Women’s Rights Activist Amira Osman Arrested in Sudan

About 15 armed, masked men stormed the Khartoum home of women’s rights campaigner Amira Osman late Saturday night and arrested her, her sister Amani Osman told the Reuters news agency. “We don’t know where she is or the security agency that took her. We are worried about the nature of her arrest and her critical health condition,” Amani Osman said, referring to her sister’s partial paralysis from an accident a few years ago. Amira Osman was arrested in 2013 for refusing to cover her hair with a hijab – a violation of Sudanese law at the time that could have resulted in her being whipped – and was fined in 2002 for wearing pants. She participated in a campaign of female activists that helped depose former President Omar al-Bashir in 2019. A number of other civil society leaders have been detained in what activists say is a campaign of arrests against pro-democracy figures since the military took power in the country in October. Some high-profile political figures have been released since the October 25 coup but others remain in detention. The UN mission in Sudan condemned Osman’s arrest, writing on the Twitter platform that the country has seen a “pattern of violence against women’s rights activists.”