Fatima Abdel Mahmoud (27 July 1944,

Omdurman Omdurman (standard ar, أم درمان ''Umm Durmān'') is a city in Sudan. It is the most populated city in the country, and thus also in the State of Khartoum. Omdurman lies on the west bank of the River Nile, opposite and northwest of th ...

, Sudan – 22 July 2018,

London, England London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

) was a Sudanese politician, leader of the Sudanese Socialist Democratic Union. In 1973 she was one of the first women to hold political office in Sudan, and she took part in the April 2010 Sudanese general election as the country's first female presidential candidate.

Parliamentary career

Abdel Mahmoud was born on 27 July 1944. She studied medicine in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

, in the 1960s and qualified as a

paediatrician Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the ...

. In 1973 she was appointed Deputy Minister of Youth, Sports, and Social Affairs. This appointment, along with that of Sayeda Nafisa Ahmed al Amin as a member of the ruling

Sudanese Socialist Union The Sudanese Socialist Union (abbr. SSU; ar, الاتحاد الاشتراكي السوداني ''Al-Ittihad Al-Ishtiraki Al-Sudaniy'') was a political party in Sudan. The SSU was the country's sole legal party from 1971 until 1985, when the ...

politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the executive committee for communist parties. It is present in most former and existing communist states. Names The term "politburo" in English comes from the Russian ''Politbyuro'' (), itself a contractio ...

, made international news at a time when contemporary estimates put the Sudanese female literacy rate at 10%. Abdel Mahmoud served in parliament for ten years.

Presidential candidacy

In April 2010 Sudan held its first fully contested elections (i.e. the first to include candidates from opposition parties) since 1986. Abdel Mahmoud's presidential candidacy, along with that of two other aspirants, was rejected in January 2010 by the Sudanese National Elections Commission, which claimed that Abdel Mahmoud's campaign had failed to secure the necessary stamps on a required list of signatures endorsing her candidacy. Abdel Mahmoud and her supporters protested the decision, which they described as representative of a conspiracy against women, and her candidacy was reinstated by an appeal court before the election. Many opposition parties eventually boycotted the poll, claiming that it was rigged in favour of incumbent president Omar al-Bashir. Al-Bashir went on to win the election decisively. Election results showed that Abdel Mahmoud had polled 0.3% of the total vote. She subsequently stood in the 2015 general election in Sudan, where she came a distant third in the Presidential election and her party gained no seats in the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

Other activity

Honored with FAO CERES Medal in 1976. Abdel Mahmoud had served as the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. I ...

Chair for Women in Science and Technology, which was hosted by

Sudan University of Science and Technology Sudan University of Science and Technology (abbreviated SUST) is one of the largest public universities in Sudan, with ten campuses in Khartoum state. The main campus is located in the so-called Al Mugran area of Khartoum, the confluence of ...

. She died in London, England on 22 July 2018, five days before her 74th birthday.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Abdel Mahmoud, Fatima 1944 births 2018 deaths Women pediatricians Sudanese Socialist Union politicians Government ministers of Sudan Peoples' Friendship University of Russia alumni Candidates for President of Sudan Women government ministers of Sudan 20th-century Sudanese women politicians 20th-century Sudanese politicians 21st-century Sudanese women politicians 21st-century Sudanese politicians People from Omdurman Sudanese expatriates in the Soviet Union