not stop NISS from including him and the father, Yacoub Dawood, in the court case against the activist.

-For the NISS, Seraj Omar represents a challenge. Tall, skinny, smart and equipped with excellent security skills ( as a result of being affiliated with the communist party), Seraj has vanished into thin air. The NISS raided his house a few weeks ago, he managed to escape, but this didn't stop them from arresting his brother and two uncles. The uncles were released, but his brother, a  non-politically activist youth remains in detention to pressure Seraj to hand himself in.

There are many other cases of haphazard arrests, I just wanted to highlight a few. Freedom to all detainees and freedom to Sudan from the NCP rule

A Story of the Lives Affected When One Country Became Two

published @http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/reem-shakwat/sudan-when-one-country-becomes-one_b_1658532.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

On 9 July 2011, when South Sudan became an independent country, Rose Michael, a South Sudanese woman who had lived most of her life in Khartoum, decided to stay in the city where she had a great job and owned a house. But in April 2012, Rose had to leave for Juba after her employer let her go. She planned to return to Khartoum. But then she lost her Sudanese passport and now she can't return because the war has escalated and flights are cancelled.

When the Sudans separated, Anas Zanga was stuck in the middle. With a Sudanese mother and a South Sudanese father this young man has a split identity. He struggled to get Sudanese citizenship and as a result couldn't find a job. When I met him last March, he told me that his wife is six months pregnant and he was worried the child would be stateless like him.

Nanjoor is also caught up in a war not of her making. She is from Abyei, an area contested by the two sides. In her makeshift tent in a camp for returnees to the South she makes mint tea and tells me her story. Her husband is from South Sudan and lives in Juba, but she has a life in Khartoum and does not want to go to the South. Clad in a toub, the Sudanese national costume, Nanjoor looks like any woman you see in a market or public bus, but that's not an identity available to her now.

Mohamed Saeed is from the Nuba Mountains and works as a driver for an international NGO in Khartoum. Over the past year, he has hosted seventy internally displaced persons from Nuba. Jalila Khamis, an activist from the region, had taken in twenty-one internally displaced persons, who had all walked for days to reach the safety of her Khartoum house.

She was arrested in March 2012.

I chose peace between Sudan and South Sudan when I read about the 1987 Ed-Da'in massacre where 1,500 were brutally murdered. I choose peace in the Nuba Mountains because I don't want to see families living in caves; I want Nubas to live in dignified conditions. And because I choose peace, I choose to revolt. I choose to join thousands of protestors demanding change in Sudan because only regime-change will bring peace to Sudan.

I choose peace because last year, my friend, Rashaida Shams Al-Deen was tried for participating in an anti-war protest for Southern Kordofan and she has now been detained for two weeks for choosing to protest for peace. I choose peace because Mosaab, a nine-year-old kid who cleans cars on Nile Street walked from Blue Nile to Khartoum on his own. He does not even know where his family is. I choose peace because I choose humane life.

Names have been changed for security reasons
www.wechoosepeace.org #ChoosePeace

Social media attracts youth to #SudanRevolts

With the start of #SudanRevolts, a hashtag that helps aggregate information on the mass protests spreading across Sudan to topple the regime, many newcomers to twitter have emerged. Over the last one week, Mansoor El-Tayeb, a computer scientist working with children in-need is live-tweeting from Wab-Nobawi, the site of one of the largest protests for two Fridays in a row. El-Tayeb has tweeted on the heavy security presence and marked down their specific location.

“There are many security trucks and tok-toks without plates,” he tweeted.

Another tweep, Zeinab Elrayah, has become very active in encouraging protestors and updating on the situation at the University of Khartoum.

Today she tweeted” our parents are worried about us from arrests and torture, what do they call what we are in? It is the same thing, if not worse.”

Others like Yousif Al-Mahdi, an active tweep, stared a blog to share his thoughts. Two days ago, he wrote down a blog-post called “security tips for #Sudanrevolts” and circulated it widely. The post discusses basic security tips such as not using phone for internet and social media security.
He also divulges into a sensitive topic, arrest.

“You’ll be surprised how little NISS know. Most of the information they have is fabricated or incomplete; provided by informants under pressure to deliver their weekly quotas,” he writes and assures people that if they are not outed as activists to the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS), they should not mention their affiliations and even if they are known, they should not give information.

Another new blogger, Sara Al-Hassan who started blogging at www.b45.tumblr.com , translated the story of an 11-year-old who arrested by mistake and kept for three days in detention from a Sudanese online forum.

