One Foot in Heaven: Narratives on Gender and Islam in Darfur, West-Sudan (Women and Gender: the Middle East and the Islamic World)

the long version

"One Foot in Heaven conflates two religious perspectives on women propagated by the Islamist government of Sudan since its inception in 1989: as mothers and wives within the walls of their compounds. Central are the biographic narratives of two working women in Kebkabiya, a town in Darfur, each belonging to a different class: low-class market women and highly esteemed female teachers. Based on anthropological research (1990-1995) the author analyses the narratives as part of the multi-layered context in which these were performed - and of which the author also formed part. She shows how these women constructed identities while negotiating the Islamist moral discourse on gender in a period of ethnic conflict, religious transformation and the waging of the first Gulf-war."--Jacket.