Action Wednesday: Tears of the Desert
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 1:18PM Guest post by Research and Advocacy Intern Sarah C. Martinez
Tears of the Desert
If any of our readers are interested in learning more about Sudan before and during the genocide, I suggest this week that your call to action be more involved than usual. I would like to recommend Halima Bashir’s memoir, Tears of the Desert for further enlightenment on the motivating factors and violence in Sudan’s genocide. Halima Bashir was born and raised in Darfur and obtained her degree and became a doctor shortly before the violence broke out. She writes of being the only doctor in many villages and secretly treating the wounded at the same time as she was being forced to treat the Janjaweed. While working at a village hospital, Halima witnessed and treated 42 school girls after they were raped by the Janjaweed. For speaking of this incident to the United Nations, Halima herself was captured and raped. Memoirs such as this are extremely important in making issues such as genocide more accessible and relatable to Western audiences. Furthermore, Halima’s account of the violence in her home country serves as more concrete evidence that what is happening in Sudan is in fact genocide, and innocent women are often victims of the Janjaweed’s use of rape as a mechanism of debasement. Tears of the Desert is available for purchase at major bookstores and in the Albuquerque Library system. Following is the link to the catalog entry for the book in the Albuquerque Library System.
And here is Tears of the Desert on Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Tears-Desert-Memoir-Survival-Darfur/dp/0345506251
Reading Tears of the Desert was what finally convinced me to dedicate my life and studies to Peace, Conflict and Diplomacy. I hope that Halima Bashir’s story is as moving and informative for all of you who choose to read it as it was for me.
Best,
Sarah C. Martinez
Reader Comments (1)
Thanks to Sarah for a great call to action!