Women face flogging in Sudan
Just for wearing trousers!! Which, apparently are ‘indecent’ clothing in Muslim law. How the hell trousers can be considered indecent I just don’t know!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8182658.stm
This came to my attention through a piece in Sunday’s Independent, in which the journalist was asking ‘Why is the Sisterhood silent on Sudan?’ As far as she could see there was no great public outcry about the issue, especially from women’s groups, and British politicians were not even commenting on it, caught up as they were in Harriet Harman’s comments about how men can’t be left to run things. (Surely there’s a connection there?) I’ve certainly not heard about this issue until now, and it seems a lot of people haven’t. The trial has been adjourned for a month (till the furore dies down? Officials say it’s simply to allow time to investigate if indeed Lubna Hussein will be immune from prosecution due to her job as a UN Press Officer, which she has resigned from in order to allow her trial to take place) but there have been heated protests in Sudan, where riot police have been involved. It’s a stark reminder of how women are still subjugated in our so called modern civilised world.