Originally published on SISIMAG.COM The image of a 22-year-old university student Alaa Salah dripped in a white traditional Sudanese garment known as the “toub”, standing on top of a car amongst a sea of protesters in Khartoum, is what finally turned the heads of global news outlets and the the overall international community towards the now-six-month-long Sudan Uprising. Captured by local photographer Lana Haroun, the photo was accompanied by a video of Salah chanting poetry and the slogans of the revolution. It was this image, that finally began the long-overdue conversation about the events taking place in Sudan—one that led to the end of now-former president Omar al-Bashir’s 30-year reign. Many news agencies, particularly in the west, either referred to the Sudan Uprising as purely “bread protests” or a “belated Arab Spring”. Reports inspired by the image of Salah were framed in disbelief towards the idea of a woman in a predominantly Muslim country, challenging a regime that oppresses them the most. Not only does such rhetoric erase the role of women in Sudan’s previous revolutions (yes, Sudan has successfully overthrown not one, but two governments prior to the Arab…
