Victoria Yar Arol

Victoria Yar Arol (1948 – 1980) was a Sudanese politician. The first woman from Southern Sudan to study at the University of Khartoum she was later a politician with seats on the regional assembly for Bahr el Ghazal Province and the National Peoples Assembly of Sudan.

Career Victoria Yar Arol was born in 1948 in Sudan. She was the daughter of a Dinka tribal chief who had several wives and 20 to 30 children. She was the first woman from Southern Sudan to enter the University of Khartoum, graduating with a degree in economics and political science in the 1960s.

Arol married Toby Maduot, a medical doctor and politician who would later to become chairman of the Sudan African National Union (SANU), they had three children together. In 1979 she suggested then that the disputed cities of Abyei, Kurmuk and Kafia Kingi be returned to the southern region as they had been so associated prior to independence. She later had a seat on the National Peoples Assembly of Sudan as a woman's representative member. Arol died in 1980. She has been cited by South Sudan president Salva Kiir as an inspiration to Southern Sudanese women.