Woman journalist rejects offer of immunity from prosecution for wearing trousers

IN WHAT appears to have been an effort to spare Sudan international embarrassment, a Khartoum judge has offered a woman charged with wearing “indecent” clothing immunity from prosecution.

But Lubna Ahmed Hussein, arrested recently for wearing the “crime” of trousers, has rejected the offer – made by the judge because she works for the UN – and her trial is set to proceed.

Lubna Hussein

She told a packed courtroom:

I wish to resign from the UN, I wish this court case to continue.

Hussein, a journalist who works for the UN mission in Sudan, had invited press representatives and observers to the trial.

She was arrested in a restaurant in the capital with other women earlier this month for wearing “indecent” clothing – trousers.

She said ten of the women arrested with her, including non-Muslims, each received ten lashes and a fine.

She claims she had done nothing wrong under Sharia law, but could fall foul of a paragraph in Sudanese criminal law which forbids “indecent” clothing.

She told the BBC:

I want to change this law, because hitting is not humane, and also it does not match with Sharia law.

The BBC’s James Copnall in Khartoum says Ms Hussein is determined to generate as much publicity as she can.

Meanwhile another female journalist who wrote an article supporting Ms Hussein has been charged with defaming the police, an “offence” which can carry a hefty fine in this sad, sorry mess of an Islamic state.

Amal Habbani wrote an article for Ajrass Al-Horreya newspaper following the arrests entitled Lubna, a case of subduing a woman’s body.