Pittsburgh City Council has given honors to a Sudanese women's rights activist who was recently released from government custody.
While accepting Council's proclamation on Tuesday, Hawa Abdullah Salih explained in a thick accent why she first became an activist.
"The Sudan government has destroyed and bombing my village. Immediate my family, more than 100, they was been killed in the same times, and after that we were forced to live in Abu Showk as refugees camps in Darfur, since 2003," said Salih.
Since then, Salih said she's been working to promote women's rights in the east-central African nation.
"As always, the Sudan government is bombing the village[s], and in the same time is raping for the ladies, always, always, always," said Salih.
She said she's been arrested and kidnapped five times by the Sudanese government.
"When the last time in 2011 [I was] arrested, Sudan government has put in me by force. They are beating me and torturing me and put in me Bible, and they are saying, 'Today, Hawa, we are pushing you from Islam,'" said Salih. She said the government then accused her of converting Muslim children to Christianity, a crime punishable by death in Sudan.
However, outcry from the United States government and others put pressure on the Sudanese government to ultimately free Salih. The Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition, Pittsburgh City Council, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette all made efforts to have her freed. She was released in 2011.
Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition coordinator David Rosenberg says Hawa Abdullah Salih has been named by Sec. of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as one of ten "International Women of Courage."
"Her work in the IDP camps has been ultimately courageous," said Rosenberg. "Imprisoned and tortured repeated times, unwilling to bow to pressure, never giving up and still not giving up, here in the United States now."
Hawa Abdullah Salih said there is still genocide occuring in Sudan, so she'll continue to work as a human rights advocate for the people of the region.
