The stereo throbbed with the latest Lebanese ballad and a European football match unfolded silently on the big screen as the waiter set down the drinks: fruit juices and milkshakes. In the dimly lit surroundings of one of Khartoum's hippest bars, young women slid their headscarves down to their shoulders and sat on sofas holding their boyfriends' hands.
They were the modern face of Sudan's capital, but their conversation reflected a traditional anxiety.
"My mother says that if I gave her all the money I spent on hair-straightening products, she'd be a rich woman," one woman said.
Her copper-coloured skin reflected her Arab heritage, but it required a dedicated chemical battering to remove the mark of her African genes from her glossy, jet-black hair.
Where pursuit of fairness highlights colour bar....
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