Regional alliances

Supporters of Al-Bashir’s regime included many regional players, including from Wahabis, Jihadists and ISIS supporters. This is why, many people believe, the regime was relatively unshaken by the Arab spring.

Publicly, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt have all designated the Muslim Brotherhood (a transnational Islamic fundamentalist association) as a terrorist organisation. They have even waged wars against the Brotherhood in countries from Libya to Syria. Yet ironically, all of these states have retained close alliances with Sudan’s Muslim Brotherhood.

In part, this is because Sudan’s military is supporting the Saudis’ war against Yemen, contributing more than 30,000 Sudanese (mostly Janjaweed) soldiers. Above all, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt have remained faithful to Sudan’s Brotherhood because they fear the impact of a successful popular revolution, and real democratic change, in the Middle East’s second largest country.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE have openly declared that they gave the country $3 billion dollars in ‘aid’ - $500 million of which went directly into Sudan’s central bank (controlled by the military government). The rest was donated in the form of food, medicine and petroleum products. Given the revolution was sparked by major hikes in basic living costs in December, these donations inadvertently throw a lifeline to the rule of the military council.

Media reports have shown that the military council has been hiring lobbying groups in western countries to defuse international pressures on it. This includes a Canadian group, Dickens & Madson Inc., reportedly hired for $6 million by the leader of the Rapid Support Forces and the military council Hemedti to help polish their image post-revolution.

This contract says: “We shall use our best efforts to ensure favourable international as well as Sudanese media coverage for you”. Dickens & Madson Inc is headed by Ari Ben-Menashe, once an Israeli spy who more recently worked for President Mugabe of Zimbabwe, according to Channel 4.

According to other media reports, Gulf money helped to organise rallies against any governance agreement between the protesters and military that does not include Sharia as the main source of rules and laws.

Sara*, a young doctor, told me about one ‘in support of Sharia’ rally she passed, in her car, on 16 May in the capital Khartoum. Islamic fundamentalist protesters violently attacked and verbally abused her, accusing her of ‘spying’ and taking pictures of them. She told me that “the police refused to report the case and to identify the attackers as the pro-Sharia protesters”.

The Sudanese women revolutionaries that I spoke with believed that Gulf money helped organise this protest specifically. And yet, despite all of their money, influence and connections, it appears that these Islamic fundamentalists can’t gather in their millions, or thousands, pointing towards what seems to be a lack of genuine belief in the Sharia cause.

Revolution continues

The relationship between religious fundamentalism and military dictatorship in Sudan is not a new story: it has been strong since a coup d’état swept Al-Bashir to power in 1989, alongside the National Islamic Front (Sudan’s Muslim Brotherhood) which imposed Sharia law.

Since then, “Sudanese women and girls have been living under a Sudanese version of ISIS: the Islamic State in Sudan (ISIS)”, said Nona Ali*, a young women’s rights activist from Khartoum who joined the protests this year.

But this history means we know how to resist them as the old regime continues to use its old tricks in connecting anti-women, ultra-religious men across borders. We know what we’re up against, and we’ve built up our own regional connections too (with women’s rights activists across borders). While a political deal has been reached for now, between the military and protestors, Sudanese women have their eyes open: after decades of repression under the military regime, they know not to trust this military council.

Watching courageous and determined young women like Muna, Wifag and Sara, stand up against these militarised fundamentalists: I’ve never seen anything like it before. Despite their ongoing trauma, pain, and injuries from the frontlines, they’ve managed to shake up the region and will continue to reclaim their rights in the face of an ultra-religious backlash.

* Names have been changed to protect identities.