KHARTOUM - A Sudanese court on Wednesday adjourned the case of a woman journalist facing 40 lashes for wearing "indecent" trousers, with 10 women already whipped for similar offences.
The judge deferred the case to Tuesday after Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein, who works for the left-wing Al-Sahafa newspaper and for the media department of the United Nations Mission in Sudan, waived the immunity given to UN workers.
"The court gave Lubna the choice either to accept immunity from the UN or to waive that and go on with the trial," her lawyer Nabil Adeeb said.
"I wish to resign from the UN, I wish this court case to continue," Hussein told a packed courtroom before the judge adjourned the case to August 4.
Hussein, who wears a headscarf, faces 40 lashes and a fine of 250 Sudanese pounds (100 dollars) if found guilty.
She wore the same clothes to court as when she was arrested -- moss-green slacks with a loose floral top and green headscarf.
She waved defiantly to crowds as she left the court.
Hussein said she was at a restaurant on July 3 when police came in and ordered 13 women wearing trousers to follow them to the police station.
Ten of the women were summoned to a police station two days later and were lashed 10 times each, according to Hussein.
Scores of people crammed into the courthouse to hear the ruling, many of them female supporters -- some of them also wearing trousers out of solidarity.
Some held up placards on the street outside. "A woman is not for flogging," read one in Arabic.
"We are here to support Lubna, because this treatment of women is arbitrary and not correct," said Zuhal Mohammed Elamin, a law professor in Khartoum. "Women should not be humiliated in this manner."
Police have also cracked down on another woman journalist, Amal Habbani, after she wrote an article condemning Hussein's treatment.
Habbani wrote an article for Ajrass Al-Horreya newspaper following the arrests entitled "Lubna, a case of subduing a woman's body."
"I am waiting for a decision," Habbani said after she was charged with defaming police, a charge which can carry a fine of up to several hundred thousand dollars.
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information said the charge against Habbani stemmed from her claim that Hussein's arrest was "not about fashion but a political tactic to intimidate and terrorise opponents."
Women have a prominent place in Sudanese public life. Nevertheless, human rights organisations say some of Sudan's laws discriminate against women.
Christian teachings lead to beating women
Sudanese women also get beaten for wearing trousers due to Christian orders in the country's south.
In October 2008, a southern Sudan cabinet minister said that more than 20 women were arrested and beaten for allegedly dressing inappropriately under a new edict against "bad behaviour".
"Between 20 and 30 girls were picked up from different points, hurled into police lorries, arrested and taken to the police station and some of them were beaten," said Mary Kiden Kimbo, the gender, social welfare and religious affairs minister in the semi-autonomous southern government.
"This is absolutely not acceptable: it is not the job of police to judge what is and what is not a correct way to dress in such a manner of blanket punishment," she said.
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Women often fall victim to Christian extremism in south Sudan |
The Christian police crackdown on young women wearing trousers or short skirts follows an order from the commissioner of Juba county, the capital of southern Sudan.
Most of the women, said to be in their late teens and 20s, were rounded up as they left Catholic mass in Juba on Sunday, Kimbo said.
Others were picked up in market places.
The order bans "all bad behaviours, activities and imported illicit cultures," according to a copy signed by Juba's commissioner, Albert Pitia Redantore.
Inappropriate behaviour may include wearing tight trousers, short skirts or skimpy tops considered "Western" attire.
The order, dated October 2nd 2008, said it aimed to "preserve the cultural values, dignity and achievements of the people of southern Sudan, checking out the intrusion of foreign cultures into our societies, for the sake of bringing up (a) good generation."
Those deemed in contravention are liable to three months imprisonment. Those convicted for a second time face another three-month sentence and a fine of 600 Sudanese pounds (300 dollars).
Christian traditional values are important in southern Sudan.
The new order applies only to Juba but crackdowns elsewhere in the south against women wearing trousers or miniskirts have also been reported.
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