Delivering salvation: The women of the Islamist Movement and the discourses and practices of Sudan’s Civilization(al) Project

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?

Erstgutachterin: Prof. Dr. Cilja Harders

Zweitgutachterin: PD Dr. Ulrike Schultz

• Abbas, Sara. 2014. “Pathways to Political Power in Sudan”, in Tadros, M. (Hg.), Women In Politics: Gender, Power and Development, London: Zed Press.

• Abbas, Sara. Sep 2010. “The Sudanese women’s movement and the mobilisation for the 2008 legislative quota and its aftermath”, in IDS Bulletin, Volume 41.5.