r is intended to "purge from (i.e., purify) an 'authentic' women's culture particular non-Islamic customs that [supposedly] 'weaken the morals' of women" (6). Authentic, in context, means Islamist, and zar, in Sudan. Yet zar participation actually grew from 1983 to 1992 (hence the second ban).
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 Muslim and where the interplay between the authoritarian cultural model represented by Islamic governance and the raison d'être of persistent zar observance is most sharply drawn. This interplay goes directly to issue fronts that have to do with the status of women in the Sudan and in Islamic culture more generally. Understanding the issues that arise on the boundary between patriarchal Islamist rule and the deliberate and persistent practice of zar can help illuminate why and in what ways the cult can be seen as a context in which the health and well-being
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