Recent Clippings


In Sudan, tribal law dictates that only a man can divorce a woman. Because of this, many women are commiting adultary in order to force their husbands to set them aside.

From an article written by Emily wax...

"Crouched in a dank prison ward, Ding Maker admits she broke the law by commiting adultary. but she didn't do it for love, she says. Like many women in jail in the Sudan, she did it because she wanted a divorce. For three months she has been sitting in a cell with 32 other women; hoping to shame her husband into repaying her dowry and leaving her.
In patriarchal southern Sudan, as in most of Africa, only men have the right to file for divorce. The one legal loophole for Sudanese women is to commit adultery, a crime that is instant grounds for divorce. But even then, most husbands refuse to agree to one because they don't want to ask their relatives to return the dowry-in Makers case 90 cows."

the article goes on to discuss that Sudan, having just acheived peace after a 20 year civil war between the North and the South is in the middle of drafting new laws. The article claims that after such an extended period of male absence during the war, Sudanese women have become more self efficient and more aware of outside ways. In short, they've crossed the boundaries of womens work and mens work due to the need to fill traditional male roles in the absence of the men.

"According to Akur Ajuoi, a lawyer who works with UNICEF, the push to reject these traditions has been a byproduct of the 21-year war between the Arab-dominated north and the African south. With their husbands away fighting for long periods, women learned to manage their own farms and cattle herds.

’’Now that their husbands are back, they want more rights,’’ Ajuoi said. ``There is also a lot of influence from the outside. Times are changing and women are getting enlightened. As much as we want to say that traditions are nice and are going to stay, we should leave the harmful ones behind.’’

Experts interviewd by Wax, agreed that while change is in the wind for Sudan it may be difficult to impossible to extracate the economy of the country from its marraige and dowry laws. Marraige is not seen as a union of love, but as an intricate socio economic network.

Couples marry to unite families and consolodate wealth, if love should bloom, its a blessing, if not, well thats just life. It may be easier to obtain rights for children than for women because children are seen as gifts, but women, are seen as property.

’’To be very frank, it’s an important preventive measure to protect a woman from getting killed,’’ said one of those lawyers, William Ajal Deng. ``Not all of our customary laws are bad. Divorce, in my opinion, should rarely be permitted at all. It’s a bad thing for children.’’

The next article I clipped was by Daphne Braham, on the plight of women and children living in the polygimist community of Bountiful BC.

"Today Arizona's Attorney General Terry Goddard is starting legal action to remove Colorado Cities elected school board (The whole board!) - a board comprised entirely of Mormon Fundamentalists.

The reason? The fundamentalist church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is failing to educate its members children in anything beyond religion.And what

As a fan of the ancient poet Sappho, I recall stories recounting how during Sappho's childhood, her island home of Lesbos also suffered from prolonged absence of men during a protracted war. It is claimed that for the duration of her formative years, Sappho had very few interactions with men, outside of young boys and old men, too old or weak to fight. In this absence of patriarchal rule, Sappho rose to high prominence in the ancient world, she developed the most popular form of poetry ever, the lyrical poem.