By Kylie M Tsudama
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa
KHARTOUM, Sudan – On July 3, police arrested Lubna Al Hussein and eighteen other women. Their charge: dressing indecently in public.
According to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information there is only one punishment under Sudanese law for an indecent clothing charge – 40 lashes in public.
Hussein is a journalist who worked for the media department of the UN mission in Sudan until recently. At the time of arrest, she was wearing trousers, a blouse, and a hijab (headscarf). The police say her trousers were too tight and that her blouse (Source: Sudan Tribune) was too transparent.
Her trial is set to begin on Tuesday.
“They ought to stop it,” said Nabil Adib, lawyer for Hussein. “It is quite unnecessary and degrading. It is harassment.”
Adib believes the charges will be dropped saying, “These things have their ups and downs. These laws have generally relaxed as a matter of policy. But they are still sometimes enforced.”
Although some believe that the Sudanese government’s threat of flogging is a form of retaliation for Hussein’s criticism of the Sudanese regime, Adib does not believe that his client was targeted.
“There are round-ups that they do and it is indiscriminate,” he said. “I don’t think she was targeted specifically. They attack public and private parties and groups. They are called ‘morality police’ and she was just a victim of a round-up.”
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called flogging “against the international human rights standards.” He said he would protect his staff member with every effort but her lawyer says she resigned from her position with the UN to avoid the immunity she would have received.
Hussein will maintain her position of no wrongdoing.
For more information, please see:
The Age – Sudanese Woman to Dare Court Over Flogging – 03 August 2009
ABC News – Pants-wearing Woman Not Afraid of Flogging – 01 August 2009
Sudan Tribune – UN Ban Ki-Moon Says Deeply Concerned by Sudan Trousers Trial – 01 August 2009
Telegraph – ‘Whip Me if You Dare’ Says Lubna Hussein, Sudan’s Defiant Trouser Woman – 01 August 2009
CNN – Sudanese Lawyer Calls Woman’s Flogging Punishment ‘Degrading’ – 30 July 2009
