TRANSITIONING INTO EMPLOYMENT

and legal sanctions. These women and their activities are labeled shameful, illegitimate or illegal. This fact hinders urban poor women’s participation in the non-traditional vocational workforce despite their skills or desire. The reinforcement of these new relations is instilled in current and future generations therefore ensuring that these new gendered practices continue and are normalized.

By controlling women’s conduct in the public sphere, the state tries to promote the idea of a model woman citizen on the basis of religious morality. 25 These moral assumptions act to suppress and confine women by using religious morality and national tradition.26 An understanding of this demonstrates how women’s entry into vocational education and employment is not only hindered by the need to conform to traditional forms of femininity but also to state-defined definitions of religious morality and modesty.

“I went around to a number of shops in the industrial area looking for a job. I got laughed at and asked if I knew of the foul language and general culture of the industrial area. I was told repeatedly that it is no place for a woman. I told them I didn’t care about the language used. I just wanted to work. One man told me I would be bad for business and that, “customers won’t come to a shop where women are working.” Another employer responded to my request for work with, “istaghfarallah” (God Forgive me/you). I responded, “Why, did I say something sinful?”27 (Selma Awad Alkareem, BGS participant)

Women participants say that it is difficult to find jobs. They often have to deal with negative reactions to their eagerness to work in a specific field. Despite being well trained, women find that employers are skeptical about their capabilities. BGS participants are aware that their training must be supplemented with more practice in the field. To this end, a number of women have made attempts to train at workshops to prove their capabilities to employers28 and to indicate their dedication to pursuing careers in their respective vocations. However, as Selma noted, “The idea of women working at open mechanic shops in particular, is met with laughter, deemed

25 Hale, S. (1999). Mothers and militias: Islamic state construction of the women citizens of Northern Sudan. Citizenship Studies, 3(3), 373-386. 26 Nugdalla, S. (2020) The Revolution Continues: Sudanese Women’s Activism. In Gender Protests, and Political Change in Africa, Palgrave Macmillan Publishing. 27 FGD, Khartoum, Women Participants, January 6th 2020 28 Ibid.

inappropriate and at times, regarded as un-Islamic.” Similarly, one participant recounted that she had a struggle with her older brother about her participation in vocational training. Her brother claimed that it was prohibited in Islam for women to partake in a masculine field of study/employment. As a result of the codes of religious morality supported by the Islamist regime’s governance regarding women’s public activity, women’s faith is brought into question if they wish to participate in vocational training or work in male-dominated areas. It is worth noting that there is no true Islamic reference to prohibiting women from working in maledominated sectors. Although Islam did not emerge as a factor hindering women’s access to education or employment, fundamentalist interpretations of Islam in relation to its control over public morality and consciousness is a critical factor which impedes women’s success in non-traditional work arenas.

“The toughest obstacle has been society’s rejection of women in this field. I received the training and obtained a job at a workshop but customers are skeptical of me fixing their items. Many times, customers ask my male colleagues if I am capable and my colleagues are forced to explain that I am a trained technician. It’s as if trusting a woman technician would result in disaster. If I’m alone at the shop, customers come in asking, “mafi zol?” translating to “Is there no one here?” and I respond, “Ana ma zol?” meaning “Am I not somebody?”29 (Asia Jumaa, BGS participant)

Asia’s experience at the maintenance shop shows the depths of the internalized rejection of women working in certain spaces. So much so, that she is forced to reclaim that space by reinforcing her presence. Asia’s exchange with the customer captures how the general perception about women’s societal roles delegitimizes her presence at the workshop. The assumption is that Asia must be at the shop for some other purpose because she certainly couldn’t be working there. A shop owner at the Khartoum Industrial Area shared his thoughts on employing women stating:

“I have no problem employing women as long as they meet the needs and standards of the job description and that includes dress code. Women lean towards beauty, but here in the industrial area, there is no room for that. Technicians cannot wear rings. This is for their safety during work, of course. Will she be okay with wearing trousers and adhering to the uniform? Is she okay with not wearing a big scarf? I can change my shirt on the street because I’m a man but can she?” (Mansour Osman Abdelmajeed, Mechanics Shop Owner, Khartoum 3 Industrial Area)

29 Interview, Asia Jumaa, BGS Participant February 6th 2020