Yes, but one of the groups we support, the Salmmah Women's Resource Centre, has been writing a book on women's dress and documenting the history of women's dress in Sudan. Women in the sixties were walking around with sleeveless tops and big hair like pop singers; the airline stewardesses were in short skirts and little hats. There's a desire to erase all that history and to say this is the way it's always been. It's not true. Women we work with who are not of my generation--my mother's generation--remember quite well what it was like not to live under this regime.
For instance, Inter Pares helped facilitate a meeting with women who had worked on sharia law in Ontario to abolish religious arbitration. We facilitated a trip to Sudan to share and to discuss strategies with women in Sudan. Part of that was looking at the history of the women's movement in Sudan and having younger activists hear from the older women what the women's movement in Sudan had accomplished and where they were at now.
I don't know about its being cultural. I'm not convinced of that. I think there's a lot of work.... Men and women in the Sudan want a more equal society.