GENDER, VOCATIONAL TRAINING, EMPLOYMENT & RESISTANCE

As previously stated, women who seek employment in non-traditional spaces are viewed as going against cultural beliefs and as a result, these women are labeled as straying from their values. The BGS Project reveals the complexity behind women’s low participation in nontraditional workforces. This section reveals the damaging effects of the Islamist regime’s policy and rhetoric on women’s access to vocational training and employment and recognizes the Islamist regime as a key hindrance to women’s participation in the workforce. The vocational institute where the project took place is located at the center of Khartoum. It was established in 1964 by a Government of Germany fund that provided equipment and supported the training of staff. SIHA’s Regional Director, Hala Al-Karib, describes the training institute as deserted, stating that women’s presence brought life back to the center. An instructor gives some history of the training center with respect to the presence of women:

“I was a student at the German Vocational Training Center in 1996…. in a class of about 20 students and 5 of them were women. The classes before me also had women, and one of them was the top of her class in the car electricity department. Many of the women went on to do great things in the field. However, years later, here I am teaching at the same institution and there are no longer women occupying the classrooms.”20 (Abdelrazig, Carpentry Teacher at the VT)

The respondent compares women’s visibility in the early years of the Islamist regime to the present and underlines the decrease in women students. This is not to say that gender segregation in vocational training was introduced by the government change, however, it demonstrates a shift in the already low number of women, underlining a change in women’s public visibility as a whole. When asked about the admission process for women at the center prior to SIHA’s project, the head of the German Vocational Training center stated:

“When SIHA came, it was a challenge. The agreement between SIHA and the center required that all departments be open to women trainees. Previously, we restricted women’s choices and guided them towards ‘soft’ vocations, at very low rates at that.” (Niyazi, Head of Vocational Training Center)

20 FGD, Khartoum, Vocational Training Staff, January 7th 2020