Sudan
Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
ese teacher and activist. In March 2012, she was detained by the Sudanese
National Intelligence and Security Service
The National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) () is an intelligence agency of the Ethiopian federal government tasked with gathering information of national interests. It does counter-terrorism in the country by informing the federal p ...
(NISS) and accused of treason. After a 10-month detainment, she was released in January 2013. In December 2013, Khamis was awarded the Delegation of the European Union to Sudan's "Heroes for Human Rights Award 2013".
Personal life
Jalila Khamis was born around 1968 in
South Kordofan
South Kordofan ( ar, جنوب كردفان ') is one of the 18 wilayat or states of Sudan. It has an area of 158,355 km² and an estimated population of approximately 1,100,000 people (2000).Nuba Mountain region of
Sudan
Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
and is of
Nubian
Nubian may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Nubia, a region along the Nile river in Southern Egypt and northern Sudan.
*Nubian people
*Nubian languages
*Anglo-Nubian goat, a breed of goat
* Nubian ibex
* , several ships of the Britis ...
ethnicity. Since the mid-1980s, except for a brief six-year period between 2005 and 2011, conflict has plagued the area of the Nuba Mountains. Less well-known than
Darfur
Darfur ( ; ar, دار فور, Dār Fūr, lit=Realm of the Fur) is a region of western Sudan. ''Dār'' is an Arabic word meaning "home f – the region was named Dardaju ( ar, دار داجو, Dār Dājū, links=no) while ruled by the Daju, ...
, partly due to the remoteness of the region and difficulty in accessing it, the conflict is Africa's longest running war.
She resides with her husband and five children, in
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 ...
, where she has been a school teacher for many years. She is member of the outlawed opposition party,
Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North
Sudan People's Liberation Movement – North ( ar-at, حركة الشعبية لتحرير السودان-الشمال, Harakat Al-Sha'abi Li-Tahrir Al-Sudan-Al-Shamal), or SPLM–N, is a political party and militant organisation in the Republic ...
, and active in NGOs for
women's rights in Sudan
Sudan is a developing nation that faces many challenges in regard to gender inequality. Freedom House gave Sudan the lowest possible ranking among repressive regimes during 2012. South Sudan received a slightly higher rating but it was also r ...
.
Activism
When the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement
The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA, ar, اتفاقية السلام الشامل, Ittifāqiyyah al-salām al-šāmil), also known as the Naivasha Agreement, was an accord signed on January 9, 2005, by the Sudan People's Liberation Moveme ...
was drafted in 2005 to end the 25-year conflict in her homeland, Khamis returned to visit her native village, Katcha, in the Buram locality. Concerned because the local children had to travel long distances to school, she obtained the necessary documents for opening a village school. Khamis then organized donations for construction and supplies and was successful in recruiting teachers from Khartoum.
In 2011, when fighting broke out again in the Nuba Mountains, women's groups and civilians became targets of the conflict. Tens of thousand of refugees fled the area for Khartoum and
South Sudan
South Sudan (; din, Paguot Thudän), officially the Republic of South Sudan ( din, Paankɔc Cuëny Thudän), is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia, Sudan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the C ...
. Khamis turned her home in Khartoum into a temporary safe house for those fleeing the conflict and called attention to the humanitarian crisis caused by what she called the 'premeditated military strategy to
ethnically cleanse
Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, and religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making a region ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal, extermination, deportation or population transfe ...
the Nuba people.'
In a plea for peace and an end to fighting, Khamis Koko's video criticizing the treatment of the
Nuba people
The Nuba people are indigenous inhabitants of central Sudan. Nuba are various indigenous ethnic groups who inhabit the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan state in Sudan, encompassing multiple distinct people that speak different languages which b ...
by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was posted on YouTube and led to her arrest. She was accused of treason and denied access to her attorneys, but women's organizations rallied to reach the international media through a blog campaign, social media efforts, and a silent protest organized by GIRIFNA—Sudanese Non-Violent Resistance Movement. The GIRIFNA demand for justice was held at the Omdurman federal women’s prison, where Khamis was being held. In January, 2013, she was released and the court acknowledged there was "no basis for the charges against her". Khamis was convicted of the sole charge of "spreading false news" and sentenced to time served.
Legacy
Kahmis' story spawned reports in the region focusing on violence against women and the Egyptian media producer ''OnTV'' ran an entire segment on the Sudanese humanitarian crisis. Activists and youth movement leaders recognized the impact that a digital campaign could have, in spite of warnings from lawyers that media attention would damage the case.