Women This Week: Sudanese Women Participate on Peace Talks

Focused on Solutions to GBV and Humanitarian Crisis  

A dozen women from various civil society organizations are participating in this week’s U.S.-mediated peace talks in Switzerland on the civil war in Sudan. The women-led delegation will highlight the devastating impact of gender-based violence (GBV) throughout the last fifteen months of conflict. Entisar Abdelsadig, a senior adviser at Search for Common Ground, will facilitate these discussions so that women play an active role in many outcomes of these talks, including a monitoring mechanism to report GBV and assistance in distributing humanitarian aid. Both rival leaders—the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF)—were invited to participate. However, the SAF boycotted the talks, and the RSF failed to show up at the start of the meeting despite arriving in Switzerland. The United States, along with delegates from the African Union, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Nations, continued the talks to work toward resolving the civil war and providing aid for the humanitarian crisis. Tom Perriello, the U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan, told BBC that the delegates were “moving forward with the negotiations on everything we can do, to make sure we are getting food and medicine and civilian protection to every person in Sudan.” 

Woman Left Paralyzed After Allegedly Violating Hijab Law in Iran 

This week, a woman in Iran was left paraplegic after she was shot while driving for allegedly violating the hijab law. Arezoo Badri, a mother of two, was driving home when police flagged her car in an attempt to confiscate it after she was identified through video surveillance for not having proper hair coverage. She failed to stop, and authorities opened fire in response, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down. Iran has also continued its crackdown on female prisoners in Tehran’s Evin Prison following a prisoner-led protest over the execution of a dissident arrested in the 2022 protests. Political prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, were subjected to a violent assault by guards and denied medical care, and many are being pressured to make false confessions. “The lives of Narges Mohammadi, Sarvenaz Ahmadi, and all political prisoners in various prisons are in danger. They are paying the price for the insatiable totalitarianism of the Islamic Republic,” said Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi.  

Arizona and Missouri Join States with Abortion Amendments on the Ballot  

Arizona and Missouri have joined the list of states adding proposed amendments to their ballots that would enshrine abortion rights into their state constitutions. In Arizona, abortion is currently legal until fifteen weeks. If passed, the amendment would extend this to permit abortion until viability, or approximately twenty-three to twenty-four weeks. Missouri was the first state to ban abortion following the overturn of Roe v. Wade. The procedure is currently illegal, with limited exceptions for medical emergencies, but not rape or incest. If the amendment is passed, abortion would be legalized in the same manner as Arizona or until the fetus could survive outside of the womb. “For too long, Missourians have lived under a total abortion ban with no exceptions for rape, incest, or a woman’s health,” said Rachel Sweet from Missourians for Constitutional Freedom. “It is our turn to do something that no other state has done before. End a total abortion ban at the ballot box.” Several states, including Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, and South Dakota, have specific amendments on the ballot, while many other states have proposals that may move forward after gathering enough signatures.