By Monette Austin Bailey
Photo courtesy of Hana Abdalla
As Hana Abdalla talks about her work at Maryland, she gets excited. She leans forward in her chair, expressive hands moving. Tuberculosis vaccine research is a new field for her. When the conversation turns to how she got here, though, her strong voice takes a serious, quieter tone.
Speaking out against government activities in Sudan means arrests and torture, says Abdalla, who called attention to the country’s corrupt military regime. Since high school, though, she knew that she needed to voice her opposition. Doing so, though, meant imprisonment or being constantly watched. For women, says Abdalla, it also often meant rape.
Being at Maryland is a wonderful opportunity, she says, especially given what she faced in her own country. She knows that her career options there were slim.
“The opportunities for women to achieve high positions are very limited in Sudan,” she says. “It is a combination of culture, male power and the practice of religion that combine to suppress women’s chances.”
Abdalla, a postdoctoral student in the College of Chemical and Life Sciences, left her family in Sudan by a cramped cargo plane bound for London in 1997. She shudders when she talks about it, “It was horrible, horrible,” and waves her hand to discourage further discussion about it.
Once in Europe, she pursued her interest in women’s health by studying cervical cytology. She earned a master’s in infectious medicine at Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet in 2000. She met Olle Stendahl, a professor and doctor at Linkoping University, who accepted her as a student in his lab while pursuing her doctorate there. He also helped her find financial aid and a place to live.
She applied to the Scholar Rescue Fund (SRF) for a fellowship to support her work at Linkoping. This Institute of International Education fund helps scholars from around the world to escape persecution in their home country, and pursue opportunities at universities and research institutions that host them for a fellowship.
She completed her doctorate in medical microbiology at Linkoping and faced with returning to where she’d been persecuted for her political activities, Abdalla, 35, decided to head to the United States.
Stendahl, she says, “supported me until I land at the U.S.A.,” she says. “And he still continues his support.”
Abdalla say that she’d like to return home, but believes that the sacrifices she and her family have made would be for nothing if she didn’t continue her studies. She is one of eight children, six of whom, she’s proud to say, are university-educated. Plus, she can continue her political activism here with a lessened fear of reprisal.
“If she had gone back to Sudan, her academic functions would end,” says Sarah Willcox, deputy executive director of SRF. She says that Abdalla’s important work in medical microbiology has greater benefit beyond her region. “She is a prolific writer, with papers in several peer-reviewed journals.”
In 2006, Abdalla met David Mosser at a Society for Leukocyte Biology meeting in Texas and discussed her interest in studying in the United States. Mosser put Abdalla in touch with Volker Briken, an assistant professor of cell biology and molecular genetics at Maryland, whose laboratory is focused on strategies to improve the vaccine for Mycobacterium tuberculosis. She started working in his lab last January.
Supporting a Whole Society Through One Individual
Photo courtesy of Hana Abdalla
In addition to her research, Abdalla works through groups like Human Rights Watch and the International Rescue Committee to help fellow Sudanese who face arrest and torture for their beliefs. She hopes to recruit Maryland students to help organize events focused on raising awareness and money for the Scholar Rescue Fund. Adballa wants people to know what a difference this support makes. “It is not just about funding one person’s education. You give support for a whole society through one individual.”
Beyond the money required to support these international scholars, Abdalla emphasizes the importance of faculty participation in hosting and mentoring scholars. “People who come from a very different culture and society especially need someone who will help them through the process,” she says.
Conditions in Sudan have improved somewhat since Abdalla left. A peace agreement signed in 2005 gave her people hope, she says. “Nevertheless, we are far away from what we dream for our country. There is still corruption and absence of freedom. Many students, academics and journalists are still facing the arrests and torture.”
Even if she hadn’t been harassed, Abdalla says she would’ve studied abroad. Doing so is made easier, though, by the good people she’s found everywhere she’s been.
“With all that has happened to me, I’m lucky that I’ve fund the right people.”
To view the article online: http://betweenthecolumns.umd.edu/2008/11/05/hana/
