''Tears of the Desert'' is an autobiographical book written by a

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 medical doctor who used the pen name

Halima Bashir Halima Bashir is the fictitious name of a Sudanese medical doctor, who is the author of '' Tears of the Desert'', a memoir about women's experiences with genocide and war in Darfur. She worked as a doctor in rural Sudan, before being abused at th ...

and co-authored by English journalist Damien Lewis. This

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

gives an account of Bashir's life in the

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, ...

region of

, marked by personal experience of civil war, genocide, sexual violence and murder. As a result of speaking out about the torture of her compatriots inflicted by

Janjaweed The Janjaweed ( ar, جنجويد, Janjawīd, lit=mounted gunman; also transliterated ''Janjawid'') are a Sudanese Arab militia group that operate in Sudan, particularly Darfur, and eastern Chad. Using the United Nations definition, the Janjaweed ...

militias, Bashir applied for political asylum in the United Kingdom.

Background

Halima Bashir grew up in a rural village Zaghawa in the

region. Her father was wealthy enough to send her to a city school, where she excelled as a student. She went on to study medicine and became a doctor. Working in the emergency ward at the hospital in Hashma, Bashir treated patients from both sides of the war. Thus, she gained a reputation as a doctor all victims of the conflict could rely on for treatment, regardless of race. She was soon transferred by the government to Mazkhabad, a remote village in

North Darfur North Darfur State ( ar, ولاية شمال دارفور Wilāyat Šamāl Dārfūr; ''Shamal Darfor'') is one of the wilayat or states of Sudan. It is one of the five states composing the Darfur region. It has an area of 296,420 km2 and a ...

. There, she treated 42 young school girls and their teachers who were brutally

gang-rape Gang rape, also called serial gang rape, group rape, or multiple perpetrator rape in scholarly literature,Ullman, S. E. (2013). 11 Multiple perpetrator rape victimization. Handbook on the Study of Multiple Perpetrator Rape: A Multidisciplinary Re ...

d in a government supported attack on the village. For speaking out about this attack to

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

investigators, Bashir herself was brutally tortured and raped. When she returned to her home village, it had been destroyed by government

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

s and

militia. Shortly after, Halima fled the country for fear of the government still hunting her."One Woman's True Story of Surviving the Horrors of Darfur"
''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...

''. Review by Lesley McDowell, 9 August 2008

Synopsis

When Halima attends secondary school in the city, she comes up against traditional enmities between the black Africans of Darfur and the minority Arab elite and their group's subsequent discrimination against the black Africans ever since. She further speaks about the lack of support from teachers in physical fights stemming from prejudices against schoolgirls, which leads to expulsion – all of it an early lesson in helplessness.

Aim of the novel

Co-author Damien Lewis stated that one of his goals was to, "make (…) you or I or anybody else in the West feel that that could be them (…) how would they feel, if that happened to them, brings it home to on the personal human family level. What would you feel, if it was your children or your father, or your grandparents, or your village? (…) So it doesn't feel like thousands of miles away in a different culture in a place we don't understand".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tears Of The Desert 2008 non-fiction books Autobiographies Books about child abuse Books about rape Books about Sudan Current affairs books English-language books HarperCollins books Non-fiction books about genocide Non-fiction books about war Non-fiction books about racism Wartime sexual violence Collaborative autobiographies