For the past few weeks, Al-Hassan has tweeted and blogged pictures of people from all around the world showing their support for #SudanRevolts. The pictures came in from Ireland, Bolivia, France and many more countries.

Even if youth in different countries sympathize with #SudanRevolts and support with this movement for change, the international media doesn’t feel the same way.

For instant New York Times carried an article called “Dissent Sprouts in Sudan , but it may not be Arab Spring”.
In the article, he quotes a Sudanese protestor who said that he is marching because “we lack freedoms” , but added a quote from John O. Voll , a Sudan specialist at Georgetown University stating that “ unlike protesters in Egypt, Libya or Bahrain, the Sudanese have not been able to occupy anything, not even a single public square.”

Sudanese tweeps and protestors are exuding a lot of optimism about this being the beginning of the end. From the beginning, the hashtag picked was “Sudan Revolts” and in Arabic, the hashtag uses the word “intifada” which translates into revolution in Arabic. All this enthusiasm is not reflected in the media leading protestors to show outrage at international channels like Al-Jazeera, a news channel that was instrumental in covering the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions.

@SuperMojok tweeted from a protest in Wad-Nobawi in Omdurman that there are
“Signs shown against aljazeera tv coverage #SudanRevolts”

Another Sudanese tweep, Cordoned Sudan tweeted that it is just a matter of time.
“People are writing of #SudanRevolts just as little as they were during Tunisia’s initial weeks of uprising. It’s coming.”

#SudanRevolts - post 2 (late June) -My friends are detained

This week, I went to meet Rashaida Shams Al-Deen , an activist with
the Girifna movement. I met her in South Khartoum to discuss helping
protestors access lawyers. We met for only 20 minutes and I remember
commenting that she was wearing a very beautiful dress.

The next day, all of her phones are off. I found out a few hours
later that Rashaida was arrested. The details of her arrest are very
little. We know that she was in the Amarat area at about 9:30 p.m, she
was not seen since then. Yesterday night, a source told me that she is
being held by the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS)
in Omdurman.

Last Friday, during a protest in Khartoum, another friend, Usama
Mohamed was picked up by the police then taken by the NISS. Just a few
days earlier, he had appeared on Al-Jazeera English and talked about
his participation in the June 30 protests.

Arrests are too common in Khartoum nowadays. You find lists of
detainees circulating online and you can’t help but recognize many
names. Some are activists, journalists and some are even family or
friends.

A few days ago, I was shocked when I found out that one of my cousins
was arrested in one of Khartoum protests. Sudan has been rocked by
nation-wide protests for ten days now. Initially, the protests came
out of the University of Khartoum culminating in nation-wide protests
on Friday 22 June 2012 where hundreds were arrested and major clashes
happened with the police.

This cousin has no political affiliation and is not an activist, but
in the span of a few hours, his life has completely changed.
His laptop and phone were confiscated and unfortunately, a work
colleague saw him getting arrested and although his work facilitated
his release from detention, he received a warning and had the company
car confiscated from him.

Like other protestors who were detained, he has a court case against
him and is at risk of receiving a lashing sentence or a hefty fine.
There is so much at stake when you decide to go out to protest in
Sudan. I was told about a young man in Al-Daim neighborhood who was
caught lightening a tire during a protest which is a common act of
defiance in which protestors light tires to stop traffic then go on to
protest.

The young man was given a 6 month suspended sentence meaning that if
he is caught in another protest, he will serve jail time.
Many of the protestors who have a case opened against them upon arrest
are charged with public disturbance and receive 20 to 60 lashes or ask
asked to pay a fine. Sometimes this fine is unofficial and it becomes
a bribe.

The arrests are ongoing, losing friends and colleagues to detentions
are becoming part a personal sacrifice amidst what is happening. With
each passing day, the arrests are coming closer to home.

When my best
friend, Maha El-Sanosi, was arrested this week, I received a call
from her sister while armed security agents were raiding her house and
taking her with them. She conveyed a message : Reem, she is telling
you to leave now.

I remember as a kid , we played this game when we were asked to state
the five items we will take with us incase we have to evacuate our
house in five minutes.

In less than five minutes, I packed one dress, a towel, my pajamas and
in my small bag, I took my laptop , passport, a bag of chocolate and a
box of oatmeal brought to me the same night by a friend.

