Women in Sudan

I remember in a biology class i had in high school the teacher saying that scientists can trace the DNA of woman back to North Africa- one of the cradles of civilization. Humankind flourished from these withered and dry regions of the Middle East and Africa. These lands were once stitched together under God's proud eyes. It seems ironic that the violence and horror of these gardens, these fertile grounds of civilization, is like a rabid bull let out of a rusted cage. Are we really Evolving? or going in vicious cycles of Devolution? I don't want to die ignorant, not knowing other places, cultues and people.

"Women will not tell you easily if such a thing happens to them. In our culture, it is a shame, and women will hide this in their hearts so that the men do not hear about it", one woman refugee in Chad told Amnesty International in 2003. http://www.amnestyusa.org/, http://www.amnesty.org/

Violence against women is rampant in countries where women are viewed as property. Rape brings dishonor to their society, therefore it is often used by the perpetrators and is rarely reported by women.
Rape is being used a s a tool of war in Darfur, Sudan and into eastern Chad when millions of Darfuris are fleeing for sanctuary. Young women risk getting raped and abducted going out to get water. HIV/AIDS is now deadlier than terrorism.

Sudan is like 2 countries trapped in one. In the north are the Arab Muslim Sundanese and in the south, where the precious oil lies beneath, are the black, tribal Sudanese. In 2003, the Janjawid, an armed violent militia, created by the government, was sent out to ethnically cleanse the black tribes of Sudan.
Between 2004-2005, over 500 victims of rape were treated in clinics set up in Darfur. Even, now, with the African Union in Darfur, the cases of rape have actually INCREASED. Many Darfuris have said that the degree and masses of the rapes are something that they have not seen before in conflict. This may be why women are beginning to talk about it. It may have happened before, it was just never reported as often.

"They beat us and told us that you blacks are not going to stay here, we will finish you all. They then grabbed my half-sister who was only 10 years old... I saw two of them lie with my half-sister and then they went away. When we got there she was very hurt and was bleeding. She continued to bleed for the following two days and then died."
www.amnestyusa.org/darfur

I know why the willow weeps. Woman evolved from the Creation Tree, planted from the cradled seed of God’s sent angel during the Battle of Genesis.

The delicate creature, transitioned from girl to woman, now clings to the side of the tree, as if trying to catch a breath of life from the passing breeze. Her wide, ebony eyes, like the wings of newly emerged butterfly meditatively open and close. Woman’s gentleness allowed mankind to destroy her. Mankind did not respect her beauty, her modesty, her mystery, her cosmic wisdom, therefore she weeps. Not one sex is better than the other. Both men and women are needed to create and sustain Life. However, God chose the Woman to hold and nurture new Life. So then, why is Woman’s wisdom, feelings and emotions seen as secondary of importance? How did Man become to “know best”? A Woman has an almost divine intuition that cannot be explained only followed for survival of our kind.