Monday, September 7, 2009

Who gets to wear the pants in the Sudanese Muslim family?

A Sudanese court fined Luna Hussein 500 Sudanese pounds (about £127) for wearing trousers. That punishment came instead of the 40 lashes she was supposed to get under Sudanese Sharia law. She says she will keep fighting the case to prove her innocence, but it seems to me that they have here dead to rights. No doubt she was wearing trousers and there is no doubt what the law states. She had been arrested by police along with many others after a party. Ten other women arrested for the same offence pleaded guilty and got 40 lashes as the law demands.  
 
Women demonstrated on her behalf. Men counter-demonstrated. Dozens of men in traditional Islamic dress who shouted  slogans and denounced Hussein and her supporters, describing them as prostitutes and demanding a harsh punishment for Hussein. Perhaps prostitutes wear trousers in Sudan.
 
Ami Isseroff

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