Skip to main content

Sudan: Noura Hussein: 'Hoping for a miracle to stop our daughter being hanged'

Sudanese woman
The parents of a Sudanese teenager who was sentenced to death after killing her husband - whom she accuses of raping her - have denied reports that they've disowned her. In an exclusive interview with the BBC, her father also says he never imagined that making her marry her cousin would have such terrible consequences.

Noura Hussein sobbed uncontrollably when she saw her mother earlier this month. It was the 1st time she had been visited by her family, since she was jailed 1 year ago.

Through the tears, the 19-year-old told her mother that she had originally planned to kill herself, after being raped by her husband.

"She hated herself after he raped her," says Noura's mother, Zainab Ahmed.

"She had got a knife ready to take her own life if he touched her again."

But in the heat of the moment - when he did touch her again - she stabbed her husband instead. It was self-defence, her mother insists.

When Noura was sentenced last month an online campaign, #JusticeforNoura, spread across the world.

Supermodel Naomi Campbell and actress Emma Watson were among celebrities who joined activists in condemning the death sentence and demanding that the conviction be overturned.

And when Amnesty International urged supporters to email Sudan's Justice Minister asking him to intervene, the volume of messages forced him to get a new email address.

It was only when her mother visited her in the harsh conditions of the Omdurman Women's Prison that Noura discovered about this tide of support in the outside world.

For now, her own world is defined by the walls of the prison, where all inmates live in 1 large yard.

"There are no roofs so most of the women have to use sheets to keep the sun off them," Justice Africa's Sudan co-ordinator, Hafiz Mohammed, has said.

Noura remains in the shackles that she has been wearing since her arrest.

While she looked healthy, her mother says, her spirit appeared broken.

The 2nd of 8 children, Noura Hussein, grew up in the village of al-Bager, 40km (25 miles) south of Khartoum. It's a dusty place, surrounded by sandy, rocky hillocks, not far from the River Nile.

The bright colours of the fruit and vegetables laid out on patterned cloths on the floor of the local market provide rare bursts of colour piercing the mostly brown and barren landscape.

Zainab Ahmed says her daughter was always a quiet girl, and an intelligent one.

"She had ambitions," Zainab says. "Noura dreamed of studying law at university and eventually becoming a lecturer."

Their extended family had left the conflict-ridden region of Darfur to move to al-Bager when Noura was a child. They didn't have much money, but Noura's father's business - a small hardware shop which sold tools and oil - meant that Noura could enjoy an education. This was what made her happiest.

But in 2015 Noura's 32-year-old cousin, Abdulrahman Mohamed Hammad, proposed to her. She was 16.

Her mother says her daughter didn't initially appear upset by the idea but asked to be allowed to continue her education. She also asked for the marriage to be delayed until her mother, who was pregnant, had given birth.

But family pressure began to mount, notably from her own father, Hussein.

"Many young girls in the area were getting pregnant and having illegitimate children," says Hussein.

Hussein says he didn't want her to suffer a similar fate and end up without a husband.

While she took part in the initial marriage ceremony it became clear that Noura's opposition to the idea was increasing.

She ran away to her aunt in Sinnar, a city 350km away, and remained with her for 2 days. She was persuaded to come back home on the understanding that the marriage would never be completed.

In fact, once she arrived back the ceremony was completed, but she wasn't required to live with her husband.

For the next 2 years she remained at her family home. When Abdulrahman visited, she would tell him outright that she didn't want to be married to him.

However, family elders began to insist that Noura and her husband formalise the relationship and behave like a legally married couple.

In their close community it is the elders who make all key decisions. Honour and family respect are the most important values of the culture.

Her father Hussein says he saw no good reason for his daughter to keep refusing the union. The family had been patient for years.

Under pressure, Noura agreed to move in with Abdulrahman in April 2017.

According to a first-hand account obtained by CNN, Noura says that she resisted her husband's sexual advances for the 1st week they lived together.

She cried. She refused to eat. When Abdulrahman slept she attempted to leave the flat, but it was locked.

On the 9th day, Abdulrahman arrived at their flat with some relatives, who tore at her clothes and held her down while he raped her, according to the CNN report.

The following day Abdulrahman tried again. This time Noura reached for the knife she told her mother she would use to kill herself.

Noura's account says that in the tussle her hand was cut and Abdulrahman bit her shoulder.

It then jumps to Noura running to her parents' home, holding a bloody knife.

Hussein and his wife were terrified when they saw their daughter standing in front of them clutching the murder weapon.

