Sudan: BBC/ARIJ undercover investigation exposes systemic chaining, beating and sexual abuse in Quranic khalwas; government pledges prosecutions
Record class
Context only
Evidence status
Active investigation
Authority role
sheikhs operating khalwa Quranic schools across Sudan
Organization
Sudan Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowments
Spiritual nexus
The abuse was carried out by sheikhs under their claimed religious authority as Quranic instructors, using children's obligation to memorize the Qur'an as the pretext for chaining and beating.
- Pastoral or clerical authority
- Institutional obedience or isolation
Evidence structure
Proceedings
2020-10-20 · official-finding / government reform pledge
Government of Sudan, Ministry of Religious Affairs (response to BBC News Arabic/Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism investigation). A BBC News Arabic/ARIJ undercover investigation, filmed secretly across 23 khalwas over 18 months by reporter Fateh Al-Rahman Al-Hamdani (himself a former khalwa student), documented children as young as five being routinely chained, shackled, beaten and starved by sheikhs across Sudan's more than 30,000 khalwas, alongside evidence of sexual abuse by those running the schools and by older students. Following broadcast, Sudan's Minister for Religious Affairs, Nasreddine Mufreh, publicly pledged there would be no more beating, torture or rights violations in khalwas and said the government would prosecute the schools filmed by the BBC. A December 2020 BBC follow-up found implementation had been slow.
Documented coercion mechanisms
- claimed Quranic-instruction authority
- chaining and shackling of children for failure to memorize the Qur'an accurately
- beating and starvation as discipline
Primary record
Sources
- international press investigative report Middle East Eye, 'Sudan's religious schools accused of routinely abusing students'.
Reports the BBC/ARIJ investigation's findings of chaining, beating, starvation and sexual abuse across Sudanese khalwas.
- trade press methodology report Global Investigative Journalism Network, 'Undercover in the Sudanese Schools That Chain Boys'.
Details the 18-month undercover methodology and the government's public response pledging prosecutions.
Related record
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