Journalist Lubna Hussein prepares to test Sudan’s Islamic law in court over flogging for wearing trousers charge

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A woman journalist who faces flogging for wearing trousers in Sudan has challenged the authorities on the eve of her trial, saying that she is willing to take thousands of lashes if it advances the rights of the country’s women.

Lubna Hussein, a widow in her thirties, has taken a stand against Sudan’s stringent public order laws, hoping that her case will trigger their abolition. She faces up to 40 lashes if found guilty today of dressing “indecently” by wearing trousers. “I’m ready to be whipped not 40 but 40,000 times,” she said yesterday.

“Tens of thousands of women and girls have been whipped for their clothes these past 20 years. It’s not rare in Sudan. I want these women’s voices to be heard.”

Ms Hussein hopes to change Sudanese laws by fighting the case in the courts and in the media. Her defiance has turned her into a cause célèbre in a country where women more often take their punishment quietly.

Ms Hussein has publicised her arrest and trial, sending out 500 invitations to the flogging. She first appeared in a court last week in Khartoum, the capital, accused of contravening Sudan’s draconian public decency laws.

Wearing the same outfit that she had been arrested in, Ms Hussein told the courtroom packed with wellwishers, journalists, diplomats and human rights activists that, in order to fight the allegation, she would waive her right to immunity as an employee of the UN mission in Sudan, where she works as a public information officer.

She was arrested on July 3 along with a dozen other women at a restaurant in an upmarket neighbourhood in the capital.

A squad of police officers burst into the restaurant and inspected the women’s dress, then led away all those wearing trousers and charged them with indecency. Ten of those arrested admitted their guilt and were given a summary ten lashes each as punishment.

Ms Hussein chose to take her case to trial. She said that she would appeal if the judge ruled against her.

Article 152 of the country’s penal code states that up to 40 lashes and a fine can be handed down to anyone who “violates public morality or wears indecent clothing”. There is no description of what constitutes “indecent clothing”.

Ms Hussein said: “My main objective is to get rid of Article 152. This article is against both the Constitution and Sharia,” referring to the Islamic law that prevails in the north of the country. She described as “my battle” her attempt to annul the article of law.

Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, said last week that he was “deeply concerned” at the prospect of an employee suffering a flogging. “The UN will take every effort to ensure that the rights of its staff members are protected,” he said.

Ms Hussein said that she was making a stand on behalf of all Sudanese women against the country’s discriminatory laws, which she believes are a corruption of Islam. “If some people refer to the Sharia to justify flagellating women because of what they wear, then let them show me which Koranic verses say so. I haven’t found them,” she said.

• Fierce clashes between the Murele and Lo Nuer, rival ethnic groups in southern Sudan, have killed more than 160 people, most of them women and children. The fighting took place in the Akobo region of Jonglei state.

Times Online