"I killed my husband after he raped me," she told them, holding out the knife.

"I then understood the seriousness of the situation," says Hussein. Knowing Abdulrahman's family, he was in no doubt they would want revenge.

Noura's whole family was now under threat, he says, so he made a decision to take them all to the police station. He did this to protect them, not, as has been reported, to turn her in and abandon her. But Noura was arrested and charged with premeditated murder.

Her family went home to appeal to the elders to make a deal with Abdulrahman's family. They refused, instead insisting that Hussein and Zainab must no longer see Noura if they wanted to protect their other children.

When their house and business premises were set on fire and burned down, Hussein and Ahmed agreed.

However, the intimidation persisted and Hussein and Zainab took their children and fled.

A court in Omdurman, Sudan's second largest city, later found Noura Hussein guilty of premeditated murder, and last month - when her husband's family refused the option of monetary compensation - it officially sentenced her to death by hanging.

Noura's lawyers are appealing against the sentence, and seeking a pardon. The verdict is expected within days.




CNN: Activist fights for Sudanese teen on death row


Hussein says he has not seen his daughter since that night, because of the threat to harm him and his other children if he does.

"I also want to see my daughter and visit her in prison and raise her spirits, but I am unable to do so," he says.

He has talked with her on the phone, though, and says she assured him that she was in good health.

Zainab Ahmed says she is hopeful of a last minute miracle for her daughter. She likes to imagine that family elders will intervene and convince Abdulrahman's family to ask the courts to repeal the death penalty.

Amnesty International thinks this is a vain hope.

"At this stage this seems highly unlikely. Had they done this during the sentencing they could have requested mitigation. At this stage a family would have no say in a judicial decision," says Dr Joan Nyanyuki, Amnesty's director for East Africa.

However international pressure may work, she says.

"When we called for people to email Sudan's Justice Minister demanding Noura's pardon, he had to shut down his email address within two weeks. It had an impact. If people emailed the Sudanese embassies in their respective countries demanding her release, that would make an immense difference."

She adds: "There are hundreds of thousands of Nouras that we haven't heard of, in forced marriages being raped. This fight is also for them."

Noura's parents now live in a village far away from al-Bager.

They say that their marriage is still strong and they are supporting each other and their children through the ordeal. But Noura's fate haunts them.

"No-one wants a miserable life for their daughter," says Hussein.

"I did not expect things to reach this degree.

"We are hoping God will rescue her."

Source: BBC News, Mohamed Osman, June 25, 2018


⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.


Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!



"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

Most viewed (Last 7 days)

US Department of Justice announces decision to resume federal executions

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Friday that it will resume the federal use of capital punishment and that it is seeking death sentences against 44 defendants. DOJ also said that it will use firing squads, electrocution, or nitrogen asphyxiation if the drug used in lethal injection is unavailable. The announcement follows the Restoring and Strengthening the Federal Death Penalty report, published on April 24. The report is especially critical of the moratorium on federal executions, ordered by Attorney General Merrick Garland in July 2021, to remain until the death penalty could be conducted “fairly and humanely.” Garland was concerned about the federal lethal injection protocol, which uses only one drug, pentobarbital, and the possibility that it causes “unnecessary pain and suffering.” In response to Garland’s moratorium and concerns, President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 prisoners on federal death row, leaving only three prisoners.

Arizona | Man who murdered pastor crucifixion style requests plea deal after parents killed in plane crash

Adam Sheafe, the California man who admitted to killing a New River, Arizona, pastor in a crucifixion-style attack, has asked prosecutors to offer him a plea deal that would result in a natural life sentence rather than the death penalty he had previously sought. Advisory council attorneys representing Sheafe sent a formal plea offer to prosecutors this week, about two weeks after his father and stepmother died in a plane crash at Marana Airport on April 8, according to 12 News. Sheafe, 51, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of William Schonemann, 76, pastor of New River Bible Church, who was found dead inside his home last April.

China | Man sentenced to death for murder executed in Yunnan

Tian Yongming, who was initially sentenced for a series of violent crimes and then had his sentence changed to death early this year, has been executed in Yunnan province following approval from China's top court. The execution was carried out by the Intermediate People's Court in Yuxi, Yunnan, on Tuesday, with local prosecutors supervising the process. Before the execution, Tian was allowed to meet with his family members. The case dates back to September 1996, when Tian was sentenced to nine years in prison for the rape and attempted murder of his sister-in-law. After his release on July 15, 2002, he plotted revenge against the woman. On the night of Nov 13, 2002, he broke into her home armed with a knife.

