November 4, 2025 • 12 mins
Today we're highlighting the important work of Sudanese activist Fahima Hashim.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I'm welcome to stuff
I'll Never tell, your production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And welcome to today's activists around the world. My voice
is back kind of. I think it's not a little gruff. Yeah, yeah,
that's not the word, but it's much better than what
it was last week. And for today's activists around the world,
I am going to put a quick content warning. We're
not talking deep into actual situations, but there is mention
(00:38):
of rape and violeness against women, war, famine, all the
bad things that are happening around the world and even
even in the US. So we are actually talking about
the works of Sudanese activists Fahima Hashim. And if you
are listening to all the horrible things that is happening,
you know that there's a lot going on in Sudan
(01:01):
with the atrocities happening there currently, that's been happening there
for a while now. Like I hate to be the
ignorant person here, but I am, because there's so much
that happens and it has happened in happening in Sudan
with the help of a lot of imperilist fascist regimes
(01:21):
that wouldn't consider them themselves regimes hello us that have
helped cause these atrocities that I honestly did not and
still do not completely understand what is happening. But what
I do know is that it is horrific and it
needs to be talked about, and we need to bring
more and more attention to it, and we need to
be talking about it. So that's what we're gonna do
(01:43):
with this specific episode, and talking and celebrating the works
of people like Hashim. So currently the situation is horrifying.
This is from a recent Guardian article as in like
published yesterday. I believe they say the city of Al
Fasher and the for region of Sudan besieged by their
Rapid Support Forces RSF fell to the militia group last
(02:06):
week and what was followed is a catastrophe. Mass killings
are underway. There are reports that in one maternity hospital alone,
almost five hundred people patients and their families were killed.
The few that managed to escape tell of summary executions
of civilians. The RSF has embarked on a killing spree
of civilians so severe that the images of blood saturating
(02:27):
the ground have been picked up by satellite. The speed
and intensity of the killings in the immediate aftermath of
the fall of Alfashaer has already been compared by war
monitors to the first twenty four hours of the Rwandan genocide. Again,
this was written the third of November of twenty twenty five,
and that article continues saying millions have been displaced and
(02:49):
estimated one hundred and fifty thousand have been killed and
more than thirty million people now need urgent humanitarian assistance.
These staggering statistics still not fully tell the story of
Sudan's tragedy, the country's rapid unraveling, the destruction of its infrastructure,
or the particularly merciless way the URSF has conducted its
(03:09):
campaign and DARF. A lot of bad things are happening,
and there's so many tragedies around the world that it's
hard to focus on one. But again we don't want
to use that as an excuse, and we will take
every opportunity that we can to talk about these situations.
And as per history, women have been facing some of
the most violent attacks during this chaos, and people like
(03:32):
Wahima Hashim has been trying to advocate to protect the
women and marginalized people in Sudan with the help of others,
of course. So from a You and Women's article they
write during the last twenty years, Sudanese women have been
trained in negotiations and mediations, not because this was a
favorable subject for them, but because we've had so many
crisis that's Saza Bala al Mahadi, the Sudan country director
(03:56):
for the Center for International Private Enterprise. So I'm trying
to pick up as many articles as we can to
do all these research to have this conversation. Some of
these may be dated because this conflict has been happening
for a while. The RSF has been there for a
long while and it's kind of hit another major crisis,
(04:16):
I guess. So I believe that article was more recent
because the UN do try to help and have this
conversation more often. But yes, so a lot of these
issues not only include the war crimes and atrocities, but
also the humanitarian needs that they've been facing from the jump.
