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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Sudan
Index
In Sudan, the extended family provided social services.
Traditionally, the family was responsible for the old, the sick,
and the mentally ill, although many of these responsibilities had
been eroded by urbanization. Whether in rural or urban society,
however, the burden of these social services fell upon the women.
Except for a small number of liberated, educated young women
from families of the elite, girls remained within the household
and were segregated at all festivities, eating after the men.
This was particularly the case with Muslim households. Men
entertained in their own quarters, and males of an extended
family ate together. In a small family, the husband ate alone or,
more frequently, took his bowl to join his male neighbors.
A young university couple might live much as in the West, in
a house without relatives, and might live, eat, and entertain
together. Nevertheless, traditional patterns were deeply rooted,
and the husband would often be away visiting his male friends in
the market and cafés. At home a servant helped with the children.
Although the educated young married or unmarried woman had
greater mobility because of her job, she was not exempt from the
traditional restrictions and the supremacy of the Muslim husband.
She was aware that her education and job were not a license to
trespass upon male-dominated social norms.
In some respects, the uneducated woman had greater freedom so
long as it was with her peers; but even among well-to-do
families, a young woman was restricted to her household and
female friends until transferred to similar seclusion in the
house of her husband. Paradoxically, this segregation could
create a spirit of independence, particularly among educated
women, for there were a host of aunts, cousins, and grandmothers
to look after the children and allow the mothers to work outside
the home. Nevertheless, social traditions governed the way of
life of Sudanese women. The segregation and subordination of
women in Sudanese society should not obscure the fact that women
dominated the household just as their men commanded public life.
The home and the rearing of children were their domains--so long
as they upheld male-oriented social norms.
Two traditional customs among Sudanese women had an enormous
impact upon their private and social relationships--the
zar cult and female "circumcision." Zar was the
name given to the ceremony conducted only by women practitioners
required to pacify evil spirits and to cleanse women of
afflictions caused by demons or jinn. Zar cults were
numerous throughout Muslim Africa. Illnesses, including
depression, infertility, and other organic and psychological
disorders, were attributed to possession by hostile spirits.
Although zar ceremonies varied widely, they not only freed
the one possessed but were great social occasions where women
could communicate together as men did within male circles.
Female circumcision, or infibulation (excising the external
genitalia and sewing the vagina shut) was widely practiced
throughout Muslim Africa, and especially among Sudan's northern
Arab population. Enormous pressure was put on the twelve-year-old
or younger girl, as well as older women and their families, to
observe these ceremonies and practices.
The issue of female circumcision was controversial, however,
because of the physical and psychological problems they caused
women. Midwives performed the operations, which often led to
shock, hemorrhage, and septicemia. They created innumerable
obstetrical problems before and after childbirth and throughout
life. Despite international conferences, legislation, and efforts
to eradicate these practices, however, in the early 1990s they
appeared to be on the increase, not only in Sudan but in Africa,
generally. At the same time, the adoption of Western medicine by
growing educated classes was increasingly promoting awareness of
the harmful effects of infibulation on women; the spread of
Islam, however, inhibited the eradication of this practice.
In southern Sudan, the role of women differed dramatically
from that in the north. Although women were subordinate to men,
they enjoyed much greater freedom within southern Sudan's
societies. Female circumcision was not practiced and no
zar cult existed, although the spirits were regularly
consulted about private and public affairs through practitioners.
Women had greater freedom of movement, and indeed participated to
a limited degree in the councils of lineage. Husbands consulted
their wives on matters pertaining to public affairs. Many women
also played important roles in the mediation of disputes.
Data as of June 1991
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