Alaa Salah
Alaa Salah gained media attention due to a photo of her standing on top of a car during the 2018-2019 revolution in Sudan, which was later coined the "women's revolution." She is also a member of a Sudanese women's network called MANSAM, which signed the Freedom and Change Declaration calling for the removal of Omar al-Bashir in January 2019.
Early life and Education
Alaa Salah was raised in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, in a middle-class family that was not politically active. Salah is the fourth of eight children, and her mother is a fashion designer who specializes in the traditional Sudanese toub, the garment Salah would later wear in her famous photograph. Her father runs a construction business and Salah attended Sudan International University, studying agriculture and engineering.Background
In December 2018, a number of protests against the 30-year rule of Omar al-Bashir began. He had originally come to power in 1989 through a military coup. The protests called for new leadership and reforms to the economy. Under the regime, unions were banned, and many civic groups were forced to operate underground. Throughout the regime, several attempts to remove him occurred; the largest prior to 2018 was the 2013 uprising. However, during that time access to the internet was restricted and it was alleged that several hundred protesters were killed. The most recent notable uprising was the 2018 protests, which was ignited due to high cost of living, with the inflation rate nearing 70%. The protests escalated in February 2019 and a year long state of emergency was declared. Clashes with security forces and the use of tear gas against demonstrators occurred.Role of Women
During al-Bashir's rule, Sudanese laws such as the 1991 Criminal Act were active, which allowed police to arrest people for being "immorally dressed," which was criticized by organizations such as Amnesty International for disproportionately targeting and discriminating against women. Punishments such as stoning to death were also used for crimes such as adultery. In 2016, some groups estimated 15,000 Sudanese women were sentenced to flogging. In the 2018 uprising, 60-70% of the protesters were women. This led to over a hundred women activists being detained in December and led many to refer to the movement as a "women's revolution."The photograph
On April 8, 2019, a photograph of Alaa Salah was taken by Lana H. Haroun. The image, which depicted Salah standing on a car in a white toub and moon shaped golden earrings surrounded by a crowd, gained international media attention and led to her being called the "Statue of Liberty" or "woman in white." Haroun has stated her goal was to bring attention to the Sudanese people's demands, not just the photo itself. Salah stood on top of a car quoting Sudanese poet Azhari Mohamed Ali's opinions on the Public Order Act, which gained traction. The white toub is a garment associated with the independent women in Sudanese society, such as teachers and nurses. Some even see the toub as being connected to Sudanese women activists in the 1940s and 1950s, such as Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim, the first female member in Sudan's parliament. Earlier in March 2019, the color white was adopted for female protesters in Ahfad University for Women. The image, combined with traditional earrings, also prompted people to use the term Kandake in reference to the Nubian Queen. The photo is captioned and cited as Kandake of the Sudanese Revolution.In the hours before the photo was captured, Salah described that she was with a group of women singing, and then people began to surround them. After that day, she had a sore throat from shouting and reading poems. On Twitter, she received nasty comments and death threats after the photo went viral. Nevertheless, she continued to demonstrate, saying "I will not bow down. My voice cannot be suppressed."