So again from the UIT article, women can't find access
to a hospital to give birth, they can't have access
(04:38):
to a refrigerator to store fresh blood for them when
they are facing death. El Mahati said in the Time
of the war. Women are not necessarily killed because of
bullets or bombs. They're killed by having less access to
basic social needs. The two crises, women's lack of political
empowerment to resolve the conflict and the steep humanitarian challenges
they face, can compound one another. Almahati said, these are
(05:00):
practical issues. You cannot talk about women playing a role
in a peace building process or in a political resolution
if they are lacking basic life needs, if they are
at stake of living or dying. She said, there are
no hospitals, no food, no water, no electricity, and then
you ask them to be part of the political conversation
that sometimes not realistic. You need to fulfill the basic
(05:20):
human need. So again, there's so many things happening that
they can't even continue with just trying for peace and
trying for human dignity and not to be shot or
any of these things. They're trying to live by getting food,
by getting hospital care, by getting medical care. And Hashim
again has been a part of this conversation for a
(05:41):
long time. She was able to start the Selma Women's
Center in nineteen ninety seven, and her work has been
credited with helping to bring attention to the needs for
women's rights in Sudan. She's been working with a lot
of international organizations, specifically through that organization, to document and
bring in a lot of resources. So from an interview
with a Nobelwomen's Initiative dot org, she talked about her
(06:03):
work with the Salama Women's Resource Center. They write, at
the Salama Women's Resource Center, we had two main areas
of work. One was the prevention of violence against women
and the other one was peace building. We had to
navigate in context where it was very difficult to work
on these issues. We needed to figure out how we
could work on these issues and not jeopardize the women
we work with as well as our own organization. The
(06:26):
environment was very complicated, the political situation was not conducive
to do any kind of work on issues of violence
against women or issues of peace. The government was not
interested in changing its policies or even bringing these issues
to the surface. And again she talks about all the
things that they did and they I actually were able
to last us a lot longer, I think than people
(06:48):
thought they could. But again the way they ended was
kind of volatile. Mahima Hashim talks about her journey into
feminism and how she kind of realized this is what
she wanted and why this was important to her, so
(07:10):
she talks with voices, inexiles, dot ca. From my cultural context,
family is the most important thing, and it is typically
determined based on blood relations alone. Feminism has brought me
a larger, richer, and more diverse chosen family, an alternative
family based on shared values of love, acceptance, an inclusion
that do not depend on nationality, blood, gender identity, sexual identity, religious,
(07:34):
or political affiliation. I have personally experienced the individual transformative
power of this type of family and the collective power
that it generates for transformative change in our society. For her,
a feminist approach is ultimately always about transformative change, whether
at the political, cultural, familial, or individual level or all
four and learning is at the heart of any transformative journey.
(07:57):
Feminist change is inherently transformative. It is creative and life
giving because it depends on diversity, deep listening, deep caring, tolerance, creativity,
and the openness and excitement to be surprised by where
you land on how you land to get there. And
I loved her explanation of what feminism was for her,
(08:18):
and I think it's such a beautiful way to see it,
and we need to talk more about how it does
bring this allowance of chosen family and bring this diversity
and creativity and power if you truly get to tap
into what is supposed to be. So during this time,
she was able to use her master's degree for documentary
and Library Sciences which hello, we love to talk about
(08:39):
the issues within the government. She with the help of
different organizations and that organization used media to highlight the
issues happening in that country. She was able to train
and conduct workshops to help women advocate for themselves as well.
And this is from one Billion Rising dot Org, which
is one of the organizations that she has worked with
and she is a part of. Bahema's professional experience includes
(09:02):
over two decades of leading training, workshops, campaigns, and research
focused on the prevention of gender based violence, including violence
against women, and the broader promotion of women's rights. She
has coordinated and facilitated feminist transformative leadership courses, designed curricula,
and mentored more than one hundred young feminists from Sudan, Egypt, Palestine,
(09:22):
Kenya and Liberia, building capacity and fostering collective feminist action
which we love to see. We love it, and her
works brought her quite a bit of attention, including from
the Sudanese government Albashir, who was the leader at the time.
As she and the organization tried to work with the
government by increasing international pressure, the government actually shut down
(09:45):
the organization. So this is from that same article with
voices in exile dot Ca. Alsama's success were recognized internationally.
