Hale says that, as a practical matter, Sudan has a "pluralistic" legal system, in which sharia [], civil, and customary law have coexisted for nearly a century" (5). However, in 1983, and again in 1992, Sudan outlawed zar ceremonies. Hale attributes the ban chiefly to an ideology of Islamist statism; zar is considered pre-Islamic, meaning that its origins and attributes predate the seventh-century appearance of Islam and hence fall outside the circle of doctrinally acceptable religious or social practice. It shares that attribute with female circumcision (aka genital mutilation), another controversial practice that is not officially linked with Islam but that has a long cultural lineage in Muslim countries. But female circumcision is not as roundly criticized by mainstream Sudanese politicians as zar ritual is. Where zar differs from female genital mutilation is that the former is perceived as belonging to women in Sudan whereas the latter is

For all the attention paid in Islamic culture to how effectively women's bodies succeed in the project of protecting family honor, there is relatively little support given to caring for them. For a start, Muslim women may not be attended by a male physician or other health-care provider (Howson, et al. 46ff). Since women are less likely to become physicians than men, and since in any case Sudan is among the most illiterate nations in the world, Muslim women are potentially in a precarious health condition (Howson, et al. 28). Small wonder there is widespread belief in spirit agency in physical well-being. Indeed, it has been hypothesized that preoccupation with spirit power is in fact a psychic stressor, which can aggravate physical illness or lead to manifestation of mental illness. Modern anthropological analysis has established that among Muslims of sub-Saharan Africa, including Sudan, neurotic disorders may be manifest in physical terms. The pressure on women to carry the burden of cultural and family honor would seem powerful enough to put strain the strength of even a minimally scrupulous conscience. The psychological origin of somatic pain, by the way, is not an idea confined to Africa. Freud's famous analysis of "Dora" makes much of the inability of the patient's ego, or most immediate sense of self, to sort out the tension between itself and the superego (social demands, conscience) on one hand, and between ego and unconscious instinctive drives on the other (Freud 9ff et passim).

Quandt, William B. " Nine Parts of Desire." Foreign Affairs 74 (March-April 1995): 164-5.

The zar cult is not exclusive to Sudan, since the zar is a feature of culture in Egypt, Ethiopia, and Nigeria. However, this research concentrates on zar in northern Sudan, where the vast majority of women are Mus