Description

In 1989, members of the Sudanese Islamist Movement, which traces its lineage to the Muslim Brotherhood, seized power in what they termed thawrat al-inqaz al-watani ("The National Salvation Revolution".) The regime they put in place is popularly known as the Inqaz. My research deals with a set of discourses and practices broadly known as the “civilization(al) project,” which were deployed by the Sudanese islamist state following the coup. As an ideological construct, the project posited the Inqaz as on the one hand, rescuing the country from the grip of spiraling poverty, war and political incompetence, and on the other, saving its citizens from moral and religious decay. Of most interest to my research, the project paid a great deal of attention to the remaking of women’s subjectivities, and to channeling their energies in the service of God and state. Drawing on anthropology of the state and feminist theory, I grapple with the question: What do the discourses and practices of Sudan’s Islamist women tell us about the discourses and practices of the Civilization(al) Project? The Sudanese Islamist Movement, which traces its lineage to the Muslim Brotherhood, dates back to the 1940s. In 1989, members of the movement seized power in what they termed "The National Salvation Revolution". Soon after, the movement launched “the Civilization Project”- an ideological contract that posited the Salvation Revolution as on the one hand, rescuing the country from the grip of spiraling poverty, war and political incompetence, and on the other, rescuing its citizens from moral and religious decay. As such, a plethora of institutions and practices were initiated by the state to tackle this. Using primarily participant-observation and oral history interviews, my research project asks the question: What do the discourses and practices of Sudan’s Islamist women tell us about the discourses and practices of the state’s Civilization Project? The Sudanese Islamist Movement, which traces its lineage to the Muslim Brotherhood, dates back to the 1940s. In 1989, members of the movement seized power in what they termed thawret al-inqaz al-watani (The National Salvation Revolution). Concentrating on the period of the 1980s to the present, my research project focuses on the framing of women’s political agency within the Islamist Movement in Sudan, and examines discourses and practices of mobilization as deployed by the movement.

Project Details

Project Type

Dissertation

Subject Group

Law, Economics and Social Sciences

Subject Classification

Political Science

Start

2014

End

2018

Organization

Field/Work Area

Babylonian Medicine

Project Team

Director

Sara Abbas

Keywords

the state; women; sudan; islamist movement

Researchers

• Sara Abbas

  Former