Sudanese women have remained conservative, covered and mostly out of power under the Islamist government which overthrew a short-lived democracy in a bloodless military coup some 15 years ago. Now, inspired by hope that democracy will follow a peace deal to end more than two decades of civil war in the south of the country, some women are throwing off conservative tendencies, defying the conventional preference for marriage over work and seeking roles in the flourishing world of Sudanese opposition parties.