A Woman Under Threat
Memoirs of a Sudanese Feminist and Militant writer on Sudanese women’s problem under Threat
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About the Book
To understand who I am today, you need to understand the culture I grew up in. I have an interesting story to share with the world. Writing this book will cause more troubles in my life, but I think it’s time for African women to speak up so the world can hear.
About the Author
About the Author Sara Mansour was born in Madani, Sudan. Mansour and her husband, Essam Mahadi, lived in Saudi Arabia before immigrating to the United States. They have lived in Rochester since 2001. Mansour uses a variety of TV, cable and Internet outlet to report on and write about her native Sudan. Mansour and her husband maintain a website called Sudaneseonline.org, a new source and chat room that encourages discussion of Sudanese and Middle Eastern issues. Mansour has written three books: “The Girls of Khartoum, ““The Girls of Khartoum II” and “Asylum.” A fourth book on female circumcision is planned. Sara Mansour found a disturbing picture in her e-mail mailbox recently. It was an image of a Middle Eastern man, his head resting on sand, sometime after he had been beheaded. Mansour was unable to say who sent the picture. It could have been sent from any number of enemies. But to Mansour, the menacing message was clear: Stop your writing, your publishing, your reporting, or else. For the last two years, the Rochester resident and Sudanese immigrant has been churning out a series of books that amount to a searing indictment of Sudanese society and culture. They deal with topics that are considered taboo in her native country and in much of Middle East. Two of the books, “The Girls of Khartoum” and “The Girls of Khartoum II”, describe, she says what happens to young unmarried woman and girls who commit the grave offense of becoming pregnant in a repressive Islamic culture. Mansour admits the backlash has taken its toll. She has been, she says, the subject of slanders and a smear campaign conducted on the Internet by other Rochester Sudanese. “Fake stories”, she says, have accused her of everything from planting bombs to having Ethiopian parentage. But Mansour doesn’t plan to stop writing anytime soon. She has been working on a fourth book – this one dealing with female circumcision. “They want to push me to close my website”, she said. “They want to push me to stop writing books. They want me to just wash dishes, clean house, take care of kids and keep my mouth shut.”