الدكتورة خالدة زاهر اول طبيبة سودانية هل تم تكريمها.................

Quote: Haka’wie from Almorada, Omdurman (7) Amir Zahir 1 Khalda Zahir1 By: Amir Zahir I would like to introduce a woman from Almorada, Omdurman: Khalda Zahir. In doing so, by no means do I intend to undermine the contributions of other women in that city, or in other urban and rural areas of Sudan. Or, to claim that Khalda is the only woman who had some contributions that are worth mentioning. Rather, I am simply trying to share with you some of the untold stories about Omdurman, through the eyes of Khalda Zahir because of the shared family history. Khalda was born in Almorada in January 8, 1926. She was the first born child of Fatima Ajab Arbab and Zahir Surour Elsadati. Of course, at the time having the first born to be a baby girl, or having girls in general, was not something that a lot of families would be proud of. Notably, that was due to the prevalent sexist attitude. However, since her birth, her father was so determined to provide her with whatever opportunities in order to assist her in reaching her potential. In order to understand Khalda's upbringing, I believe it is important to touch on some of her father's personal history. The late Zahir Surour Elsadati - September 2, 1898 - November 28, 1981 - was an army officer. He was born in Omdurman to a migrant family from Dar Foor in Western Sudan after they settled in the area during the Mahdia. Moreover, soon after his birth, his father died in the Battle of Um-debaik'rat fighting with Al-kha’leefa Abdullahie. He was brought up by his mother. That was a very important factor in his life, as he developed a deep respect for women and their ability to achieve and survive as he learned from his mother. He joined the army in 1910, as a Wald (boy) foot soldier and developed through the ranks. As he stated, he was kicked out of Omdurman Al-ameeria Junior High School, because he plotted with some classmates and beat up the arrogant Egyptian geography teacher. At the time, that was considered an act of mutiny against the newly established colonial authority, regardless of the age of the perpetuators. They were arrested immediately 1 This article is written by Amir Zahir as part of collection titled, “Haka’wie (stories) from Almorada, Omdurman”, which was published in the Sudanese List, an internet discussion group, in 1997. This same article was also published in: 􀂃Altareeq, 7th Edition, Sudanese Democratic Society of Germany, August 1998 􀂃Sudanese Studies Association Newsletter 17, Issue #1, 1997 (http://www.sudanesestudies.org/ssa171.html) Haka’wie from Almorada, Omdurman (7) Amir Zahir 2 and taken to Alzabtia. The Mufatish (Inspector) immediately deemed them unsuitable for formal education, and therefore, the army was the only place that would be able to "teach" them. In addition, shortly after he joined the army, Zahir lost his mother, the only immediate family he had left, after most of the family members died before her in the Mahdia wars. Although, Zahir did not have any opportunity to ever complete his formal education, he was determined to seek knowledge in every source he could find at the time. So, reading was his major interest. In particular, he was fascinated with history and politics, and he actively got involved in it through the secret activities of the White Brigades Society during the1920's. Further, that fascination with knowledge, led him to develop a very strong relationship with one of the first Sudanese historians, Sheikh Mohamed Abed Al-rahim, who became his mentor. Mohamed Abed Al-rahim was one of the Kataba (Clerks) of Al-kha’leefa Abd-ullahi and he took it on himself to document the history of Sudan as he has seen it or heard it. Also, he wrote and published several books on the history of Sudan. Furthermore, he had a huge home library that was made available for knowledge seekers. He also published "Omdurman Magazine", which was later became the training ground for a lot of Sudanese writers, journalists, and poets, such as Al-tijanie Yousif Basheer. The fact that Zahir was denied the opportunity to complete his formal education was the driving force that later made education and knowledge as some of his core values in life. Also, in that early age, he has learned and developed a very strong sense of right and wrong, and the importance of being an independent thinker, and being able to live with the consequences of his decisions, regardless of the severity of those consequences. Those circumstances of Zahir's upbringing shaped up his tough personality and his core values. He also, made sure to pass these strong values to