بيان تضامني من طالبات جـامعـة سـميث مع صفية إسحاق ...

Quote: Press Release about Safia's Rape by Sudanese National Security Forces .by SmithSTAND on Thursday, February 24, 2011 at 9:30pm. Safia Ishag: Rape of a Sudanese Girifna Activist: http://bit.ly/exLVCG "Safia Ishag comes out to talk about her rape by the National Security Forces of Sudan as a result of her participation in the January 30 rallies as a member of the nonviolent direct action youth group Girifna" http://bit.ly/gQ5mhd Girifna wrote that "to condemn is not enough" and Safia says that we must "stand for the struggle." So far, there has been a lack of press coverage regarding the protests in Sudan and the rape of Safia. Why isn't the media covering this? Media coverage is in part determined by its viewers demand. Please take a minute to submit a brief request for a story toon the following news outlets (and feel free to do more). And/or submit a press release to your local media outlets: http://bit.ly/ewIyfP 1. Go to the following links to submit stories to: Al Jazeera (http://bit.ly/gfwgwD, email: [email protected]), BBC News (http://bit.ly/f864C9, [email protected]), Democracy Now (http://bit.ly/dWHwrf. I suggest that we target Al Jazeera primarily since it is covering the protests in the region. 2. Enter in your information. 3. Copy and paste (or attach my press release: http://bit.ly/ewIyfP) the following or write your own: On February 21st, Girifna (a student-led movement in Sudan) released information about Girifna activist, Safia Ishag’s rape. Safia was interviewed in a video where she expressed that the Sudanese National Security Forces (NSF) raped her. The NSF asked her if she had been handing out fliers to “incite” rallies with other youth and began to verbally insult her. They forced her to remove her hijab and tore up her fliers. The three men began to beat her, tied her hands back with her hijab, undressed her, and raped her. Girifna later released a video of Safia saying, “I want to send a message to any girl that got tortured. I want to tell her to be strong. To stand for the struggle.” Girifna started organizing in November 2009. In Arabic, Girifna means “we are fed up, disgusted.” Their first initiative was to promote voter education in preparation for the first elections that were to take place in April 2010, the first in 20 years. Their main goal is to resist the oppressive and genocidal regime of Omar al-Bashir. Like the protests spreading throughout Middle East North Africa (MENA), Girifna has utilized underground networking and social media (e.g., Facebook and Twitter). The Sudanese youth have been protesting since January 26th. Girifna released a statement (http://www.girifna.com/) on January 30th that stated, “If the Egyptians and Tunisians can break the fear barrier; so can we. Our history says we can: WHAT ARE WE AWAITING FOR!!!” Unfortunately, while the fear barrier has been broken in Sudan and abroad, the government and police are working avidly to restore that fear barrier. The NSF has employed brutality against the peaceful. There has been one reported death. Many more have been detained and tortured. See http://jan30sudan.crowdmap.com/main for more information that the protesters have recorded. Mohamed Elgadi, an organizer of many local human rights organizations in Western Massachusetts and a Sudanese refugee said, “This is outrageous... The raped woman is one of us, I mean one of our Girifna org... We must have communicated with her at one point and she must know about all of us and the work we are doing with Girifna.... I'm so worried about the escalation of violence against women in particular...” Rape is being used all over the world as a method to suppress dissent and perpetrate war. The victims often face legal and societal stigma; communities are destabilized as the rapist seeks to assert his “authority.” By Sudanese shari’a law, there must be eight witnesses for a case to be considered and if the victim was married, she may be incarcerated since by law it is considered “adultery.” Justice is made all the more difficult when rape is committed by the security forces or the Janjaweed. Women face similar problems all over the world. Sexual violence is being used against women of the Eastern Congo, protesters and reporters in Egypt, and many other places in the world. Girifna express that to “Condemn is not enough.” We must take action. As Safia says, we must take a stand. Thanks. In solidarity, Jamie Sullivan Chair of SmithSTAND

(عدل بواسطة Mohamed Elgadi on 02-26-2011, 04:03 AM)