->Thepharoah17: Importing Wikidata short description: "Sudanese academic, politician, and journalist" (Shortdesc helper)

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Importing Wikidata short description: "Sudanese academic, politician, and journalist" (Shortdesc helper)

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{{Short description|Sudanese academic, politician, and journalist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
'''Su'ad al-Fatih Mohammed al-Badawi''' (born 1 January 1932) is a Sudanese academic, politician, and journalist. She is known both for her advocacy of [[women's rights]] and for her support of [[Islamism]].

Al-Badawi holds degrees from the [[University of Khartoum]] and the [[School of Oriental and African Studies]] in London, and became a professor of Arabic at [[Omdurman Islamic University]] in 1980. Her association with Islamism began in the 1950s, when she was one of the first female members of the [[Muslim Brotherhood]]. Al-Badawi later joined the [[National Islamic Front]], and beginning in the 1980s represented the party for several terms in the [[National Legislature (Sudan)|National Legislature]]. She also served in the [[Pan-African Parliament]].

==Early life and academic career==
Al-Badawi was born in [[Al-Ubayyid]], [[Kurdufan Province]]. Her paternal grandfather was a prominent Islamic scholar in [[Omdurman]], while her father was a [[Districts of Sudan|district commissioner]], in office during both the [[Anglo-Egyptian Sudan|Anglo-Egyptian condominium]] and after independence in 1956. Because of her father's work, al-Badawi lived in a number of different cities as a child, spending periods in Al-Ubayyid, [[Berber, Sudan|Berber]], [[Atbara]], [[Khartoum]], and Omdurman. She completed her secondary education with the support of her father, who had liberal views towards girl's education despite the prevailing societal attitude at the time. Al-Badawi went on to complete a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) at the [[University of Khartoum]] in 1956, as one of the first four women to graduate from the Faculty of Arts. She worked as a high school teacher for a period, and then went to England for further study. In 1961, she graduated from the [[SOAS, University of London|School of Oriental and African Studies]] at the [[University of London]] with a Master of Arts (M.A.) in Arabic.<ref name="dab">{{cite book |last=Akyeampong|first=Emmanuel Kwaku|last2=Gates|first2=Henry Louis|date=2012|title= Dictionary of African Biography, Volume 6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=39JMAgAAQBAJ|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=339|isbn= 0195382072}}</ref>

After returning from England, al-Badawi was appointed head of the history department at a teacher's college. She later worked in [[Khartoum]] as an inspector for the Ministry of Education. In 1969, al-Badawi moved to Saudi Arabia to work a consultant for [[UNESCO]]. She was involved in the establishment of the Girls' College of Education in [[Riyadh]], and served as the college's dean for a period, as well as editing the college magazine. Returning to Sudan, al-Badawi completed a doctorate in Arabic at the University of Khartoum in 1974, and in 1980 was made an associate professor in Arabic at [[Omdurman Islamic University]] (OIU). After a brief spell as a deputy vice-chancellor at [[United Arab Emirates University]], she returned to OIU in 1983 to become dean of the women's college, becoming the first woman to hold the position. In the early 1990s, al-Badawi spent a sabbatical as a postdoctoral fellow at the [[University of Edinburgh]], Scotland.<ref name="dab"/>

==Politics==
Al-Badawi's first involvement in politics came as a leader in various women's groups of the 1950s and the 1960s. She represented Sudan at several international gatherings, including the 1952 Arab Women's Conference and the 1957 Soviet Women's Conference. Al-Badawi's initial involvement was with the [[Sudanese Women's Union]], but she and several others left that group due to ideological conflicts.{{Efn|Sources contradict each other as to when exactly al-Badawi left the Sudanese Women's Union. The ''Historical Dictionary of the Sudan'' states she left in 1951,<ref name="hds"/> whereas the ''Dictionary of African Biography'' says the organisation was only founded in 1952 and that al-Badawi was still a member as late as 1957.<ref name="dab"/>}}<ref name="dab"/> She subsequently helped establish an [[Islamism|Islamist]] women's group, the National Women's Front, having earlier been one of the first female members of the [[Muslim Brotherhood]].<ref name="hds"/>

In 1981, al-Badawi became a member of the National People's Council, the [[National Legislature (Sudan)|legislature of Sudan]] under President [[Gaafar Nimeiry]]. She later served in the [[National Assembly of Sudan|National Assembly]] from 1996 to 2005, and in 2004 was elected to the [[Pan-African Parliament]].<ref name="p340">Akyeampong and Gates, p. 340.</ref> For a period in the mid-1980s, al-Badawi was one of only two female legislators in Sudan. She was a member of the [[National Islamic Front]], an Islamist party, and one source has called her "the most visible Islamist woman activist" in Sudan at the time. At an international forum in 1996, al-Badawi spoke of Islam and feminism as mutually exclusive, and rejected the idea of "[[Islamic feminism]]" as incompatible with ''[[taqwa]]'' (piety).<ref name="hale">{{cite book |last=Hale|first=Sondra|chapter=Sudanese Women in National Service, Militias & the Home|date=2013|editor1-last=Doumato |editor1-first=Eleanor|editor2-last=Posusney |editor2-first=Marsha|title= Women and Globalization in the Arab Middle East: Gender, Economy, and Society |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xq0WKr_yFCYC|publisher= Lynne Rienner |pages=207–209|isbn= 1588261344}}</ref>

==Journalism==
In 1956, al-Badawi became the first editor of ''Al-Manar'' ("The Beacon"), a weekly magazine published by the women's bureau of the [[Muslim Brotherhood]].<ref name="hds">{{cite book |last=Kramer|first=Robert|last2=Lobban|first2=Richard|last3=Fluehr-Lobban|first3=Carolyn|date=2013|title= Historical Dictionary of the Sudan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WAs7lGNkVBkC|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|pages=305–306|isbn= 0810861801}}</ref> The following year, she led a delegation of female Sudanese journalists to France and the United Kingdom.<ref name="dab"/> The initial run of ''Al-Manar'' lasted less than a year, but the magazine was re-established in 1964 and was said to have had some influence on female voters in the [[1965 Sudanese parliamentary election|1965 general election]].<ref name="hds"/> In later years, al-Badawi produced a weekly television and radio program, and worked as a columnist for various Sudanese newspapers.<ref name="dab"/>

==See also==
* [[Gender inequality in Sudan]]

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Badawi, Su'ad al-Fatih}}
[[Category:1932 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Alumni of SOAS University of London]]
[[Category:Female critics of feminism]]
[[Category:Members of the Pan-African Parliament from Sudan]]
[[Category:Muslim Brotherhood women]]
[[Category:National Islamic Front (Sudan) politicians]]
[[Category:People from North Kurdufan]]
[[Category:Sudanese expatriates in Saudi Arabia]]
[[Category:Sudanese expatriates in the United Arab Emirates]]
[[Category:Sudanese expatriates in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Sudanese Islamists]]
[[Category:Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood members]]
[[Category:Sudanese women academics]]
[[Category:Sudanese women in politics]]
[[Category:Sudanese women writers]]
[[Category:United Arab Emirates University faculty]]
[[Category:University of Khartoum alumni]]
[[Category:Sudanese women's rights activists]]
[[Category:21st-century Sudanese women politicians]]
[[Category:20th-century Sudanese writers]]
[[Category:21st-century Sudanese writers]]
[[Category:Women members of the Pan-African Parliament]]
[[Category:20th-century women writers]]
[[Category:21st-century women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Sudanese women politicians]]

Su'ad al-Fatih al-Badawi - Revision history

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