Halima Bashir still stands tall despite the adversities she faced while working as a doctor in Darfur in 2004.
Bashir said she was gang-raped repeatedly by the Janjaweed militia after informing United Nations workers about the group’s attack on a school, where she said girls as young as 8 were beaten and raped while Sudanese soldiers stood guard.
“What has happened to me and to many Darfuri women is something we cannot forget … The only thing that might let us sometimes forget about it … is when we see justice,” Bashir, 30, told Reuters in a telephone interview.
She won the Anna Politkovskaya Award for women human rights defenders earlier this month. The prize is awarded annually by human rights group Reach All Women in War.
Bashir has also testified against Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir before the International Criminal Court.
