Reply #10: This is new? People in the Sudan have some amazing

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practices, euphemistically called "female circumcision", more properly known as Female Genital Mutilation. Of course these practices are not limited to the Sudan. They are practiced throughout parts of Africa and are spreading even into Europe and Indonesia. Some countries, such as Egypt, have outlawed the practice but it's deeply entrenched in the religious philosophy and growing fundamentalism tends to argue against its disappearance. Some of the most extreme variations are practiced in the Sudan and lead to lifelong misery for the women. Childbirth is an agony and normal sex is impossible.

Also, polygyny is practiced there, which can lead to poverty for individual women; prostitution is widespread; and well-meaning efforts by the State to start up new agricultural collectives include some very bad law, which rob women of the fruits of their labor. Hopefully the laws can change and be expanded to allow greater economic participation by women.

Every source I've read comments on the beauty and hospitality of the Sudanese people. But centuries of religious superstition, poverty, drought and war have caused conditions for women and girl children to reach disturbing proportions.