A Sudanese woman who was recently spared the death penalty for converting to Christianity said she fears the baby she gave birth to while in chains may not be able to walk properly. Mariam Yahya Ibrahim, 27, gave birth to daughter Maya with her legs shackled and now doctors say she may need support to walk when she’s older.
Ibrahim, who was freed after an international outcry, said that ‘something has happened to the baby’. ‘I was really scared of giving birth in prison. I gave birth chained. Not cuffs but chains on my legs. I couldn’t open my legs so the women had to lift me off the table. I wasn’t lying on the table.
‘Something has happened to the baby. I don’t know in the future whether she’ll need support to walk or not.’
Sudanese authorities and U.S. officials in Khartoum are currently negotiating to allow Ibrahim to leave Sudan. She was detained at Khartoum airport last week, one day after an appeals court overturned a death sentence imposed on her for having converted from Islam to Christianity in order to marry her Christian American husband, Daniel Wani. Her lawyer Mohaned Mostafa said Ibrahim, her husband and two children had all been staying at the U.S. embassy in Khartoum since her release, which was granted on the condition that Ibrahim remains in Sudan.
‘There are talks going on currently between Sudanese and American officials to try to find a way for Mariam and her family to leave the country,’ a source close to the case said, asking not to be named as he was not authorised to talk to the media. Ibrahim was detained on last Tuesday for trying to use documents issued by the embassy of South Sudan to fly out of Khartoum with her American-South Sudanese husband and their two children. Despite lifting her death sentence after huge international pressure, Sudan still does not acknowledge Ibrahim’s new identity as a Christian South Sudanese because it does not recognise her marriage. Muslim women are not permitted to marry Christian men under the Islamic laws that Sudan applies. ‘The talks now are aiming to get her out of Sudan on a Sudanese passport,’ the source said.
Ibrahim’s husband Daniel Wani told Reuters that it was a ‘misunderstanding’ and error when Sudanese authorities said her travel documents were invalid, adding that his wife should have the right to adopt his South Sudanese nationality. ‘There is diplomatic work going on and the Sudanese government offers help and cooperates in this matter,’ Wani said in a phone conversation with Reuters. ‘We will leave this time in a smooth manner and with travel documents that the Sudanese authorities accept.’ South Sudan, which has a majority Christian population, became independent from the mostly Muslim north after a referendum in 2011 that ended years of civil war.
