“Muslim Like My Grandmother”
Above, a sketch of a respected older friend from Northern Province, early 1980s.
“My grandmother’s room and her small veranda were one of the most comfortable corners in the house, always neat and permeated by the wonderful smell of bakhoor al-timan, locally made Sudanese incense. Inside her cool dark room I always felt I was in a different world, beyond the heat of the burning sun outside. The old lumber roof was constructed to perfectly maintain coolness. An old metal safe sat right in the corner and next to it my grandmother’s classic bookshelf…”
From Muslim Like My Grandmother by Hala Al-Karib.
Below a popular Sudanese proverb:
This week’s post is dedicated in gratitude to all the older women I have been privileged to meet in Sudan and whose kindness, wisdom and generosity I cherish. At a time of profound political uncertainty and cultural unease, Muslim Like My Grandmother speaks to a tolerant, plural and quietly self-assured Sudan.
I reproduce below a beautiful portrait, written in 2014, of Amena Bit Omhamed Ali Wad Abrabaen, grandmother to Hala Al-Karib, pictured above. Hala is Regional Director of Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA). The organization works to end violence against women and girls, build an inclusive women’s movement and promote women’s social protection and economic justice across the Horn of Africa. Women in Islam, which explores the complexities of gender relations in Muslim communities, is SIHA’s rigorously researched and thought-provoking annual journal.
Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA)
This article is reproduced with the kind permission of Hala Al-Karib of SIHA. You can also read the article here: Muslim Like My Grandmother. Below, sketch of a northern Sudanese woman showing the shiluukh face markings described in Hala’s article.
Muslim Like My Grandmother
Older women play a central role in literacy, where their knowledge and experience of life’s complexities is prized.
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Women's literacy in Sudan 