Monday, September 7, 2009

Dare to Wear


Recently, a woman in Sudan wore pants in public. Article 152 of Sudan’s penal code : “ anyone who commits an indecent act which violates public morality or wears indecent clothing” can be fined and lashed up to 40 times. She avoided whipping and lashing but was fined 200 $ . On the day of that woman's prosecution, Lubna Hussein (a female journalist) wore the same pair of pants in the capital of sudan . Lubna said she wanted to bring attention to woman rights. She then went on trial but vowed not to pay a single penny. The judges threatened they would put her in prison for a month if she did not pay the fine but she still refused to. Her lawyers advised her to but this is what she responded ;“I would spend a month in jail. It is a chance to explore the conditions in jail.”
Unfortunately, they had to put her in jail. Luckily a comitee raised up money to pay her custody. Women from British, French, Canadian, Swedish and Dutch Embassies showed up wearing pants to protest but police took 40 women. Some witnesses say that at least one of them got beaten even though they all got released a little bit later.


Source : http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/08/world/africa/08sudan.html?ref=world

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