Gender Politics in Sudan

by Hale, Sondra

• ISBN13: 9780813324319
• ISBN10: 0813324319
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1996-06-06
• Publisher: Westview Pr

Summary

Focusing on the relationship between gender and the state in the construction of national identity politics in twentieth-century northern Sudan, the author investigates the mechanisms that the state and political and religious interest groups employ for achieving political and cultural hegemony. Hale argues that such a process involves the transformation of culture through the involvement of women in both left-wing and Islamist revolutionary movements. In drawing parallels between the gender ideology of secular and religious organizations in Sudan, Hale analyzes male positioning of women within the culture to serve the movement. Using data from fieldwork conducted between 1961 and 1988, she investigates the conditions under which women's culture can be active, generative, positive expressions of resistance and transformation. Hale argues that in northern Sudan women may be using Islam to construct their own identity and improve their situation. Nevertheless, she raises questions about the barriers that women may face, now that the Islamic state is achieving hegemony, and discusses the limits of identity politics.

Author Biography

Sondra Hale is adjunct associate professor in anthropology and women's studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
Theory, Living Fieldwork, And Autobiography: an Introduction	p. 3
Locating Sudanese Women's Studies	p. 29
Background to Sudan And Sudanese Women	p. 59
History and Political Economy Gender, Ethnicity, Religion, and the State	p. 61
Women in Contemporary Northern Sudan	p. 103
Two Case Studies	p. 149
The Wing of the Patriarch The Sudanese Communist Party and the Women's Union	p. 151
Islamism and the Women Activists Of the National Islamic Front	p. 185
Culture and Transformation Concluding Remarks	p. 227
Glossary	p. 255
References	p. 259
Index	p. 279
About the Book and Author	p. 295
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