Ameira
Osman Hamid

Background and Work

Ameira Osman Hamid is a Sudanese engineer and the founder of the No to Women Oppression Initiative, established in 2009. The Initiative focused on defending women's rights and building collective responses to gender-based violations in Sudan. Its campaigns targeted the Public Order Law, a legal framework used for decades to police women's appearance, behaviour, and public participation. Women were flogged, fined, and detained under the law for wearing trousers, working in certain professions, or moving through public spaces without male guardianship.

In 2002 she was convicted and fined under the public order provisions for wearing trousers, and in August 2013 the Public Order Police detained her and charged her with indecent dress for refusing to cover her hair. Ameira and the Initiative provided legal support, organised public advocacy, and built coalitions with other civil society organisations. The work was sustained, methodical, and deeply rooted in communities of women who had been targeted by the law. The Initiative also responded to emerging threats, including violence against women protesters during the 2018 to 2019 revolution and the period of transitional governance that followed.

The Arrest

On the night of 20 January 2022 at approximately 11:30 PM, a convoy of vehicles carrying around thirty plain-clothed security officers raided Ameira's home in Khartoum. No official identification was presented. No arrest warrant was shown to the family. The officers entered the house and conducted an aggressive search. Family members, including children, were present and witnessed the raid.

Ameira was taken from the house to an unknown location. Her family was not informed where she was being held or under what charges. She is partially paralysed and requires a walking aid for mobility. She also requires regular medication. She was not allowed to take either the walking aid or her medication when the officers removed her.

Detention and Health

Her family expressed immediate concern for her health. Her partial paralysis requires ongoing physical support and medication to manage pain and mobility. The conditions of her detention and whether she received medical care during her detention remain unclear. The intelligence service at first denied holding her; her family later learned that she was held in Omdurman women's prison.

Context and Release

Ameira's arrest took place three months after the military takeover of 25 October 2021, which ended Sudan's fragile transitional government. The coup triggered widespread protests and a campaign of arrests targeting civil society activists, journalists, and women human rights defenders. In November 2021, woman human rights defender Sit Alnfor Ahmed was killed. Ameira had publicly condemned the killing and other human rights violations that followed the coup.

She was released on bail on 6 February 2022. The legal basis for her arrest and the charges, if any were formally filed, have not been publicly disclosed. Her case reflects the broader pattern of arbitrary detention and intimidation used against Sudan's civil society in the months following the coup.