They worked with partners from across the globe. They were
the lead organizers for cartoon based International Women's Bay si Lebration,
one Billion Rising, gatherings and campaigns related to the sixteen
Days of Action against Gender Violence. The center also played
(10:08):
a leading role in researching, documenting, and disseminating knowledge on
women's rights and human rights in Sudan. However, on Tuesday,
June twenty fourth, twenty fourteen, without warning, due process or explanation,
the Studentinese government shut down SAMAS Center, closing its offices,
confiscating equipment and impounding its vehicles. So they took everything
(10:29):
and there was at that time. I believe that she
relocated and I believe she's currently in Canada, Ottawa area.
Now not for sure, I'm sure she is noted somewhere
and from there she's been working continuously to advocate for
the women and the people of Sudan. She's currently on
the board of the d Doria Feminist Fund DFF, which
(10:50):
is a feminist fund quote that strengthens activists, institutions and
movements through grant making, capacity sharing, convening spaces, mutual solidarity
and support. Ensures that feminist movements have been sufficient and
flexible resources to identify and determine priorities, independently, develop and
sustain their activism, produce knowledge by and for their constituencies,
(11:11):
and advocate for the rights for all women and LGBTQI
plus individuals and groups in their countries. So this was
actually from Dorafeminist Fund dot org, so you can go
check them out, and I believe she's a part of
other organizations as well similar to that. But she has
been going strong and continuing to have this conversation. Obviously,
(11:32):
that is a small glimpse of a giant amount of
work that she has done, and we will continue to
talk about Sudanese activists and what is happening there as well.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Yes, we will definitely keep checking in on this listeners
if you would like to write in. If you have
any resources, we always love getting those from you. You
can email us at Hello at stuff Whenever Told You
dot com. You can find us on Blue Skype, Moms
a podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff When
Never Told You. We're also on YouTube. We have new
merch at Cotton Bureau, and we have a book you
(12:02):
can get wherever you get your books. Thanks as always
to our super produced Christina executive Bruce Maya and a
contributor Joey.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Thank you and thanks to you for listening.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Steff Never Told youspecture my heart Radio for more podcasts
in my Heart Radio, you can check out the heart
Radio app Apple Podcasts wherever you listen to your favorite
shows
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I'm welcome to stuff
I'll Never tell, your production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And welcome to today's activists around the world. My voice
is back kind of. I think it's not a little gruff. Yeah, yeah,
that's not the word, but it's much better than what
it was last week. And for today's activists around the world,
I am going to put a quick content warning. We're
not talking deep into actual situations, but there is mention
(00:38):
of rape and violeness against women, war, famine, all the
bad things that are happening around the world and even
even in the US. So we are actually talking about
the works of Sudanese activists Fahima Hashim. And if you
are listening to all the horrible things that is happening,
you know that there's a lot going on in Sudan
(01:01):
with the atrocities happening there currently, that's been happening there
for a while now. Like I hate to be the
ignorant person here, but I am, because there's so much
that happens and it has happened in happening in Sudan
with the help of a lot of imperilist fascist regimes
(01:21):
that wouldn't consider them themselves regimes hello us that have
helped cause these atrocities that I honestly did not and
still do not completely understand what is happening. But what
I do know is that it is horrific and it
needs to be talked about, and we need to bring
more and more attention to it, and we need to
be talking about it. So that's what we're gonna do
(01:43):
with this specific episode, and talking and celebrating the works
of people like Hashim. So currently the situation is horrifying.
This is from a recent Guardian article as in like
published yesterday. I believe they say the city of Al
Fasher and the for region of Sudan besieged by their
Rapid Support Forces RSF fell to the militia group last
(02:06):
week and what was followed is a catastrophe. Mass killings
are underway. There are reports that in one maternity hospital alone,
almost five hundred people patients and their families were killed.
The few that managed to escape tell of summary executions
of civilians. The RSF has embarked on a killing spree
of civilians so severe that the images of blood saturating
(02:27):
the ground have been picked up by satellite. The speed
and intensity of the killings in the immediate aftermath of
the fall of Alfashaer has already been compared by war
monitors to the first twenty four hours of the Rwandan genocide. Again,
this was written the third of November of twenty twenty five,
and that article continues saying millions have been displaced and
(02:49):
estimated one hundred and fifty thousand have been killed and
more than thirty million people now need urgent humanitarian assistance.