his daughter Khalda. At the time, educating women was a relatively new phenomenon, and as we all remember the struggle of uncle Babiker Badrie in trying to bring this issue to the forefront. The only school for girls at the time in Almorada, was Mad'ra'sat Bes'mila (Miss Miller's Primary School for Girls). Currently, Almorada Primary School for Girls, which is located directly in front of Dar Al-ryadh in Shari'a Almorada. So, after Khalda completed her primary education, her father sent her to El-ersal'lia Junior High School, which was run by the English Church. The building of that school was located in the Haka’wie from Almorada, Omdurman (7) Amir Zahir 3 North-West corner of Omdurman’s Teaching Hospital at the Mahatma Ghandi Street (Sharia Al-Dacatraa) in central Omdurman, and near “Freeq Jahan’um”. She finished her junior high school years in 1940. That was quite an achievement for a young woman at the time. Particularly, because most young women used to be forced to quit school to wait for the future groom. Or, for a very few women, if they had some support from their family, they would go into teaching or nursing. However, Khalda expressed her interest in going to high school after she was encouraged by some of her teachers to do so. At the time, the only high school for women in Sudan was the Unity High School, which was a private school that was run by the church. The Unity High School was solely reserved for teaching banat Al-kho'wajat (the daughters of the "foreigners" - the British, and the other communities of people of Greek, Armenian, Italian, Syrian, or Lebanese backgrounds. In those days, her father was with his army battalion in Southern Sudan. Khalda secured the support of her mother and her younger brother Anwar; however, there was no one else from her immediate, or the extended family that would dare to give her their support. Subsequently, she wrote a letter to her father expressing her desire to go to high school, requesting the school fees, and his support around the whole issue. . This whole process took some time from start to finish. However, in the neighborhood, it was quite a fiasco; everybody was talking about the fact that Khalda was going to be educated with banat Al-kho'wajat. Many people held meetings after meetings in Nadi Alzubat (The Officers Club) to discuss the matter. And others even started joking about it by saying "ha..ha..ha ...Zahir awiz utal'la beto mufatish (Zahir wants his daughter to become an Inspector), which was unthinkable even for a Sudanese male at the time. Some people even send letters to her father in the South in order to influence his decision. Some started suggesting that she should abandon her effort to continue her education, and suggesting that she would be good in teaching, because she was bit fasee'ha jid'den (very outspoken girl)??!! However, after thinking about the whole issue, her father sent back to Almorada two letters. The first letter was to Khalda commending her on her decision, and the second letter was to her uncle - Ahmed Ajab - instructing him to accompany Khalda to the Unity High School in Khartoum to register her for the coming year. It is needless to say that uncle Ahmed was not Haka’wie from Almorada, Omdurman (7) Amir Zahir 4 pleased; however, he reluctantly signed the registration forms as her guardian, paving the way for Khalda to start the application process. Nevertheless, it was not that easy because in the Unity High School at the time, there were no Sudanese girls among the Students, and it appeared that the administration was not in a hurry to grant the final acceptance. Khalda, to her luck, received a very unusual support form Ahmed Yousif Hashim, the prominent Sudanese journalist, who was the editor of one of the newspapers at the time, Al-Sudan Al-jadeed (The New Sudan). Coincidentally, around that same time that Khalda was struggling with this issue, Ahmed Yousif Hashim was writing a series of articles about women education in Sudan, or the lack there of. Mr. Hashim mentioned that there was only one high school for girls in Sudan, which was the Unity High School, and it had no Sudanese girls among its students. Because of that close public scrutiny the school’s administration had to act in hurry and speed the application process. Shortly thereafter Khalda received the Acceptance Letter from the administration of the Unity High School granting her admission and opening the door for Khalda to start her high school in the following school year. Khalda continued her high school years achieving very good marks. Moreover, that was particularly challenging because, during those