I got into the car with my uncle. A few days before, my car was
attacked by a man I later found out has links to the NISS, but we had
to leave fast and he drove the car with shattered windows.

We drove for less than ten minutes when I asked my uncle to take me
back home. I felt that escaping is pointless and I felt guilty that my
best friend was going through all of this alone. I couldn’t get myself
to stay at anyone’s house and bring trouble to their doorstep.

I received so many calls and messages asking me to leave and
convincing me that it is better for me to be somewhere else and continue
writing. We went back home, parked the car and then I spoke to my
father whose soothing voice and logic convinced me. He told me that
because we are doing a lot at such a critical time and in order to
continue working, I need to live.

My friend came into the house at this point and told me that another
friend was waiting for us. I was going to stay at the house of distant
relatives.

I arrived there at about 1:30 a.m. I began co-writing a statement
about my best friend’s arrest and tweeting and sending emails to media
contacts. She was finally released a little after 3 a.m. and asked to
come back tomorrow morning for an interrogation.

I spoke to her before I went to bed and it was apparent that many big
men were scared of two girls in their early twenties.

#SudanRevolts- Post 1 (Written on 27/June)

It didn’t take us long to reach Al-Daim, a suburb in Khartoum where reportedly mass protests were taking place. For security reasons, we took Mohamed Naguib street instead of Al-Sahafa and had plans to park the car and walk or take any other method of transportation.

We were stopped in the middle of Mohamed Naguib street, not by police but by burning tires. Protestor were creating zones, they would burn tires and protest between them.

A eyewitness who was at Al-Daim protest said that the police found a way to get in and surround the protestors and attack them with tear-gas.

The protests took place on main streets and typical of Sudanese neighborhoods, the main streets have a lot of side-streets full of houses. The side-streets are narrow and this is why the tear-gas had a stronger impact there.

A friend commented that a different type of tear-gas was used this time, not the one we experienced during the March protests after Awadia Ajabna, a teacher was shot down by the police.
“This tear gas has an effect the minute it is unleashed,” commented a protestor.

There were reportedly many unconscious protestors in Al-Daim because of the tear-gas.
There were many protests in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, and other states in Sudan since last week and Friday protests were part of what was called “SandStorm Friday”.

There was a sandstorm on Friday and heavy rain in some areas, but the protests still happened. The plan was for people to take to the streets after the Friday prayers and in some areas such as Wad-Nobawi, an old district in Omdurman, this happened.

A protest, partially organized by the Umma party, an opposition party, began in Wad-Nobawi right after prayers ends where youth, elders and even children took part.
The area was tear-gassed and one protestor was reportedly taken to the hospital, reported a Sudanese tweep. In one room, I sat with my friend , both of us were on the phone or updating twitter or sending emails. We were overwhelmed and wanted a break , but could not take a break for at least a few hours.
We were both tired, I was jet-lagged and she was drained from covering the protests for days, but we kept having our friends arrested. On the way to one protest, we saw a police car driving away with four detained. We drove fast, following the car, trying to take pictures of the arrested guys and when they drove away really fast, I told them that we are not forgetting them.

Right now, the list of arrested individuals has exceeded the hundreds and the protests are still ongoing. The last protests happened on Street 60. We drove there an hour ago, trying to dodge the big rocks lying on the street. To our right, we saw a number of police cars parked near the Riyadh police station, to our left , we saw many plain-clothed security agents.

It is almost ridiculous how we can tell security agents even if they are dressed in civilian clothes. Most of them are dressed in safari suits and they all have a common feature so they know each other, sometimes its a “bic” pen in their chest-pocket.

A spreadsheet with the list of detainees was initiated by an activist and the list keeps getting longer. Some protestors such as Assad Ali who is also a tweep was released after his detention inspired much fury on twitter.

Others are still held, their whereabouts are unknown. Some names are familiar, others are unknown to me, some are even as young as 17 years old. I’m utterly speechless at their courage. The older generation is always choosing stability and telling us not to take to the streets so Sudan doesn’t break down into a million parts, we as youth feel obligated to protest because we want the Sudan that our parents and grandparents told us about, the Sudan we have never seen.

The protests were actually supposed to begin on June 30, the 23^rd anniversary of the Sudanese regime. Just this month, I turned 23. I graduated college, worked in two newspapers and did a number of working gigs and the same government is still in power. I’m now tweeting and writing this story from a safe place. It is a busy night and I’m overdosing on tea, I am trying to find information about the detainees.