Marriage, Sudanese-Style: Transnational Practices of Citizenship and Gender-Making for Sudanese Nationals in Egypt Anita Fábos University of East London Introduction This paper explores the contradictions between national identity and gendered practices of statecraft and metanarratives such as Arab Unity and Islam as they pertain to gender and identity for northern Sudanese transmigrants in Cairo. Like most states of the Arab Middle East, Egypt grants citizenship by way of a patrilineal conceptualization of identity that draws upon Arab and Islamic cultural practices. Northern Sudanese, regarded as fellow Arab Muslims, have been included in Egyptian policies that transcend statecraft (such as preferential residen- tial and educational policies based on the “brotherhood” of the two peo- ples of the Nile valley), yet they are excluded from citizenship except through the practice of Sudanese women marrying Egyptian men. Despite the possibility of real benefits of citizenship acquired through marriage of Egyptian nationals, Sudanese women living in Egypt do not seem to be pursuing this strategy. Recent negative changes in their legal status have focused attention on women as guardians not only of tradition but also of Sudanese citizenship. In this paper, I analyze Sudanese mar- riage practices in light of changes in Egyptian citizenship laws and resi- dency regulations pertaining to Sudanese. This paper uses ethnographic data from fieldwork conducted between 1994 and 1997 among Sudanese living in Cairo, current research on Egyptian nationalism and citizenship 47 © Northeast African Studies (ISSN 0740-9133) Vol. 8, No. 2 (New Series) 2001, pp. 47-68 NEAS_V8#2.qxd 6/22/05 10:28 PM Page 47