By Amuna Wagner
Women have organised in Sudan for decades and centuries. During the Sudanese Revolution in 2019, female protesters took to the streets en masse to demand the end of Omar Al-Bashir's dictatorship, which had disproportionately harmed them. They were not a monolith; as protesters, activists, or feminists, they did not necessarily have the same demands beyond being equally respected members of society.
While the country became submerged in a power struggle between various political actors, a group of progressive young people, calling themselves Harakat Noon Al Nisawia (Noon Movement), organised to demand radical cultural and systemic change, which they believed were absent from mainstream protests.
Building a movement
In February 2019, the co-founders of the Noon Movement secretly gathered to stage their feminist protest amidst the more comprehensive, nationwide demonstrations.
They felt that the voices of progressive women and marginalised people were not represented in the revolutionary ideals, so they drew up their agenda to ensure fundamental human rights for women, gender non-conforming people, disabled people, and other marginalised groups. "We decided on the day and made a poster," says Tomader Noureldeen, a nursing student, researcher, and co-founder of Noon Movement, in a phone call with AMAKA.
"Everyone was trying not to say their name. It felt like police troops were gathering around our house. We didn't want to get arrested so quickly, so we walked out separately and joined the sit-in in different places. It was very stupid if you ask me now, but we were very young", Noureldeen laughs. That same day, they decided to create a radical, intersectional feminist movement and set up regular meetings, a structure, and a membership system. Even though the lack of feminist funding is one of the main obstacles to radical action, they managed to secure support from the Frida Young Feminist Fund and Urgent Action Fund Africa.
From And To The Grassroots
Noon is the letter N in Arabic. Noon Al Niswa is considered with the female letter or the letter of a female collective. As the namesake of the Noon Movement, it stands for Nisawia, Waei, and Nidal (feminism, awareness, and contest). Its five working members are dedicated to shedding light on women's struggles and addressing the root causes of the problems that women and minorities face in society.
They are concerned with economic rights and injustices, racism, and the experiences of women who work in Sudan's disorganised sector. Noon Movement focuses on documentation, knowledge production, capacity building, and social media advocacy.
From examining the use of rape as a war weapon to collecting data on gender-based harassment during the Sit-in and the political participation of young women in grassroots organizations, they cover an expansive range of feminist topics that older activists have historically overlooked.
As a facilitator and educator, Noureldeen worked with Local Resistance Committees (LRCs), localised political agents for radical change that emerged during the Uprisings and were frequently criticised for their lack of feminist awareness. "It was one of the most important work I've ever done," shares Noureldeen. "I facilitated workshops on gender-related concepts and definitions and sensitivity in the political scene. Women shouldn't only care about children but also contribute to laws and legislation. Women being a part in decision making is one of my main interests."
Beyond LRCs, how does Sudan's mainstream society perceive feminist work that promotes the rights of marginalised groups, including the LGBTQ+ community? "We do get a lot of backlashes”, says Noureldeen. "The stigma is already there because we are feminists. Posting about queer rights doesn't land well at all. It got us into internal conflicts with other feminists who didn't feel comfortable."
However, the Noon Movement is committed to its inclusive mission, convinced that knowledge and creative storytelling are the keys to acceptance and unity. "We need to bring out the humanity in people", explains Noureldeen. "If we saw the human in the other person, we'd actually respect them. If we knew the people we're inflicting harm on, things would change. The intersections are many: displacement, economic injustice, misogyny - storytelling can give us a ground base to stand on."
Navigating Sudan's Crisis
On April 15, 2023, the capital of Sudan, Khartoum, was turned into a war zone as soldiers from Sudan's national army and soldiers from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group, began a series of armed confrontations. Their battles spread across the country, displacing over 2.2 million people from their homes, including 528,000 who sought refuge in neighbouring countries. In the western Darfur region, alarms about genocide have been raised; as they face displacement and are engulfed in between the warring militaries, women and marginalised groups experience heightened risks of (gender-based) violence.
To address the aftermath of previously inflicted violence, Noon Movement had been working to establish support groups for women and marginalised people, which the war now prevents. As part of their documentation projects, they had planned to host group sessions with facilitators and mental health professionals who could share tools for mental well-being and survival.
"We did a needs assessment and found that most interviewed people need psychological support," says Noureldeen. With three of the five members displaced abroad, these sessions had to be put on hold. But the documentation work continues, even more relevant than ever. "We're hustling these days to work remotely and share information on social media which plays a huge role at the moment. We're gathering stories and creating a platform for Sudanese people to share their pain and ideas."
Working from neighbouring countries provides new challenges as the activists find their footing in new societies with different rules.
A Future Outlook
Creating structures to support survivors of violence and making people of marginalised genders and identities feel seen remains the purpose of the Noon Movement.
They will continue to work towards establishing a new qualitative knowledge base among the Uprising generation to break the cycle of ethnocentric, masculinist politics.
"Finding Sudanese health care providers who know the context is difficult. But we're holding onto that vision", says Noureldeen with admirable conviction.
"We want to get sessions to people, online and offline. We want to connect people. We're trying to get to every woman and feminist regardless of where they're from and have them sit next to someone who's completely different."
Noureldeen was studying a course on refugees in the 21st century when the crisis displaced her from Sudan.
When asked how she's doing, she says, "I ended up reading into what I'm doing at the moment. What I noticed talking about mental health is that we're trying not to burden anyone because everyone is going through their own hustle. I'm against that. We won't be okay if we do not talk and gather. We need a space where we can share how we're feeling loudly, not behind screens. So, I want to advocate for venting. I'm dealing with whatever is going on, I'm okay, and I think collectively, we're gonna be okay."