Impressions of Khartoum

Perhaps I am more influenced by Western media and resigned to believe other people's opinions than I care to confess. 


I expected Khartoum to be different. 

I expected a city like the Taliban-run Kabul that Khaled Husseini writes about in his novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns. I expected a city dominated by Arab-looking men in white jallabiya and white taqiyah. I expected Khartoum’s women to only be those able to walk the streets if they were covered head to toe in black burkas - like moving shadows against city walls - seen, but never to be heard or interacted with. Before I departed from Nairobi I was told (and mistakenly took as fact) that as a woman, men in Sudan wouldn't address me or answer any questions I might have; that I would be "treated as if I didn't exist;" that I should "just resign to the fact that I would need to do all my communication through a male colleague." 

And then I got off the plane. 

And then day 1 went by. And day 2 and day 3...and I am still not experiencing any sort of gender-based discrimination. Though nearly all women here where the hijab (a shawl  wrapped around the head to cover a woman's head and neck), I've only seen a handful of them in full burka. All women are expected to dress conservatively, but non-Muslim women need not wear a head scarf. I have been wearing long skirts and long-sleeved shirts each day and I have not felt any disapproving eyes from the general public. 

Whereas in Nairobi, I am constantly on my guard for possible purse snatchers or con-artists, my gut feeling about Khartoum is that it is safe. And this has been affirmed by UN staff, expats,  and even our security officer back home. Darfur? The border region between Sudan and the newly independent South Sudan? Not so safe. Khartoum is safe however and when you ask the local expats why they'll tell you it is because of Sharia Law. They say if you get caught steeling you're hand will be cut off. Alcohol consumption is forbidden for me and women alike; and it is not just women, but men too who are expected to dress conservatively. I have noticed that people here lean more towards generosity, particularly to guests and the poor. The poor, in return, are just as respectful. A beggar in Nairobi will ask you for more if your charity doesn't meet their inarguable assessment of what you're capable of giving. Beggars here will thank you profusely regardless of what you give and then be off on their way.  

Sudan gets a bad wrap because of a laundry list of issues - Darfur is the first that comes to mind. Darfur is the region in western Sudan that has seen some of the world's worse human rights violations. Sudan's president, Omar Bashir is most often held responsible. He is accused of using the Janjaweed, or "Devils on Horseback" to wipe out the ethnic Fur and other native Darfuris. 2.9 million Darfuris have been displaced so far and there doesn't seem to be a plausible end in sight.  Fighting appeared to have been diminishing in the early 2000s, but has seen an intensification in 2010/11. With the long-awaited independence of South Sudan after 20 plus years of bloody conflict, the world now wonders, "now what about Darfur?" 

<to be continued...this blogger needs some "Z"s>