These staggering statistics still not fully tell the story of
Sudan's tragedy, the country's rapid unraveling, the destruction of its infrastructure,
or the particularly merciless way the URSF has conducted its
(03:09):
campaign and DARF. A lot of bad things are happening,
and there's so many tragedies around the world that it's
hard to focus on one. But again we don't want
to use that as an excuse, and we will take
every opportunity that we can to talk about these situations.
And as per history, women have been facing some of
the most violent attacks during this chaos, and people like
(03:32):
Wahima Hashim has been trying to advocate to protect the
women and marginalized people in Sudan with the help of others,
of course. So from a You and Women's article they
write during the last twenty years, Sudanese women have been
trained in negotiations and mediations, not because this was a
favorable subject for them, but because we've had so many
crisis that's Saza Bala al Mahadi, the Sudan country director
(03:56):
for the Center for International Private Enterprise. So I'm trying
to pick up as many articles as we can to
do all these research to have this conversation. Some of
these may be dated because this conflict has been happening
for a while. The RSF has been there for a
long while and it's kind of hit another major crisis,
(04:16):
I guess. So I believe that article was more recent
because the UN do try to help and have this
conversation more often. But yes, so a lot of these
issues not only include the war crimes and atrocities, but
also the humanitarian needs that they've been facing from the jump.
So again from the UIT article, women can't find access
to a hospital to give birth, they can't have access
(04:38):
to a refrigerator to store fresh blood for them when
they are facing death. El Mahati said in the Time
of the war. Women are not necessarily killed because of
bullets or bombs. They're killed by having less access to
basic social needs. The two crises, women's lack of political
empowerment to resolve the conflict and the steep humanitarian challenges
they face, can compound one another. Almahati said, these are
(05:00):
practical issues. You cannot talk about women playing a role
in a peace building process or in a political resolution
if they are lacking basic life needs, if they are
at stake of living or dying. She said, there are
no hospitals, no food, no water, no electricity, and then
you ask them to be part of the political conversation
that sometimes not realistic. You need to fulfill the basic
(05:20):
human need. So again, there's so many things happening that
they can't even continue with just trying for peace and
trying for human dignity and not to be shot or
any of these things. They're trying to live by getting food,
by getting hospital care, by getting medical care. And Hashim
again has been a part of this conversation for a
(05:41):
long time. She was able to start the Selma Women's
Center in nineteen ninety seven, and her work has been
credited with helping to bring attention to the needs for
women's rights in Sudan. She's been working with a lot
of international organizations, specifically through that organization, to document and
bring in a lot of resources. So from an interview
with a Nobelwomen's Initiative dot org, she talked about her
(06:03):
work with the Salama Women's Resource Center. They write, at
the Salama Women's Resource Center, we had two main areas
of work. One was the prevention of violence against women
and the other one was peace building. We had to
navigate in context where it was very difficult to work
on these issues. We needed to figure out how we
could work on these issues and not jeopardize the women
we work with as well as our own organization. The
(06:26):
environment was very complicated, the political situation was not conducive
to do any kind of work on issues of violence
against women or issues of peace. The government was not
interested in changing its policies or even bringing these issues
to the surface. And again she talks about all the
things that they did and they I actually were able
to last us a lot longer, I think than people
(06:48):
thought they could. But again the way they ended was
kind of volatile. Mahima Hashim talks about her journey into
feminism and how she kind of realized this is what
she wanted and why this was important to her, so
(07:10):
she talks with voices, inexiles, dot ca. From my cultural context,
family is the most important thing, and it is typically
determined based on blood relations alone. Feminism has brought me
a larger, richer, and more diverse chosen family, an alternative
family based on shared values of love, acceptance, an inclusion
that do not depend on nationality, blood, gender identity, sexual identity, religious,
(07:34):
or political affiliation. I have personally experienced the individual transformative
power of this type of family and the collective power
that it generates for transformative change in our society. For her,
a feminist approach is ultimately always about transformative change, whether
at the political, cultural, familial, or individual level or all
four and learning is at the heart of any transformative journey.
