Protesters congregated outside of the court Tuesday of last week during the trial of Lubna Hussein, a journalist and former U.N. worker accused of violating Sudan’s strict interpretation of Islamic dress by wearing pants. Because of her position at the U.N., the judge granted her immunity for the crime, but several other women arrested with her – three of them young school girls – received sentences of 40 lashes and $120 fines. In response, Ms. Hussein has resigned from her position in the media department of the U.N. in order to face trial and, if convicted, public flogging, in order to challenge the law and to bring global publicity to issue. She has sent as many as 400 invitations to her trial – and possibly her flogging – to journalists, government ministers, and members of civil society to accomplish this goal. Her trial was scheduled for this past Wednesday, August 5, but has been deferred until September.
Ms. Hussein plans to challenge the law in question – Paragraph 152 of the Criminal Act (1991) – on the grounds that it is in conflict with both the Sudanese Constitution and with the Quran. The law states “whoever commits an indecent act or an act that breaches public morality or wears clothes that are indecent or would breach public morality which causes annoyance to public feelings is liable to forty lashes or fine or both punishments.”[1] Ms. Hussein objects to the law, believing that a person’s immorality cannot be punished by a state government according to Sharia law; in her own words, “What I wear is about the relationship between me and my God. Show me what paragraph of the Quran, or quote me Prophet Mohammed saying it is the responsibility of the government to punish people in this way… If someone does dress in an unsuitable way, it is to God that she has to answer.”[2]
For more information, see:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/05/world/africa/05briefs-Sudan.html?scp=1&sq=lubna%20hussein&st=cse
