Sudanese womans fight goes global

Follow @icjsr

A JOURNALIST who became a global celebrity when she was prosecuted for wearing trousers has defied a ban on leaving Sudan to rally support in Europe for the emancipation of Muslim women.

Visiting France last week, Lubna Hussein said she had received death threats since beginning a campaign to stop the flogging and imprisonment of women who wear trousers.

She risked punishment for leaving Sudan illegally, but this would not stop her from exposing the "absurdity" of laws that humiliated women.

"Where does it state in the Koran that women can't wear trousers?" said Hussein, a former UN official who has become a symbol for women's rights across Africa and the Arab world.

Hussein, a widow in her late 30s, has written a book about her revolt and is expected to receive a hero's welcome in London this week from opponents of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who seized power in Sudan two decades ago.

She was among 13 women arrested at a Khartoum cafe in July and charged with violating a decency law by wearing trousers. The others admitted guilt and were sentenced to 10 lashes of the whip. Hussein chose to contest the charges in court, risking 40 lashes. The case caused so much embarrassment for the government that it offered to drop the trial if Hussein would agree not to wear trousers -- she refused.

She sent out hundreds of emails inviting people to witness her flogging, a punishment carried out in public with whips that can leave permanent scars.

Dozens of supporters gathered outside the court on the day of her trial. Instead of a whipping, however, the court ordered Hussein to pay a fine. When she refused, she was briefly imprisoned. A government-backed press association paid the fine on her behalf to avoid further embarrassment.

After her release, Hussein campaigned for a change in the law to stop the prosecution of women for what they wear.

"Thousands of women have been whipped," she said. "They suffer in silence. They go away with heads lowered in shame."

Men, by contrast, were treated with extraordinary leniency.

"A teacher caught raping a boy was sentenced to only one month in prison," she said, "the same sentence a woman can get for wearing trousers."

She has received thousands of messages of support and hopes oppressed women everywhere will be inspired to take action.

"What will happen if 100 Saudi women, who are forbidden by law to drive a car, join forces to break this rule, getting behind the wheel like they do in London or Beirut, demonstrating in a convoy through the streets of Jeddah or Riyadh? Only shocks like this can bring about change."

Another outrage, she says, is female circumcision. In Sudan, it is carried out on girls between the ages of four and eight without anaesthetic. Deaths from infections and bleeding are common.

Hussein was seven when a so-called "purifier" with no medical training operated on her. A few days later it was the turn of her friend: "A month later my friend was dead," said Hussein.

With a dazzling smile, she mentioned "friends at the airport" when asked how she had slipped out of Sudan. She would undoubtedly qualify for asylum in France but vows to return to her homeland to carry on fighting.

"If necessary, I am ready to die for this struggle," she said.

# reads: 219

Original piece is http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/sudanese-womans-fight-goes-global/story-e6frg6so-1225801800301

Printable version

Tell us what you think

It"s with certain disgust and amazement that I first read this article, while I have read similar reports before and learned of this case when it first arose. My comment is the following: (1) The Bible, or the so-called "Old Testament," which dates back some 3500 years and acts as the essential basis for both the New Testament and the Quran, has numerous laws or rules, i.e. that one should not eat meat from animals without both split hooves and that chew it’s cud, such as that is pig, rabbit, including birds of prey, or shell fish, etc. If someone decided to eat such things, however, despite these Biblical prohibitions, orthodox Jewish courts would not sentence those persons to corporal punishments, or fines. The same can be said today for trespasses in Catholic or Protestant traditions. The extremely harsh and unreasonable punishments set out in the Quran, or justified under the Quran today, are really that of either blind, or simply psychopathic clerics and courts, with little justification, or sense of life at all. (2) That there is no ‘right of choice,’ makes these principals inherently questionable, often inhuman, and thus invalid (3) To imagine that woman cannot decide to wear trousers, be allowed to drive a car, vote, educate themselves by choice, or even get a job without the permission of an adult male family member, are manifestations of the deeply rooted sickness, and ideological malady we confront today in Islamic run regimes. (3) so called ‘female circumcision’ is mutilation, pain and simple, and should be referred to as such. It is the cruel amputation of the female clitoris, preventing the sexual arousal of the little girl, or woman, later in life. Male circumcision in Jewish tradition has no such aim. Actually, due various health benefits, over 65% of children in the US are circumcised. Biblically, it merely reflects that we are not ‘born perfect,’ and that one’s parent should do something, well, all they can, to help you learn to achieve greater and greater perfection, as such. It in no way either hurts the child or impairs their sexual function or pleasures, in any fashion. The "purification" of a Muslim girl in various Muslim countries, in particular Somalia, is specifically to impair and prevent the sexual arousal of women. It assures males, in what can only be called a religiously sanctioned and deeply sexual perversion, that women will be sexually passive, while males can indulge at will - even in acts of pedophilia as described here, with little consequence. It’s outrageous that organizations claiming to protect "Human Rights" don"t demonstrate and decry these crimes against women and humanity, at the top of their lungs, and until they have no voice left at all! Finally, (4) that she was prohibited from leaving Sudan, in fear of disclosure of these vile attacks is the at the heart of despotism: the prevention of the oppressed to react and revolt to the crimes against reason and the inalienable rights of humanity to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as they see fit. These acts, all sanctioned under Islamic law, are but a few of the many faceted face of tyranny that rules under the name of Islam, and the cruel, bigoted, monsters that proclaim simultaneously to fearing masses of their righteousness, as so-called clerics and leaders. They are criminals, thugs and despots, and they should be identified as such. Unfortunately, when the UN has so many member nations that share similar despotic and sociopathic ideologies, all we can do is witness these horrible things, and hope that brave people, and especially courageous women like Lubna Hussein have success and encouragement to fulfill their important task! Their fight is our fight.

Posted by Brian_007 on 2009-11-30 12:12:52 GMT

The high priestresses of female lip expose their shallowness and hypocrisy when they whine interminably about glass ceilings and pay inequality (actually fund accumulation), while dissociating themselves from actual issues concerning our sisters. Issues like the one raised by Campbell"s article. What nonsense to appeal to cultural relativity! Or to ignore other issues like rape and sexual torture in Darfur and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Or even the one in twenty women dying in childbirths in parts of Africa. Oh dear, nothing can be said against other societies, but when it comes to Israel, it is perfectly kosher to have a femininist thesis accepted for a master"s degree arguing that the IDF"s failure to rape is an act of racism, or for a lecturer in the US using feminist ideology to label Israel racist. The wrong people have taken over rights groups, of which feminism is one.

Posted by paul2 on 2009-11-23 12:21:59 GMT

Women breathe the same air as men, have the same range of emotions as men and deserve the same treatment and respect as men

Posted on 2009-11-23 05:57:44 GMT

At a recent Adelaide Writers" Fest I put a question to the Feminist Celebration panel which included Dr Greer and RObyn Davidson: "When can we expect to see a book called "THe Female Muslim"? This was answered in a very unsatisfactory manner: "we can"t impose our culture on them" (footbinding? WIdow burning?) "THey don"t feel themselves oppressed." Feminism has become some sort of Club dedicated to cultural relativism.

Posted by Gabrielle on 2009-11-23 01:15:08 GMT

Links

Sudanese womans fight goes global

Tell us what you think