Balghis Badri (Arabic: بلقيس بدرى, born 1948) is a Sudanese feminist activist, particularly in the fields of

female genital mutilation Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision, is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. The practice is found ...

(FGM) and the development of rural women, since 1979, and professor of social anthropology at

Ahfad University for Women Ahfad University for Women is a private women's university in Omdurman, Sudan that was founded in 1966, by Yusuf Badri, son of the Mahdist soldier Babiker Badri. The university began with only 23 students and 3 teachers. It was the first Suda ...

Early life

She comes from a family of educators. She is the daughter of Yusuf Badri, who founded

(AUW) in Khartoum in 1966, and the granddaughter of the Mahdist soldier, Babiker Badri. Badri earned her PhD in

social anthropology Social anthropology is the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures. It is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and much of Europe, where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In t ...

from the

University of Hull The University of Hull is a public research university in Kingston upon Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1927 as University College Hull. The main university campus is located in Hull and is home to the Hull ...

in England in 1978.

Career

Badri was a part-time lecturer at

from 1974 to 1997, and full-time since then, where she is now professor of social anthropology. In 2002 she founded and became the inaugural director of the AUW Institute of Women, Gender and Development Studies. Badri is the Director of the Ahfad University for Women's Regional Institute of Gender, Diversity, Peace and Rights, in

Omdurman Omdurman (standard ar, أم درمان ''Umm Durmān'') is a city in Sudan. It is the most populated city in the country, and thus also in the State of Khartoum. Omdurman lies on the west bank of the River Nile, opposite and northwest of the ...

Khartoum Khartoum or Khartum ( ; ar, الخرطوم, Al-Khurṭūm, din, Kaartuɔ̈m) is the capital of Sudan. With a population of 5,274,321, its metropolitan area is the largest in Sudan. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile, flowing n ...

. In 1979, she introduced women and gender-related studies to the university curriculums.

Writing

In February 2017, ''Women's Activism in Africa'' (co-edited by Badri and

Aili Mari Tripp Aili Mari Tripp (born 24 May 1958) is a Finnish and American political scientist, currently the Wangari Maathai Professor of Political Science and Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Education and early career Tr ...

) was published by Zed Books. Badri co-edited it, and wrote or co-wrote two of the ten chapters.

Controversy

In January 2018 Badri's brother Gasim Badri, president of the

, was recorded on video grabbing a female student, who was protesting, by her head scarf and slapping her several times on the head. Badri defended his actions, claiming that the video "only shows one side of the truth" and that some of the demonstrators had threatened to harm and vandalize the university.

References

Living people Sudanese feminists Sudanese women Alumni of the University of Hull 1948 births {{Sudan-bio-stub