A female journalist convicted of indecency for wearing trousers in public says tens of thousands of similar arrests are made each year, and what happens is up to the "mood" of the police officer.
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WND previously reported when Lubna al-Hussein was arrested, challenged the charges, then was convicted and sentenced in Sudan, which follows Shariah, or Islamic religious law, in many sections.
Her recent appearance on Al-Mihwar TV now has been posted online by the Middle East Media Research Institute.
Al-Hussein was among more than a dozen women arrested at the same time. While others were convicted and punished almost immediately – with flogging – her case was delayed.
When the case developed, Jonathan Racho, regional manager for Africa and the Middle East for International Christian Concern, condemned Sudanese authorities, saying flogging women "for wearing pants is both outrageous and against the dignity of the women."
Hussein said in the interview that women frequently are arrested and punished "on the spot."
Asked if a skirt also is considered "indecent," she told the reporters it was up to the officer making the arrest.
"They said it was indecent. It depends on the policeman's mood," she said.
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She also said, "In a single year, 43,000 women were arrested because of their clothing – not in all of Sudan, but in Khartoum alone, as declared by the police general commissioner."
She also said when defendants are arrested, they have no opportunity for a defense.
"Physical violence is manifest in the punishment of lashing, which abases human dignity. Moral violence is manifest in the fact that this is called 'indecent acts,' and this is the reason that the tens of thousands of women before me did not have the courage to complain," she said.
"The courts that try such cases are not regular courts. They are special courts … They are called 'public order courts,' but their names keep changing. In these courts, the defendant has no right to defend himself."
She said in her case, the judge refused to allow defense witnesses to speak, and the decision was made in advance.
"Didn't you ask [the court] what the definition of 'indecent clothing' is? … What is defined as 'indecent clothing'?" asked an interviewer.
"It depends on the policeman’s mood," she said. "The law is in the hands of the authorities."
Hussein said while the law bans "clothing that offends public sentiment," she was with 400 other people and, "I didn't offend anybody."
Hussein's arrest was condemned by the Arab Network for Human Rights Information. The organization said it likely was revenge for Hussein publishing articles critical of the Sudanese government, MEMRI reported.
"Sudan's public order laws are among the most discriminatory against Sudanese women. They violate several basic freedoms that should be the right of every citizen. These laws, directed against working women and female students, were enacted expressly to persecute them, humiliate them, and deprive them of freedom, and to distance them from public life. And now, the police have devised a way to use these laws against an oppositionist journalist," the organization stated, according to MEMRI.
The ICC has said by subjecting the women and girls to inhumane and degrading treatment, the Sudanese officials violated international human right standards as well as the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in 2005 by the Islamic government of Sudan and the mainly Christian and animist southern Sudanese.
The ICC said the agreement said Islamic laws are "not applicable to non-Muslims."
David Choat, the congregational affairs officer of the mission of the government of South Sudan to the U.S., told ICC, "The flogging is an imposition of Islamic values on Christians and it's also a violation of religious freedom. This is telling us (the Sudanese people) that there are certain religions that are more important than the rest."