Sudan

Sudan, a country in northeastern Africa, is the largest country in Africa. The population in 2009 was estimated at 42,272,000. Women are more impoverished than men, and the situation is worse in the war-affected areas of southern Sudan. Women do not have legal rights equal to those of men, and are poorer than men because of inequities in access to productive assets, discriminating values and customs, and lower compensation for women's work. Women share responsibilities with men, but do not enjoy comparable rights.

A woman's role in Sudan is to bear children and please her husband. According to Lt. General Omar Hassan al-Bashir, “An ideal Sudanese woman is one who takes care of herself, her children, her home, her reputation and her husband.” Women are not allowed to work in occupations that are hazardous, arduous, or harmful to their health, or work between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., with only a few exceptions.

Marriage, with its courtship protocols that involve entire villages and its dowry system, is central to the region's culture and economy. More than one-third of girls are married before the age of 18, and on average, each woman gives birth to six children. Polygamy and female genital mutilation is widely practiced. According to the customary patriarchal laws in southern Sudanese culture, marriages are arranged. It is almost impossible for a woman to choose the husband she wishes or divorce the husband she doesn't want, even if he is promiscuous or abusive. To get out of the marriage, some women commit adultery (which is illegal) just to make their husband forfeit the dowry and end the marriage.

Divorce proceedings for a marriage officiated in Sudan are under the jurisdiction of Sudanese personal [Page 1177]status laws. Under sharia law, a marriage may be terminated when its continuation becomes incompatible with Islamic precepts. One method of divorce tafriq, is the only form of divorce in which there is court intervention. There are five grounds for valid tafriq applications: physical or emotional injury, irreconcilable differences, discovery after marriage that the husband has an incurable physical defect (i.e., impotence), failure to pay maintenance to the wife, and imprisonment or absence without reason of the husband for over one year.

Although the ideal role of a woman in Sudan is to take care of her family, this Sudanese mother has benefitted from a USAID micro-loan program to help improve income growth for small farmers and vendors.

Pregnant working women are entitled to four weeks before confinement and four weeks after confinement (with certification from a doctor) of maternity leave, after six months of service. Breastfeeding mothers are entitled to one hour a day, for two years, from the date of birth.

In war-affected areas in southern Sudan, women were left with all responsibilities for feeding a family, raising children, and caring for the elderly while their husbands were absent. Decades of war have clearly shattered the national capacity to provide comprehensive health and education services for women and children. Women are also denied the full benefit of educational and health programs, and even when their rights have been clearly set out in law, they have been defeated by the traditional dominance of men. Less than 38 percent of women in Sudan are literate, limiting their potential for safe motherhood.

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