Women's Clothes in Sudan

(For this series of posts, I would really like to get input from the Sudanese to be as accurate as possible. Please comment if I wrote something that is only partly true or could be misunderstood or is just obviously wrong. Thanks!)

Note: This post is part of a series on what Khartoum is like.  It is intended for anyone coming to Sudan who wants to learn more and get advice on various topics before travelling here, and anyone else interested.

When I came to Sudan I was told to bring clothes that would cover much of my skin--long skirts, at-least-elbow-length high-necked shirts, etc.).  But despite this foreknowledge and having grown up donning a skirt whenever I exited our compound, I was surprised once I arrived here and saw for myself how stringent the (spoken or unspoken) rules were, especially for Sudanese women.  Most women in Khartoum (maybe 95%) cover themselves from ankle to wrist, and a majority (maybe 80%) cover their heads up to the chin and forehead.

Of course this was new to me, but I realized right away how beautiful Sudanese style is.  Women coordinate their colors in such a pretty way.  (I would have more pictures to show that, except that not all women allow their pictures online--hence Facebook accounts with models or cartoon characters as profile pictures.)

In general, I've noticed three main styles of dress in Khartoum: Sudanese, Saudi, and Western.  The traditional Sudanese garment is called a tobe--a long length of cloth wrapped around the waist and shoulders and draped over the head, similar to an Indian sari.  Tobes are worn with a skirt and shirt underneath and often a hijab pinned tight underneath, too.

In general, girls don't wear tobes or start wearing them upon marriage, although single women do wear them.  In Khartoum, for the most part, only older women wear them habitually while younger women wear them for special occasions, such as weddings.

My friend sports a lovely green tobe and matching yellow hijab. I edited this picture after it was first posted to keep my friend's face offline. 

In my opinion, tobes are really pretty but really impractical.  A woman wearing a tobe seems to be forever adjusting it, and they always seem to fall completely off when a woman gets off a bus.

3 sisters: Western, Saudi abaya, Sudanese tobe

Some Sudanese women wear the Saudi abaya--an enormously wide dress of generally thin, shiny material with embroidered patterns.  Under this, also, Sudanese women wear a shirt and skirt or trousers.  Perhaps this is because the abaya is made of such thin cloth.  Some women wear abayas for religious reasons (and sometimes this is accompanied by the face-covering niqab, stockings over feet, and handgloves--though handgloves are worn more often to protect from a tan than for religion).  Others wear the abaya because of its aesthetics.

Finally, most women in Khartoum dress in Western clothes, (that is, I assume the clothes are originally from the West, but does not mean they dress like Westerners) such as an ankle-length denim skirts, a long-sleeved shirt, another top layered over that, and a hijab crowning the outfit.  The more daring women wear trousers with long shirts/dresses, that come down to their knee, or at least to upper thigh.

For women thinking of visiting Sudan, you might feel like you have to buy an entirely new wardrobe.  It's pretty much true.  You can bend the unspoken rules, and as a foreigner, you can get away with a lot more than the Sudanese, but here are some recommendations on what to get before coming to Sudan.

Things I'm glad I brought/wish I had:

• long-sleeved shirts
• undershirts with high necks that you can wear under shirts with low necks
• tank tops/spaghetti straps that you can layer on top of other shirts
• those sleevey things that are basically a set of long sleeves to wear on top of a tank top--I'm not sure what they're called
• long skirts--especially denim or plain color to match with anything (check charity/thrift shops, or you can buy them in markets in Khartoum)
• at least one pair of jeans
• dress pants
• if you plan to wear hijab, come with one or two and buy most after you arrive as they are much cheaper here.
• (But also bring some normal clothes because you'll want to wear shorts and t-shirts while in your own house or jeans at an expat party.)

Guidelines:

• Shirts: elbow-length to wrist-length, no cleavage, long enough so there's never skin showing between your skirt and shirt, not skin-tight.
• Skirts: preferably ankle-length (and the so-long-that-I'm-sweeping-the-entire-pavement-around-me length is in style in Sudan) but at least longer than midcalf, not skin-tight. Slits are okay to mid-calf, but are preferably worn with leggings.
• Trousers: not skin-tight, with a longer shirt or dress that preferably covers your bottom.

All those guidelines will feel impossible to keep all the time, and you don't have to.  When you come to Sudan, you'll figure out what you're comfortable with and what level of restriction drives you bonkers.  I break the "rules" regularly and so do all the other volunteers, but they'res good guideline to start from.

And I'm sorry this got to be 5 pages long and as technical as a Pentagon plan-book to keep spiders from the President's morning coffee.