Women’s Rights Activist Amira Osman Hamed Wins Human Rights Prize

Activist and engineer Amira Osman Hamed has won a Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk on 27 May 2022.

Announcing the #FLDAward2022 Winner for Middle East & North Africa:

Congratulations to Ameira Osman Hamid from Sudan – Chairperson of the ‘’No to Women Oppression’’ Initiative. Ameira has bravely lead advocacy and resistance against oppressive laws in Sudan. pic.twitter.com/0npBOwfMFL

— Front Line Defenders (@FrontLineHRD) May 27, 2022

Four women received the award, in addition to Amira Osman Hamed. She received the award as winner of the Middle East and North Africa region. From Asia, Liah Ghanzanfar Jawad (Afghanistan) received the award; from the Americas, Javier and Maria Del Transito (Mexico) received the award; and from Africa, the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe received the award.

I was delighted to present the @FrontLineHRD award today to this year’s winners:
🇿🇼 @ARTUZ_teachers
🇦🇫 Liah Ghazanfar Jawad
🇲🇽 Javier & María del Tránsito
🇸🇩 Ameira Osman Hamid
👤A Woman Human Rights Defender from Belarus, who cannot be named right now, for security reasons. pic.twitter.com/tAheGKwhNc

— Mary Lawlor UN Special Rapporteur HRDs (@MaryLawlorhrds) May 27, 2022

In 2002, she was charged for wearing trousers. In 2013, she was detained and threatened with flogging for refusing to wear a headscarf.

In 2009, she established “No to Women Oppression”, an initiative to advocate against the much-derided Public Order Law, which repealed in 2019 after former Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir was ousted following the Sudanese revolution.

Amira has been advocating for Sudanese women for two decades, and was detained this year in a crackdown following a military coup in October 2021, which led to a crackdown on civilian pro-democracy figures. Amira was defaced from her home and taken to unknown location. The UN mission to Sudan and other human rights organisations called for her release. She was freed in early February 2022 and continued to participate in the ongoing anti-coup demonstration, on crutches caused by a prior back injury.