Lubna Hussein Wears the Pants; Forcibly Freed from Jail

This article in Foreign Policy is a must-read for all those determined to obtain equal rights for women throughout the world. In covering Lubna Hussein’s trial for wearing pants and her sentencing, Bec Hamilton writes:

Trying to save face, the court played it both ways. The judge decided Lubna was guilty under Article 152 of Sudan's so-called indecency laws -- a nod to the government, which maintains that the law is just and that Lubna simply fell afoul of it. But the court decided to fine her 500 Sudanese pounds (about $200) rather than flog her -- a nod to the sensitivities of the global media watching from outside the courtroom, where Lubna's domestic supporters were once again protesting.

Presumably the court hoped that Lubna, grateful to be spared flogging, would happily pay the fine and the world could move on. Case closed. That was a miscalculation.

I spoke to Lubna by phone shortly after the verdict was handed down and was not surprised when the first thing she said was that she had no intention of paying the fine. While most of the media coverage of her story to date has focused on the most sensational part of the case -- the possibility of her facing a public flogging -- for Lubna, her decision to take on the government was a challenge to the justness of Article 152 in its entirety. From Lubna's perspective, paying the fine would legitimate an illegitimate law.

I lost contact with Lubna last night after she was jailed for refusing to pay the fine. But having spoken to her earlier in the day, I knew that going to jail to continue her protest of a vaguely worded law that allows for the harassment of women was something she was perfectly prepared to do. Lubna had advised friends and family that she did not want anyone to pay the fine on her behalf.

From the perspective of the Sudanese government, this was not a satisfactory result. With the "trouser lady" now in jail, how could the global media move on? Enter Mohideen Totawi, head of the Sudanese Journalists' Association (SJA). Totawi paid Lubna's fine and this afternoon she was forcibly freed.

Read more:

Sudanese Woman Fined for Wearing Pants, But Spared a Whipping

UPDATE: Citizens from 17 different nations around the world have visited Katalusis today out of interest in the Sudanese woman in the photo who was put on trial for wearing trousers in public. Global awareness of the abusive treatment of women is one way to put a stop to it.


Jeffrey Gettleman and Waleed Arafat report in today’s NY Times:

NAIROBI, Kenya — A Sudanese woman who wore pants in public was fined the equivalent of $200 but spared a whipping Monday when a court found her guilty of violating Sudan’s decency laws.

The woman, Lubna Hussein, an outspoken journalist who had recently worked for the United Nations, faced up to 40 lashes in the case, which has generated a swarm of interest both inside and outside Sudan.

Mrs. Hussein vowed to appeal the sentence and even marched into the court in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, wearing the same pair of loose-fitting green slacks that she was arrested in.
Manal Awad Khogali, one of her lawyers, said the judge hearing the case called only police witnesses to testify and refused to allow Mrs. Hussein — who has pledged to use her trial to bring attention to women’s rights in Sudan — to defend herself.

“He didn’t give us a chance,” Mrs. Manal said.

The judge had threatened to jail her for one month if she did not pay the fine. But according to The A.P., Mrs. Hussein flatly said: “I would spend a month in jail. It is a chance to explore the conditions in jail.”

On Monday night, after refusing her lawyers’ advice to pay up, Mrs. Hussein was whisked off to jail, though her lawyers said that in the coming days a committee formed for her defense may pay the fine and free her.

Sudan is partly governed by Islamic law, which calls for women to dress modestly. But the law is vague. According to 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.

Read more:

Sudanese Women Sentenced Forty Lashes for Wearing Trousers - Female Journalist Defies Court

We Americans need reminding from time to time that we are important role models to the rest of the world. Plus, we like to tell other nations how they should be governing themselves, especially on issues such as human rights.

As if we’re on top of our game in human rights.

Never mind Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, our dearth of women political leaders, the upsurge of sexism and misogyny during the 2008 presidential election... oh, that reminds me of President Obama’s head speech writer, Jon Favreau, otherwise known as Jon, the Groper. Nothing like a viral photo going global of tipsy Jon and his male friend sexually molesting a life-size cardboard cutout of our newly appointed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Hey, Jon, way to send a message to women in countries like Sudan where Islamic Sharia law is enforced. Never mind. In spite of the depraved mind of the guy who unbelievably continues to put words in President Obama’s mouth, brave women manage to stand up against the cruel oppression of their cultures wherever they happen to be.

Take Sudanese female journalist Lubna Hussein. The Huffington Post cites an AFP report that Hussein, who was arrested July 3 for wearing pants and is now standing trial, openly defied the court by wearing the very same outfit to trial that she was arrested for.

From the Huffington Post/Associated Press:

A Sudanese female journalist facing 40 lashes for wearing trousers in public in violation of the country's strict Islamic laws told a packed Khartoum courtroom Wednesday she is resigning from a U.N. job that grants her immunity so she can challenge the law on women's public dress code.

Lubna Hussein was among 13 women arrested July 3 in a raid by members of the public order police force on a popular Khartoum cafe for wearing trousers, considered indecent by the strict interpretation of Islamic law adopted by Sudan's Islamic regime. All but three of the women were flogged at a police station two days later.

But Hussein and two other women decided they wanted to go to trial and Hussein invited human rights workers, western diplomats and fellow journalists to Wednesday's hearing.

Some of her women friends showed up in court Wednesday wearing trousers in a show of support.

"This is not a case about me wearing pants," said Hussein, who works in the media department of the U.N. Mission in Sudan and contributes opinion pieces to a left-leaning Khartoum newspaper.

"This is a case about annulling the article that addresses women's dress code, under the title of indecent acts. This is my battle. This article is against the constitution and even against Islamic law itself," she said after the hearing.”

Did I mention earlier that Americans like to promote themselves as role models for the rest of the world? U.S. human rights activists would do well to look to Lubna Hussein and her supporters in Sudan for guidance. Our country's 51 percent female population must unite to make sure that never again will female candidates for the presidency or any other public office be treated with the blatant misogynist contempt experienced by Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin in 2008.

America can do better.