20 Minutes to Death: Witness to the Last Execution in France

The following document is a firsthand account of the final moments of Hamida Djandoubi, a convicted murderer executed by guillotine at Marseille’s Baumettes Prison on September 10, 1977. The record—dated September 9—was written by Monique Mabelly, a judge appointed by the state to witness the proceedings. Djandoubi’s execution would ultimately be the last carried out in France before capital punishment was abolished in 1981. At the time, President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing—who had publicly voiced his "deep aversion to the death penalty" prior to his election—rejected Djandoubi’s appeal for clemency. Choosing to let "justice take its course," the President allowed the execution to proceed, just as he had in two previous cases during his term:   Christian Ranucci , executed on July 28, 1976 and Jérôme Carrein , executed on June 23, 1977. Hamida Djandoubi , a Tunisian national, was sentenced to death for killing his former lover, Elisabeth Bousquet. He was execu...

Singapore executes man for trafficking 1kg of cannabis

SINGAPORE — Singaporean authorities executed Omar bin Yacob Bamadhaj at Changi Prison on Thursday, April 16, 2026, following his 2019 conviction for importing 1,009.1 grams of cannabis. Bamadhaj, 41, though some reports have cited his age as 46, was arrested on July 12, 2018, during a routine search at the Woodlands Checkpoint. Officers discovered the narcotics wrapped in plastic and hidden within his vehicle as he attempted to enter Singapore from Malaysia.  Under the Misuse of Drugs Act, the threshold for the mandatory death penalty involving cannabis is 500 grams, a limit this shipment exceeded by more than double.

Man guilty of killing his 13-year-old step-niece is set to be Florida's 6th execution of 2026

A man convicted of beating and choking his 13-year-old step-niece to death is set to be executed in Florida STARKE, Fla. — A Florida man convicted of beating and choking his 13-year-old step-niece to death nearly 50 years ago is set to be executed Thursday evening. James Ernest Hitchcock, 70, is scheduled to receive a three-drug injection starting at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke. Hitchcock was initially sentenced to death in 1977 after being convicted of first-degree murder in the July 31, 1976, killing of Cynthia Driggers. Following a series of appeals, he was resentenced to death in 1988, 1993 and 1996.

Iran to execute first woman linked to mass protests after ‘forced confessions’

Bita Hemmati and three others have been sentenced to death for 'collusion' and 'propaganda.' Advocates claim the charges are baseless, citing a secretive process and state-televised interrogations. Iranian authorities are preparing to execute Bita Hemmati, the first woman sentenced to death in connection with the mass protests in Tehran in late December and January, according to the US-based non-profit the Human Rights Activists News Agency. Judge Iman Afshari, of Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, sentenced Hemmati, her husband, Mohammadreza Majidi Asl, and Behrouz Zamaninezhad, and Kourosh Zamaninezhad to death on the charge of “operational action for the hostile government of the United States and hostile groups,” in addition to discretionary imprisonment period of five years on the charge of “assembly and collusion against national security.”  

Florida Schedules Two Executions for Late April

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis has directed the Florida Department of Corrections to move forward with two executions scheduled for late April 2026, marking a significant ramp-up in the state's use of capital punishment. The scheduled deaths of Chadwick Willacy and James Ernest Hitchcock follow a series of landmark judicial rulings that have kept both men on death row for decades.

Florida executes Chadwick Scott Willacy

STARKE, Fla. -- A Florida man who set his neighbor on fire after she returned from work to find him burglarizing her home was executed Tuesday evening. Chadwick Scott Willacy, 58, received a three-drug injection and was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke for the 1990 killing of Marlys Sather. It was Florida's fifth execution this year. The curtain to the execution chamber went up promptly at the scheduled 6 p.m. time, and the lethal injection got underway two minutes later, after Willacy made a brief statement.

Texas | James Broadnax's appeals: US Supreme Court denies 2 claims, confession pending

Despite an 11th-hour confession from another man, James Broadnax is slated to be executed by the state of Texas later this week.  Broadnax, 37, is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection April 30 in Huntsville. He was condemned by a Dallas County jury in 2009 for the deaths of Stephen Swan, 26, and Matthew Butler, 28, outside their Garland music studio. Broadnax and his cousin, Demarius Cummings, had set out to rob the men, but left with only $2 and a 1995 Ford, according to previous reporting from The Dallas Morning News.