Police arrested 13 women in a raid on a cafe in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, and flogged 10 of them in public for wearing trousers. The women were detained July 10 by officers of the public order police, who enforce Sudan’s strict Islamic law in public places. One of those arrested, Lubna Hussein, a journalist, said she is challenging the charges, which can be punishable by up to 40 lashes. “I didn’t do anything wrong,” she said. (AP, July 13)
Unfortunately, the autonomous government in South Sudan also seems to be emulating such policies.
See our last posts on Sudan and the struggle in the Sahel.
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Sudanese “trouser girl” defies morality police
Lubna Hussein, a Sudanese journalist who faces 40 lashes for wearing trousers in public says she will turn the tables on the judges by daring them to carry out the sentence instead of begging for mercy. “Flogging is a terrible thing—very painful and a humiliation for the victim But I am not afraid of being flogged. I will not back down. I want to stand up for the rights of women, and now the eyes of the world are on this case I have a chance to draw attention to the plight of women in Sudan.” (The Telegraph, Aug. 3)
Sudanese trouser trial sparks protests
Scores of protesters gathered outside a Sudanese courtroom Tuesday as the trial of a woman who faces 40 lashes for wearing clothes deemed indecent was postponed. Lubna al-Hussein’s attorney Nadil Adib said she was “disappointed” with the court’s decision to delay her trial. “She wanted to have her case tried in order to clear her name and have the law announced unconstitutional,” he said. (CNN, Aug. 4)
Conviction in Sudan trouser trial
Lubna Hussein was convicted Sept 7 of public indecency for wearing trousers, but was spared a sentence of flogging. The defiant journalist says she will not pay a $200 fine but instead take a month in prison to protest Sudan’s draconian morality laws. (AP, Sept 7)