50 lashes for skirt girl, 16, in Sudan
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28/11/2009
MORALITY
A girl of 16 has received 50 lashes in Sudan for wearing an "indecent" skirt - even though it was below the knee.
Silva Kashif is a Christian from the south of the African country. But authorities in the north - who enforce strict Islamic law - decreed she be punished on the spot after she was arrested while visiting a Khartoum market last week.
She now plans to sue over the public morality "error", which follows the high-profile case of journalist Lubna Hussein, whose 40 lashes sentence for wearing trousers was eventually cut to a fine.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/11/28/50-...dan-115875-21856536/Sudanese teen flogged for wearing "indecent" skirt
By SARAH EL DEEB (AP) – 21 hours ago
CAIRO — A 16-year-old Christian girl from southern Sudan said Friday she was lashed 50 times for wearing a skirt deemed indecent by authorities in the north who enforce a strict version of Islamic law.
Silva Kashif said she was arrested by a plain-clothed policeman in a Khartoum market last week for wearing a skirt beneath the knee. She was convicted of offending public morality and received 50 lashes in the courtroom.
"I was treated like a criminal," Kashif said in a telephone interview. "I am confused what to wear. The trousers were an issue. My skirt was beneath the knee. What more can I do? I am Christian. My tribe and my customs permit me to dress like this."
Human rights lawyer Azhari al-Haj said a legal team plans to sue the authorities for procedural mistakes and to exonerate Kashif.
Kashif's ordeal follows the high profile case of Lubna Hussein, a female journalist who was sentenced to 40 lashes for wearing trousers deemed indecent. Hussein's sentence was reduced to a fine, and she is now lobbying to change the morality laws.
Sudan's indecency law allows flogging as a punishment. Human rights campaigners say the law is vaguely defined and arbitrarily enforced — and often incorrectly applied to non-Muslims such as south Sudanese Christians living in the capital.
Under a 2005 peace deal that ended a 20-year civil war between the Muslim north and the Christian and animist south, laws — including the indecency law — are supposed to be reviewed to respect human rights and freedom of expression.
Sudan's government implements a conservative version of Islamic law in the north. Public order police enforce the laws, banning alcohol, breaking up parties and preventing men and women from mingling in public.
In northern Sudan, many women wear traditional flowing robes that also cover their hair, but it is also not uncommon for women to wear trousers, even though conservatives consider it immodest.
Kashif, a high-school student, said she was heading to the local market in a Khartoum suburb to buy vegetables when she noticed a man following her. When she confronted him, she said he grabbed her by the hand and led her to a police station, where he charged her with wearing indecent clothes.
Kashif said she was lashed on her back, hands and legs.
"I came home and slept for a whole day. When my family found out, we all cried," she said.
Al-Haj, the human rights lawyer, said his group will protest that authorities gave Kashif the maximum sentence and ignored that she was a minor and a Christian.
"The whole thing from her arrest to her flogging didn't take one hour and half. This is unprecedented," he said. "We want to question the police officers and the judge, to exonerate Silva and to campaign against these laws."
Amal Habbani, a women's rights activist and columnist, said cases of flogging women for wearing clothes deemed indecent are backlogging the Sudanese legal system.
All that's needed to prosecute a woman for a dress violation is a complaint, and there are many thousands filed each year, she said.
"Most of these (violators) receive quick trials and sentences and they don't speak about it," Habbani said. "This is repression of a whole society through its women."
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Sudan teen lashed for "indecent" skirt: lawyer
Fri Nov 27, 2009 7:35am EST
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - A 16-year-old south Sudanese girl was lashed 50 times after a judge ruled her knee-length skirt was indecent, her lawyer and family said in the latest case to push Sudan's Islamic law into the spotlight.
The mother of teenager Silva Kashif told Reuters on Friday she was planning to sue the police who made the arrest and the judge who imposed the sentence, as her daughter was underage and a Christian.
The case will add fuel to a debate already raging over Sudan's decency laws after this year's high-profile conviction of Sudanese U.N. official Lubna Hussein, who was briefly jailed for wearing trousers in public.
Hussein, a former journalist who used her case to campaign against Sudan's public order and decency regulations, is touring France to publicize her book about the prosecution. She had faced the maximum penalty of 40 lashes but was given a lighter sentence.
Kashif, whose family comes from the south Sudanese town of Yambio, was arrested while walking to the market near her home in the Khartoum suburb of Kalatla last week, her mother Jenty Doro told Reuters.
"She is just a young girl but the policeman pulled her along in the market like she was a criminal. It was wrong," said Doro.
Doro said Khashif was taken to Kalatla court where she was convicted and punished by a female police officer in front of the judge.
"I only heard about it after she was lashed. Later we all sat and cried ... People have different religions and that should be taken into account," she said.
Arrests for indecency, drunkenness and other public order offences are not uncommon in Khartoum which is governed by Islamic sharia law.
But the punishment of residents of the capital originating from the south remains a sensitive issue.
Sudan is supposed to be working to soften the impact of sharia for southerners living in Khartoum under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of north-south civil war. The deal lifted sharia law in the south, where most follow Christianity and traditional beliefs.
Women's groups argue the decency laws are too vague, giving the country's separate public order police too much freedom to decide what kind of dress is appropriate.
Kashif's lawyer Azhari al-Haj told Reuters he was preparing a case against the police and judge for arresting and sentencing an underage girl. He said according to the law, people under 18 should not be given lashes.
"She was wearing a normal skirt and blouse, worn by thousands of girls. They didn't contact a guardian and punished her on the spot."
Al-Haj said he was hoping to win compensation and to clear Kashif's record. "We are also against the law itself. We want the law to be changed."
Nigerian football star Stephen Worgu this month said he had been sentenced to 40 lashes after being wrongly convicted of drunk driving in Khartoum. The sentence has been postponed pending an appeal.
(Reporting by Andrew Heavens; Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsMaps/idUSTRE5AQ1YZ20091127
