From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Tue Aug 04 2009 - 07:05:18 EDT
Protesters back Sudanese woman in trousers case
Tue Aug 4, 2009 9:15am GMT
(Updates with case adjourned for a month, <javascript:void(0);> Hussein
comments)
By Andrew Heavens
KHARTOUM, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Dozens of protesters rallied outside a Khartoum
court on Tuesday in support of a Sudanese woman facing 40 lashes for wearing
<javascript:void(0);> trousers in public, a case that has become a public
test of Sudan's indecency laws.
Lubna Hussein, a former journalist and U.N. press officer, was arrested with
12 other women during a party at a Khartoum restaurant in early July and
charged with committing an indecent act.
Women's groups have complained that the law gives no clear definition of
indecent <javascript:void(0);> dress, leaving the decision of whether to
arrest a women up to individual police officers.
Ululating women outside the courtroom carried banners and headbands with the
message "No return to the dark ages" and shouted slogans against laws which
ban dress deemed indecent.
Speaking after the <javascript:void(0);> hearing, Hussein said the judge
had adjourned her case until Sept. 7.
"They want to check with the U.N. whether I have immunity from prosecution.
I don't know why they are doing this because I have already resigned from
the United Nations. I think they just want to delay the case," she told
Reuters.
Riot police advanced towards the crowd, beating their shields with batons,
to try to disperse them. One officer fired what appeared to be blank rounds
into the air, a Reuters witness said.
"We are against this law. It is against women, against Islam and against
human rights," said Zainab Badradin, one of the women in the crowd.
Indecency cases are not uncommon in Sudan, where there is a large cultural
gap between the mostly Muslim and Arab-oriented north and the mainly
Christian south.
Hussein has attracted attention by publicising her case, posing for photos
in her loose green trousers and inviting journalists to campaign against
dress codes sporadically imposed in the capital.
Her case has attracted widespread support among women's groups in Khartoum,
but there were also men among Tuesday's protesters.
"Her main argument is that her clothes are decent and that she did not break
the law," defence lawyer Nabil Adib Abdalla told Reuters shortly before the
hearing.
"Failing that, we will ask for a stay of the proceedings to challenge the
trial in the constitutional court ... We are saying the law is so widely
drafted that it contravenes her basic right, her right to a fair trial," he
added. (Reporting by Andrew Heavens; editing by Patrick Graham)
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