|
|
Last Updated: Oct 27, 2009 - 9:33:43 PM |
Sudanese families in IC continue fight for their country
By: Clara Hogan - The Daily Iowan
Posted: 3/6/08
Mahasin Hamed spent her college days in the streets of Khartoum, Sudan,
spreading the message of her spiritual father. His name was Al-Ustaz Mahmoud, and he wanted democracy to rule Sudan's land and a peaceful Islam to inspire its people.
When she and her family joined dozens of other Sudanese people in the Iowa City area in 2002, she continued to fight for her country. Hamed estimates there are more than 300 people from Sudan in the community - a mixture of refugees and people with either a green card or political asylum. All contribute to events that raise money to help Darfurians.
Her leader, Mahmoud, was a writer; his modern, liberal ideas angered the Sudanese government. At the time, Hamed was a passionate student activist. She and his other followers made up Republican Brothers and Sisters, a fervent group that wholeheartedly believed in Mahmoud's words. His rhetoric gave them hope for their country.
The Sudanese government executed Mahmoud on Jan. 18, 1985. His followers, including Hamed, were taken to prison to prevent them from attending his funeral.
"My spiritual father said there was no time for violence, no time for jihad, no time for wars," the 46-year-old said as she sat in her living room in Coralville, her spiritual father's portrait hanging above the red-brick fireplace. "We must be together and be one. Sudan still has problems with such ideals."
The radical Islamic government that took hold of her country is what eventually made Hamed take her four children - now 20, 17, 13, and 10 - to America, where her family continues to fight for Sudan's causes, especially against the genocide in Darfur, which lies in the country's western region.
After spending three years in Saudi Arabia, Hamed was granted political asylum and moved to Coralville in 2002. Her husband stayed in Saudi Arabia to work as a physician.
Too progressive for Sudan's government
Hamed was born in Kasala, a picturesque city in Northern Sudan, in 1962 - six years after the country broke away from British and Egyptian rule and gained independence.
Sudan, the largest in country in Africa, is bordered by nine different countries, which leaves room for much conflict and trafficking.
Many educated Sudanese people move to Saudi Arabia to become teachers or doctors, Hamed said. She has five brothers and five sisters - three live in Saudi Arabia, along with her husband.
Hamed left Kasala and went to the University of Khartoum, where she met her husband. They were both members of Mahmoud's movement to democratize Sudan."I was an activist," she said. "I wanted women to know they could fight for their right to talk and for their equality."
The government that opposed liberal Islamic thoughts took power a few months before Hamed graduated from college, she said. She lived under their rule from 1985 until 1998, when she left for Saudi Arabia.
Government officials enforced their rules by whipping people in the streets, making them pay large amounts of money, or sending them to jail.
She said the government in power during those years labeled women as unequal. Hamed was a high school teacher for 12 years in Sudan, where she always wore traditional attire. When the government decided to require women teachers to wear a veil, she refused.
The next day, she was fired.
"I could make an appeal, but I stood no chance," Hamed said. "They knew I was a follower of my spiritual father, Mahmoud."
When she and her family moved Saudi Arabia in 1998, it was worse for women, she said. They stayed there until 2002, when everyone but her husband left for America. Her husband is still a doctor in Saudi Arabia, and he hopes to visit soon for six weeks. He plans to take the third and final test required for him to get a temporary U.S. green card.
'We need to ask America to do more'
Hamed came to the Iowa City area because it was recommend by many Sudanese friends. Her brother, Imad Hamed, also moved to Coralville in 2001 after getting a green card.
Hamed's oldest son, Mahmoud Noureldiam, 20, went to West High when he was a sophomore. He said it was a major switch from the strict discipline of the schools they had previously attended.
"They would whip kids for not doing their homework," he said. "Here, you could talk to teachers like friends."
Mahmoud befriended the Sudanese kids at school - they knew his language and his manners. Sudanese people tend to stick together, he said.
"In Sudan, neighbors are like your family," he said. "There is always something new to do, but here, people are pretty programmed to do the same thing everyday."
Mahmoud, Mohmed, 17, Ahmed, 13, and the only daughter, Salma, 10, were all born in Sudan.
They are worried about his home, especially the Darfur region.
Attacks became more intense in 2003 between Sudan's government and rebel groups in Darfur.
Although groups disagree as to the total number of fatalities in Darfur, the United Nations reports at least 200,000 deaths as result of the violence, sickness, and hunger caused by the crisis - with the majority of violent deaths in the early period.
An estimated 60,000 refugees are in camps that do not supply much food or water. Many Sudanese people have fled to neighboring Chad.
Hamed's brother, Imad, said that Sudanese people in Coralville and Iowa City founded and participate in a community service committee in Coralville. The group often holds fundraisers for the people in Darfur.
Hamed's oldest son participated in the March for Refugees last year, in which about 150 people walked from North Liberty to Coralville to raise over $14,000 for the Darfur refugees.
The group also holds dinners, meets with politicians, and collects belongings to send to Darfur. Imad has spoke with presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama multiple times, always asking, "What would you do for Darfur?"
All of Hamed's family agrees America needs to put priority on helping the refugees and putting pressure on Sudan's government to ceasefire.
"[The Sudanese] need to have a unified voice in America," he said. "We need to ask America to do more."
E-mail DI reporter Clara Hogan at:
[email protected]
© Copyright by SudaneseOnline.com
Please feel free to send us your Articles , Analysies news and press releases to [email protected]
Top of Page
This report does not necessarily reflect the views of Sudanese Online.com
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
|