Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim

Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim (; – 12 August 2017), was a Sudanese writer, women's rights activist, advocate and socialist leader.

Early life Ibrahim was born in Khartoum. Sources give her birth date variously as 20 December 1928, or in 1932 or 1933. She came from an educated family; her grandfather was headmaster at the first Sudanese School for boys as well as Imam at his neighborhood's mosque. Fatima's father graduated from Gordon Memorial College and worked as a teacher. Fatima's mother was amongst the first generation of girls who attended the school. Fatima grew up during the time of colonial Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Her father was expelled from teaching in a government school when he refused to teach lessons using English. After that her father taught in another school.

Career

After she started at Omdurman Girls' Secondary School, she began to support women's rights. She created a wall newspaper called Elra'edda, or in Arabic الرائدة or in English Pioneer Girls. Her newspaper focused on women's rights and she also wrote in newspapers at that time again under a pen name. The first president of the Union was Fatima Talib Isma'il. The Women's Union opened membership to all women in Sudan and the SWU opened branches in different provinces in Sudan. The agenda of the Women's Union at that time, according to an amendment to its constitution in 1954, focused on the right to vote, women's suffrage, and the right of women to act as representatives in all legislative, political, and administrative corporations. At the SWU she also worked to establish equality with men in wages and technical training, and helped to remove illiteracy among women. Because of the SWU's objectives, there occurred clashes with the political right such as Jabihat El-methaiq elaslami or the Islamic Pledge Front. In 1955 Fatima became a chief editor of Sawat al-Maraa Magazine or Woman's Voice Magazine (published by the Women's Union), and this magazine later played an essential role in the overthrow of the Ibrahim Abboud regime. While at the magazine, Ibrahim clashed with the younger staff writer and fellow Communist Party member, Suad Ibrahim Ahmed. They disagreed sharply about the role of women, religion and morality and party strategies. While Ibrahim believed that Islam could be used as a progressive force against religious conservatives, Ahmed wanted to ground women's struggle in secular ideas. Ahmed felt staying within the Islamic framework would force progressives to fight on their opponents' terrain.

In 1954, Fatima joined the Sudanese Communist Party (SCP), and for a short period Fatima became a member of the Central Committee of the SCP (the SCP was the first Sudanese Party which had an internal women's structure, since 1946). In 1956–57, Fatima became the president of the Women's Union. One of her objectives was for the independence of the union from their affiliation with and domination by the SCP, and she widened the participation of women with difference backgrounds. In 1965 Fatima was elected to parliament, becoming the first Sudanese women deputy. and her funeral was held in Khartoum on 16 August.

Awards UN award for Outstanding Achievements in the Field of Human Rights.(1993) The Ibn Rushd Prize for Freedom of Thought for the year 2006 in Berlin.

Works Hassadanna Khill'al Ashroon A'mm'a, Arabic حصادنا خلال عشرين عاماً, or (Our Harvest During Twenty Years). Khartoum: Sudanese Women's Union Press, n.d. Tariqnu ila el-Tuharur (Our Road to Emancipation). (n.d.). el-Mara el-Arabiyya wal Taghyir el-Ijtimai, Arabic المرأة العربية والتغيير الاجتماعي or Arab Women and Social Change. 1986 Holla Gadie'a alahoal al-shekhssia, Arabic حول قضايا الأحوال الشخصية or Personal Status Affairs. Gadie'a Alm'ar'a el-A'mela Al-sodania, Arabic قضايا المرأة العاملة السودانية, or The Affairs of Sudanese Workers Women's. An'a Awaan Eltageir Lakeen!, Arabic !آن آوان التغيير ولكن or It's Time for Change but! Atfallana we'l Re'aia El-sehi'a, Arabic أطفالنا والرعاية الصحية, or Our Children and Health Care. "Arrow at Rest". In Women in Exile, ed. Mahnaz Afkhami, 191–208: University Press of Virginia, 1994. "Sudan's Attack on Women's Rights Exploits Islam". Africa News 37, no. 5 (1992): 5.