Protesting Sudanese Woman Standing on Car

Submission 15,911

About

Protesting Sudanese Woman Standing on a Car is a viral photograph of Sudanese activist Alaa Salah taken during the 2019 Sudanese Uprising, a protest movement calling for the removal of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

Origin

Protests in Sudan began in December 2018, as citizens reacted to a failing economy, causing poverty and unrest throughout the country. The protestors have demanded that President al-Bashir step down.^[1]

On April 8th, 2019, Twitter ^[2] user @lana_hago tweeted a photograph of a woman leading a protest from atop a car in Sudan. The post received more than 19,000 retweets and 64,000 likes in three days (shown below).

Spread

That day, Twitter user @allthingssam tweeted a video of the woman leading the protest. The post received more than 2,000 retweets, 5,500 likes and 1.45 million views (shown below). The video was retweeted by reporter Joyce Karam, who received more than 10,000 retweets and 27,000 likes in three days.^[3]

The image was widely spread as an inspirational symbol. That day, Twitter user @HindMakki tweeted,^[4] "I've been seeing this pic on my #Sudan_Uprising TLs today and it's amazing. Let me tell you why." The initial post received more than 8,900 retweets and 19,000 likes in three days (shown below, left).

She continued in a thread:

Her entire outfit is also a callback to the clothing worn by our mothers & grandmothers in the 60s, 70s, & 80s who dressed like this during while they marched the streets demonstrating against previous military dictatorships. Sudanese everywhere are referring to female protestors as 'Kandaka,' which is the title given to the Nubian queens of ancient Sudan whose gift to their descendents is a legacy of empowered women who fight hard for their country and their rights.

Twitter user @SuhaBabikir tweeted,^[5] "Not the future…the present is female. OR The future has arrived." The tweet received more than 4,800 retweets and 16,000 likes in four days (shown below, center).

Others shared illustrations of the image. For example, Twitter^[6] user @aljzar99 tweeted an illustration of the image. The post received more than 90 retweets and 260 likes in three days (shown below, right).

Identity

On April 8th, journalist Joyce Karam tweeted,^[7] "Her name is Ala'a Salah (آلاء صلاح) as reported by Arabic outlets. Not related to Liverpool's Mo Salah!" The tweet received more than 220 retweets and 1,000 likes in three days (shown below).

The following day, Salah tweeted^[8] about the response to the photograph. She wrote, "I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. The struggle for a democratic and prosperous Sudan🇸🇩 continues. We will not bow down to Al-Bashir, the tyrant dictator!" Within two days, the post received more than 4,000 retweets and 11,000 likes (shown below).

Houran, the photographer of the image, said of the picture's significance, "She was trying to give everyone hope and positive energy and she did it. She was representing all Sudanese women and girls and she inspired every woman and girl at the sit-in. She was telling the story of Sudanese women. … She was perfect."

Several media outlets covered the response to the photograph, including the Washington Post,^[9] CNN,^[10] BuzzFeed ^[11] and more. On April 10th, Twitter^[12] published a Moments page on the photograph.