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Female UN Worker in Sudan Wears Pants, Faces Flogging

By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff

Posted Jul 28, 2009 4:25 PM CDT
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(Newser) – A local woman working for the United Nations in Sudan has been charged with wearing “clothing causing harassment to the public sentiments” and could be flogged 40 times tomorrow for the crime, the Washington Post reports. Lubna Ahmed Hussein and 12 other women were rounded up earlier this month at a Khartoum café for wearing pants. “Maybe I'll be punished,” she says calmly. “The judge will decide. I'm not afraid.”

Islamic law dominates in much of the land, though Christian regions in the south are given a pass and the strict dress code often goes unenforced in the capital, Khartoum. “Generally it depends on the police on duty,” a newsman says. “Many of them are really tolerant. But there are some fundamentalists among them.” The conservative government of Omar al-Bashir is noncommittal. “If she is convicted, yes, flogging is a possible punishment,” a spokesman says. Ten of the other women already received lashings.

Sudanese President Omar al Bashir.
Sudanese President Omar al Bashir.   (AP Photo)
A Sudanese woman demonstrates in front of the republican palace in Khartoum, Sudan, in support of President Omar al-Bashir.
A Sudanese woman demonstrates in front of the republican palace in Khartoum, Sudan, in support of President Omar al-Bashir.   (AP Photo)
A Nigerian soldier with the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID).
A Nigerian soldier with the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID).   (AP Photo)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 9 comments
riffran
Jul 29, 2009 12:31 PM CDT
got that right stay out of those areas. Lest you be beaten for *gasp* wearing pants. Such a nice set of laws :(
prowlerzee
Jul 29, 2009 5:28 AM CDT
Better still, strip those masks off of the burqa'd women here. Masks are NOT allowed while driving, going into stores and banks and schools, etc, for Americans...so what's with their arrogant demands to drape their women like chattel here? The women should be putting on bikinis, but instead they're taking over gyms, even in colleges, where the pools should be for the entire community, and not only kicking everyone else out, but blocking all the windows, and gunking up the pool filters with their robes while swimming!
prowlerzee
Jul 29, 2009 5:19 AM CDT
"thoughtful" comments from the "progressive" Obot Boneheads who agree with their OMessiah that women should be "free" to wear the veil? Don't make me laugh. Hey Amber! Where's your WHOOPS! Mea culpa because I read Newser instead of the original sources and therefore am a clueless Obamageneration know-nothing and completely missed the fact that it was a Sudanese woman in Sudan who is being flogged. I just decided to run my patronizing mouth off the way my Omessiah taught me. All over the world Islamic women are bravely facing floggings and acid attacks and imprisonment and stonings and shootings and decapitation, but for shits and giggles let's make patronizing remarks about how they should be "free" to wear drapes and how all the uppity western women should get with the neanderthal program since that's their "culture."

 
United Nations • Sudan • Islamic law • clothing • Omar al Bashir • Shariah • flogging • Lubna Ahmed Hussein

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