Who I am

I am Dar al-Salam Wadaah (دار السلام وداعة). I write as DAR. I am a Sudanese woman. I grew up in a rural part of central Sudan and studied there too, at the University of Aljazeera, where I graduated in animal production and, in 2023, was preparing for a master's in animal nutrition. My family's roots are in the west, in Darfur — which, once the war came, was reason enough for us to be called Janjaweed and hunted.

Before the war I was a civil-society activist. As a student I helped lead the movement against the former regime; I served in the student union, and I was detained more than four times for it. I am married and a mother, and I have had to bury one of my children.

The war reached my home on 15 April 2023. The next morning I watched air raids fall beside our neighbourhood, and I helped bury the dead before the fighting forced us out. What followed was more than a year of flight — across Sudan and finally out of it — through checkpoints and detentions, robberies, and losses I still carry.

I am in France now. I speak here because the women still in Sudan often cannot yet speak safely. This site is mine — it carries their witness alongside my own until they can carry it themselves.

In Arabic, dār (دار) means house, home, dwelling. The word is also the root of Darfur — the home of the Fur people. Naming this platform DAR Talks is a small claim: that the home I was forced to leave is still mine; that the homes Sudanese women have lost are still theirs; and that this site, in three languages, is a place where our voices can be heard.

I do not work alone. The team and advisory group around me is here: Team & advisors.