"A Room of One's Own": Single Female Teachers Negotiating the Islamist Discourse in Sudan

In this article I will discuss how single female teachers in Darfur, West Sudan, negotiate their positions with reference to the Islamist moral discourse of the Sudanese government. This moral discourse seems to deny women the possibility of working. I base my argument mainly on anthropological research carried out in Kebkabiya, a small provincial town in northern Darfur, from 1990 to 1992 and in 1995.¹ I conducted my research on market women and female teachers who were locally considered to belong to, respectively, the lowest and highest class of working women.² Their experiences and opinions, particularly those of the single female teachers, are central to my argument here.

My first stay in Kebkabiya was during a politically and socially turbulent period. A military coup in 1989 had put an end to the democratic government of the Sudan, which had come to power only in 1985. The coup leader, Lt. Omer el-Bashir, then aligned himself with the National Islamic Front (NIF) of Hassan al-Turabi.³ One of the main goals of the new government was the establishment of an Islamic state; that earned it the qualification "Islamist" or "Muslim fundamentalist."⁴ One way to attain the ideal of an Islamic state was to design a policy based on Islamic principles legitimated by a moral discourse that focused on the conduct of women in public life. For example, in 1991 the Khartoum State⁵ Public Order Act was implemented with the explicit goal of attaining segregation of women and men in public, particularly in the capital Khartoum. In Article 17 of the act, the working hours of street vendors were restricted to five o'clock in the morning until five o'clock in the evening. Not coincidentally, the period between dusk and dawn is the peak time for poor women who fend for their families by selling food and drinks to passers-by. The act was enforced by the so-called kasha politics, or street cleaning campaigns.⁶ Professional women too were targeted. Shortly after the coup in June 1989, women in prestigious public positions were sent home for early retirement or fired. Professional women were also closely scrutinized when appearing in public. Those who were thought to wear too much makeup, perfume, or jewelry, or too tight, short, or colorful clothing were scolded, beaten up, or taken to the police station by predominantly elderly male vigilantes.⁷

Apart from controlling the conduct of women in public, the government also tried to interfere on the issue of marriage by launching the zawag el-kora, or "mass weddings." Large numbers of couples were married collectively at ceremonies organized and orchestrated by the government. The government also undertook the sponsoring of these weddings, in kind and money. Donations might consist of beds and furniture as part of the dowry, sums of money up to £S10,000,⁸ and in some cases even a plot of land to build a house on. The weddings were broadcast in order to advertise the government-subsidized marriages and to show that the government was seriously tackling social problems.⁹ Hale states that the mass weddings were a way to help poor people get married.¹⁰ However, the mass weddings were specifically brought to the attention of employees working in the bureaucracy or para-statal organizations. One such circular issued in September 1996 addressed 170 unmarried employees of the 204 working at the Sudan broadcasting station:

Dear brothers, sisters, and colleagues, on behalf of the [Sudan TV] trade union and board of directors, I call upon all staffers to make up their minds and get married. . . . Those interested will apply within three months . . . with incentives for those who do so. They will be married en masse at a ceremony organized and financed by the institution. We would like to assure those who will join this blessed occasion, even by marrying for the second time, that they will receive considerable assistance that will help, Allah willing, in their future life. . . . Allah has blessed marriage and in Islam marriage is considered the completion of the...