KHARTOUM: They
were on the front lines and in the negotiating rooms that brought down military
rule but Sudan's women have yet to take their rightful place in the new
institutions. The signing last week of the documents outlining the transition
to civilian rule was a moment of national jubilation, turning the page on 30
years of dictatorship and eight months of deadly protests.

 But as the ceremony attended by a host of
foreign dignitaries unfolded, one thing jumped out: the only female speaker at
the three-hour event was the host.

"That scene
was a slap in our face," Rabah Sadeq, a woman activist and longtime
campaigner for gender equality, said the next day. "So many women are
talking about this now, we have to raise this issue," she said. Some women
attending the signing heckled the speakers to express their displeasure and the
indignation quickly spread to the street and social media. "The
participation of women in the revolution was very high, they even encouraged
men to join the demonstrations," said Sarah Ali Ahmed, a student in
Khartoum.

"I was very
shocked to see the low representation of women... We want to play a role in the
civilian government, just like men," she said. On Wednesday, Sudan's new
joint civilian-military ruling body, which is meant to guide the country
through 39 months of transition to full civilian rule, was sworn in. Out of its
six civilian members, two are women, although only one was included in the list
of nominees initially put forward by the protest camp.

Optimism

While the
opposition alliance's chief negotiator in the run-up to Sudan's landmark
political deal was a woman, Ibtisam al-Sanhouri, women were poorly represented
in the various negotiating committees. The shock caused by the all-male line-up
at the signing last week, which will go down as a key date in Sudan's history,
appears to have had some impact in recent days. Sudan's new prime minister
Abdallah Hamdok, who arrived in the country on Wednesday, raised the issue in
his first comments to reporters after being sworn in.

"We have to
concentrate on women's participation. Sudanese women played a very big part in
our revolution," said the 61-year-old former UN economist. "But
during the negotiations... as well as during the signing of the documents, it
was only men. We have to correct this," Hamdok said. Samahir el-Mubarak, a
spokeswoman for the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), an independent
trade union confederation that played a central role in the protests, argued
that women's under-representation was not too surprising.

"This
absence in the institutions is not acceptable but it's also understandable in a
way," said Mubarak, a 29-year-old pharmacist. "The organizations and
political parties that are active in the transition now have existed all along,
and they excluded women. "But I'm very optimistic this is going to
change," she said. The legislative body which is due to be formed soon to
help steer the country to democratic elections in 2022 will have at least 40
percent of its seats reserved for women.

Distrust

"In the
condition we are in now, we need some kind of positive discrimination... but
eventually women are qualified enough to become a majority in parliament and
government," Mubarak said. Growing awareness over female
under-representation in the transition appears already to be bearing fruit, and
a woman is now tipped as the next chief justice.

"This is
progress but it's still not the level we want. Women should continue to be
empowered," Rabah Sadeq said. Sarah Abdul Laleel, a UK-based pediatrician,
agreed that women were insufficiently represented. "When you compare the
street and the protests to the institutions, there's a mismatch," she
said. Abdul Jaleel, also a member of the SPA, said that political parties did
not have people's trust and that a debate was needed to find news ways to
integrate women in the country's institutions.

Rabah Sadeq
argued that parity was in the country's best interest. "Asking for more
women isn't just symbolic, they are more committed to peace. It's not just for
equality, it's for the chances of success of this transition," she said.
Samahir El-Mubarak said that after decades of oppression under Bashir's
Islamist military regime, women had gained a lot of self-confidence in recent
months.  "Women were the dynamo of
this revolution, they can't be taken out of the picture. Otherwise there will
be another revolution." - AFP