(07:57):
Feminist change is inherently transformative. It is creative and life
giving because it depends on diversity, deep listening, deep caring, tolerance, creativity,
and the openness and excitement to be surprised by where
you land on how you land to get there. And
I loved her explanation of what feminism was for her,
(08:18):
and I think it's such a beautiful way to see it,
and we need to talk more about how it does
bring this allowance of chosen family and bring this diversity
and creativity and power if you truly get to tap
into what is supposed to be. So during this time,
she was able to use her master's degree for documentary
and Library Sciences which hello, we love to talk about
(08:39):
the issues within the government. She with the help of
different organizations and that organization used media to highlight the
issues happening in that country. She was able to train
and conduct workshops to help women advocate for themselves as well.
And this is from one Billion Rising dot Org, which
is one of the organizations that she has worked with
and she is a part of. Bahema's professional experience includes
(09:02):
over two decades of leading training, workshops, campaigns, and research
focused on the prevention of gender based violence, including violence
against women, and the broader promotion of women's rights. She
has coordinated and facilitated feminist transformative leadership courses, designed curricula,
and mentored more than one hundred young feminists from Sudan, Egypt, Palestine,
(09:22):
Kenya and Liberia, building capacity and fostering collective feminist action
which we love to see. We love it, and her
works brought her quite a bit of attention, including from
the Sudanese government Albashir, who was the leader at the time.
As she and the organization tried to work with the
government by increasing international pressure, the government actually shut down
(09:45):
the organization. So this is from that same article with
voices in exile dot Ca. Alsama's success were recognized internationally.
They worked with partners from across the globe. They were
the lead organizers for cartoon based International Women's Bay si Lebration,
one Billion Rising, gatherings and campaigns related to the sixteen
Days of Action against Gender Violence. The center also played
(10:08):
a leading role in researching, documenting, and disseminating knowledge on
women's rights and human rights in Sudan. However, on Tuesday,
June twenty fourth, twenty fourteen, without warning, due process or explanation,
the Studentinese government shut down SAMAS Center, closing its offices,
confiscating equipment and impounding its vehicles. So they took everything
(10:29):
and there was at that time. I believe that she
relocated and I believe she's currently in Canada, Ottawa area.
Now not for sure, I'm sure she is noted somewhere
and from there she's been working continuously to advocate for
the women and the people of Sudan. She's currently on
the board of the d Doria Feminist Fund DFF, which
(10:50):
is a feminist fund quote that strengthens activists, institutions and
movements through grant making, capacity sharing, convening spaces, mutual solidarity
and support. Ensures that feminist movements have been sufficient and
flexible resources to identify and determine priorities, independently, develop and
sustain their activism, produce knowledge by and for their constituencies,
(11:11):
and advocate for the rights for all women and LGBTQI
plus individuals and groups in their countries. So this was
actually from Dorafeminist Fund dot org, so you can go
check them out, and I believe she's a part of
other organizations as well similar to that. But she has
been going strong and continuing to have this conversation. Obviously,
(11:32):
that is a small glimpse of a giant amount of
work that she has done, and we will continue to
talk about Sudanese activists and what is happening there as well.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Yes, we will definitely keep checking in on this listeners
if you would like to write in. If you have
any resources, we always love getting those from you. You
can email us at Hello at stuff Whenever Told You
dot com. You can find us on Blue Skype, Moms
a podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff When
Never Told You. We're also on YouTube. We have new
merch at Cotton Bureau, and we have a book you
(12:02):
can get wherever you get your books. Thanks as always
to our super produced Christina executive Bruce Maya and a
contributor Joey.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Thank you and thanks to you for listening.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Steff Never Told youspecture my heart Radio for more podcasts
in my Heart Radio, you can check out the heart
Radio app Apple Podcasts wherever you listen to your favorite
shows
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