Middle East & Africa | Change hits a speed bump

Jammed streets highlight the challenges of Sudan’s transition

Oppressive laws are being lifted, but daily life is still tough

Gridlock on the road to freedom
|KHARTOUM

SOUAD AL-SAWY squints in the glare of the mid-afternoon sun, searching for a bus home. The 18-year-old student’s commute used to take 20 minutes, but these days it can take up to 90. “It’s getting worse every day,” she sighs. Although life after the revolution has improved in many ways—for instance, a hated law that banned women from wearing revealing clothing was repealed last month—freedom was not supposed to involve so many traffic jams.

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “All jammed up”

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