Halima Bashir is the author of Tears of the Desert, a memoir about women's experiences with genocide and war in Darfur.The memoir was co-authored with journalist Damien Lewis.In 2010, Bashir was awarded the Anna Politkovskaya Award for speaking out about the Janjaweed militia's violent attacks on school girls in Darfur.However her courageous work to draw attention to this matter put her in danger.