Intermezzo. Crossing The Road: Introducing Hajja And Umm Khalthoum

Abstract

The position of Hajja and Umm Khalthoum among their colleagues was less extraordinary than the author's first acquaintances with them. Hajja’s part-time selling at the market she held in common with many women as it was an important coping strategy for most women who could not grow their food on the fields in times of drought and armed conflict. Umm Khalthoum came from Omdurman. Her background and her activities in the local women’s organization along with other female teachers gave her esteem and standing within the group of female teachers which served to overcome her low status as a kindergarten mistress. In due course, the author realised that the ‘typical’ market woman or female teacher does not exist. In that respect, none of the colleagues of either Hajja or Umm Khalthoum could have been taken as an example of their category of working women.Keywords: female teachers; Hajja; market woman; Umm Khalthoum; working women