„Dies ist keine Arbeit für eine Frau wie mich“ – Der Diskurs um Frauen(erwerbs)arbeit im Sudan

Abstract

Abstract

„This is not work for a woman like me“: The Discourse on Female Employment in Sudan. Since the establishment of the Islamic regime of Omer El Beshir in Sudan, female income has been highly contested and is a topic at the centre of the Islamisation and modernisation project of the Sudanese state. This article argues that modernity and tradition are negotiated and constructed through discourses surrounding female income and female employment. While in the mainstream discourse, Western and Islamic modernity and tradition are often perceived as antagonistic in everyday life, they are also frequently interpreted in new ways and put together to from a modernity characterized by hybridisation. Female income is, on the one side, perceived as a symbol for the radical transformation of Sudanese society and is, therefore, considered to be part of modernity. However, on the other side, being a ‘modern’ mother and wife is often conceptualised as not being compatible with employment and working outside the home. This is in contrast to the life stories of elder women, which reveal that female income is part of local „traditions“. That is, „modern Islamic tradition“ is often constructed in a way that contradicts local „traditions“ and the biographies of older women. The text argues, therefore, that discourses surrounding modernity and „tradition“ can only be understood if connected to ethnic and class specifi c ascriptions and forms of belonging. Whereas poor women draw on traditions which exist in their local surroundings, middle class women position themselves as part of modernity and try to distinguish themselves from local traditions. Moreover, education and female employment play an increasing role in ascribing family status and class position. The article is based on qualitative interviews conducted between 2001 and 2003 in the Three Towns (= Khartoum, Omdurman and Bahri) and a village south of Omdurman.