Diary of a Feminist: Roaa Alobeid Why we should all be standing with Sudan too

In this edition of Diary of a Feminist, we spoke with Roaa Alobeid, a Sudanese Medical Student and Feminist Climate activist, who has been forced to migrate to the UAE amid the war and severe instability in Sudan.

“Activism is not easy, the biggest barrier to my activism is my tradition and culture, and life as a woman in Sudan is not easy, we face so many restrictions with work and travel, and within society, there are so many stereotypes pushed onto women, people tell you; you can’t do that you’re a woman.” In Sudan, your life as a woman, is traditionally reduced to three things says Roaa, “study, get married, give birth.”

This is where Roaa’s passion stems from, “I want to fight for the women who are struggling like me; who are still in the same place I was years ago. So that is why I started to find feminism and fighting.”

Short-term help is not enough

Roaa’s passion for climate justice is rooted in her work in a village in 2018, she was there to provide health care for children and give them free medication. The village was hard hit by climate change and flooded frequently. “On my way home from the village I would think, yeah we did something, we helped people, but these actions are just temporary.” It was then that Roaa decided being a doctor and giving medical care was not enough for her; she wanted to be part of advocating for change at the route cause, which was climate. 

“That’s when I decided I wanted to be part of the climate movement, I didn’t know how or when, I just knew I wanted to take action.” 

Now, Roaa regularly participates in climate advocacy on an international scale. However, she did not start from this point, “At first I focused on local projects and working within the community, then I grew to where I am now,” she said. Roaa did not have a mentor or a clear path into climate advocacy, so she used her own initiative to reach out to people on LinkedIn who were in the space.

However, the lack of representation, for Global Majority countries like Sudan, is a huge issue at these supposedly global events. “Sometimes I feel alone, as I sit at these events and you notice how heavily represented the Global North is, they discuss their climate-related issues, but they cannot speak for countries like Sudan, they do not understand the impacts of climate, war, how it affects a country.” 

Additionally, these Global North representatives, do not understand the struggle we have to face from the Global Majority to have a seat at the table, the paperwork, visa rejections, the bureaucracy, “It is not something they even consider,” Roaa explains. 

What do you wish people discussed more about Sudan? 

“Sudanese people we are neglected, when you go to events like COP some people are talking about Palestine and Lebanon, but no one is mentioning Sudan, and yes of course I stand with Palestine, but we are suffering in Sudan too, there are millions of refugees, hundreds of thousands of people who have been killed, people dying from hunger.”

Describing, a recent event Roaa attended she said they ended the conference with a prayer for the countries in conflict: “They started with Palestine, then Lebanon, then Syria, and Yemen, but they never mentioned Sudan. Even my colleagues did not mention Sudan, and that makes me feel alone and withdrawn from these events.”

It’s all connected

Roaa also described how war and climate and war are intrinsically linked especially in Sudan. “In Sudan, we experience all types of extreme weather which is a result of the climate crisis, when this weather occurs it forcibly displaces people, they are pushed into other communities which can add to the tension we are already experiencing between the forces.” 

Overcrowding and forced displacement are highly connected to an increase in violence, which disproportionately impacts women and children. When women and children are pushed out of their homes and lose their safe space, they can become increasingly exposed to gender-based violence (GBV). There is evidence of this in Sudan where soldiers are using rape and assault against women as warfare tactics, to try and gain control of communities. 

The intersection of climate, war, and gender is not discussed enough, Roaa says people refuse to make the connection between the two, “It is like a hidden agenda.” Trying to hide the intersectionality of climate, is a way to “keep the issue political, and leave out the marginalized population,” Roaa added. 

Removing women and girls from the discussion space on climate, “Is their way of making out that gender is not part of the climate, because they feel that we are there as troublemakers. They are afraid of what we will say,” Roaa noted.

Sudan is a success story in its own way in this respect, said Roaa. For example, Asmaa Abdallah, who became the country’s first woman foreign minister in 2019, also Josephine Napwon who serves as South Sudan’s environment minister have become a focal point pushing change.  

What do you wish for? 

“I wish for peace, and equality between human beings before things got bad in Sudan I was reading about countries in conflict like Yemen and Syria, and when you read about it you’re not really feeling it. Then I experienced migration and it was very painful and hard and it opened my eyes and now I can see how unequal the word is, so I wish that others do not have to experience this.”

About the Author:

Olivia Hooper is the Co-Directo at Politics4Her, she is a British journalist and editor with a degree in translation. Olivia uses her career in journalism to advocate on gender-based issues surrounding women and girls.