high school years, her father was away in Al-kafra and Al-alameen fighting with the Allied Forces in World War II. So, Khalda as she was the first born, and her brother Anwar as the oldest of the boys, had to share the parental responsibility of their other younger brothers and sisters. However, and to the astonishment of the school administration, Khalda graduated from high school with very high marks in 1946. Some people in the school administration did not believe a Sudanese girl could achieve such marks. Further, those marks would have enabled her to choose whatever "woman" career she would have liked; however, Khalda expressed her interest in going to university to study medicine!! And, with that expression another battle started. At the time, Kitchener Memorial College, which was later became the University of Khartoum's School of Medicine, was not for everyone from the Sudanese people, especially women. The first battle Khalda had to fight was around securing the support of her family, and her father was very quick to encourage her to continue on with her journey. Around that time, he has returned back from the war and he was in Almorada. So, other family Haka’wie from Almorada, Omdurman (7) Amir Zahir 5 members and the rest of the elders in the neighbourhood did not bother to fight him on his decision that time around. The second battle was around securing acceptance form the college. To their credit, some of the progressive teachers in the Unity High School, as well as Mrs. Symes, the wife of the Governor General, used Khalda's academic performance and marks as a spearhead to lobby the college administration to grant her acceptance to Kitchener Memorial College School of Medicine in 1946. In granting that acceptance, Khalda became the first Sudanese woman to ever enter the college and medical school in its history. That acceptance came in the last minutes, as her father was determined to allow her to continue her education and he was prepared to send her to Egypt for that regard. The other obstacle that Khalda had to face, was to be able to coup with the college's ti####ble and hectic schedule (seven in the morning to sometimes late at night). At the time, the school had no residence for its female students. Quickly, her father arranged for her to live with his life time friend, Al-ameera'lai Hassan Al-zin, and his wife Fatima Mohamed Abed Al-rahim - the daughter of his mentor - who lived in the army Ishlag (barracks) in Al-mog'ran. The arrangement was that she lives with them during the week-days and she comes home in weekend. Through that arrangement Khalda instantaneously had a new family. That relationship between the two families continued strongly until today. 1946, was also a turning point in Khalda's personal history. In addition to starting college, she also became very active in the political and social life in Almorada. As an early sign of her developing feminist consciousness, Khalda and one of her friends from the neighbourhood - Fatima Talip - founded Jam'ee'yat Al-fata'yat Al-thaka'fia (the Women's Cultural Society) in order to promote women's education, and to empower young women to enrich their social lives. Around the same time, she also met a close friend of her brother Anwar by the name of Osman Mahjoub - the older brother of Abed Al-khlik Mahjoub, the former Secretary General of the Sudanese Communist Party, who was executed by Nimeri in July 28, 1971. Subsequently, Osman introduced her to Dr. Abed Al-wahab Zin Al-abdeen Abed Al-tam. Later, in the same year, Dr. Abed Al-wahab recruited Khalda to become a member of Al-haraka Al-Sudania Lel'tahr'ror Al-watnie (Sudanese Movement For the Liberation of Sudan), which was later became Al-jeb’ha Al-moaa'dia Lel-estimar (The Front Against Colonization-FAC), and eventually became the Communist Party of Sudan. In doing so, Khalda became the first Sudanese female to ever join a modern political Haka’wie from Almorada, Omdurman (7) Amir Zahir 6 organization. Khalda continued her political activities both in college and in the neighbourhood. In 1948, and due to the mounting pressure from Mutamer Al-kheree'jeen (The Graduates Congress), the colonial authority introduced the idea of establishing a Sudanese Legislative Assembly in order to ease that pressure; however, they reserved the right to appoint its members. A political battle started right away between the supporters and people who were against the colonial idea. Al-jeb’ha Al-moaa'dia Lel-estimar (FAC) led that political battle. That political battle is known today in history books as the "Battle of the Legislative Assembly". Nadi Al-kheree'jeen in