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 Sudan: Flogging and Harassment of Women Continue
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Tuesday 14 December 2010
Sudan: Flogging and Harassment of Women Continue
By: Nada M. Ali
nadaprivate[at]yahoo.co.uk
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Tomorrow, the H.e.a.d.s of State and Government and other senior officials from countries that are member in the International Conference on the
Great Lakes Region (ICGLR)--a regional body that includes Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia--;will meet in Lusaka, the Capital of Zambia, to discuss measures to curb the illegal use of natural resources, which often fuel conflicts in the region, leading to immense human suffering, including sexual and other forms of gender-based violence against women and girls.
Today, in Khartoum, the government’s security arrested forty-six women and six men who participated in a peaceful demonstration in Khartoum, to protest the flogging of women under various articles of Sudan’s Criminal Act 1991, and Sudan’s Public Order regime which discriminates against women. A press release by Sudan’s police (in Arabic) indicated that the demonstrators were arrested in accordance with Articles 68 and 69 of Sudan’s Criminal law. These articles cover ‘public disturbance’ offences such as illegal assembly and riots against the state. The arrests are unconstitutional, as Sudan’s Interim National Constitution guarantees freedom of assembly.
The protest came as a direct response to a very disturbing video that surfaced on YouTube (please use your discretion) as activists across the world were preparing to conclude the annual 16 days of activism against violence against women campaign.
The video shows the flogging of a woman in the courtyard of a police station or court in Omdurman, Sudan. It includes no information on the identity of the woman, why or when she was being flogged, or the location of the flogging. All one could see (and hear) was a man (allegedly the judge), ordering the woman to sit down so they can ‘get this over with’. The woman’s body language shows it is not the first time she was about to undergo such an ordeal. Sobbing, and shaking her hands in dread of what would follow, the woman sits on the floor, begging the policeman to lash her gently, barraha.
The policeman starts to flog the woman mercilessly on the back, the hips, and the shoulders, as the woman shouts and calls her mother, and as she shifts on her knees to avoid the whip. Another man in police uniform comes to the aid of his colleague, cracking his whip over the woman’s back. It seems the policemen were conscious that someone was filming. In fact, one said ‘let him videotape her. ‘falyashhad 3zabahuma taifa min al Muminen’, citing a verse of the holy Quran on the corporal punishment of Zina (adultery).
The woman (name withheld), a resident of Omdurman, was arrested and lashed under Articles 154 and 155 of Sudan’s Criminal Act (1991). These articles cover prostitution and running of a brothel, and carry a sentence of flogging of up to 100 lashes for ‘adultery’ or enticing prostitution. The Articles are part of the broader, infamous, public order regime, which includes other provisions in the Criminal Act that can carry a flogging sentence, such as Article 152, which levies a sentence of up to 40 lashes on a variety of vaguely defined ‘immoral acts’ which include ‘indecent or immoral dress’.
The flogging of the woman is not an isolated incident. It has been a routine practice in Sudan since the early 1980s when the then military regime of Gaafar Numeiri introduced Islamist Sharia as the main source of legislation. The democratic regime that followed did not repeal the laws. The current ruling party, which assumed power through a military-backed Islamist coup in 1989 re-introduced a very strict version of Sharia, including the Criminal Act and so called ‘Public Order Laws’ under which thousands of women (and men) were flogged for various reasons. Accurate statistics are not available but the spokesperson of the police has reportedly stated that in 2008, a total of 43,000 allegations related to public order were made against women in Khartoum state alone.
Within a matter of hours of emerging on widely-read Sudanese Internet forum sudaneseonline.com, the video generated wide interest, outrage and commentary among activists, journalists, politicians, and ordinary Sudanese whose sentiment were injured by what they watched on YouTube. The video quickly found its way to various global media outlets, including CNN’s iReport; and to several Arabic language channels and the international press.
The video is yet another blow to the ruling National Congress Party’s attempts to improve its image and construct itself as a moderate regime. Last year, in July 2009, Sudan similarly commanded the world news when Lubna Ahmed Hussein, a Northern Sudanese journalist who then worked as the public information officer at the United Nations Mission in Sudan waged a campaign against the infamous public order laws following her arrest, along with twelve other women, for wearing trousers at a restaurant in Khartoum. Ten of the women arrested pleaded guilty and consequently received ten lashes and paid fines of 250 Sudanese pounds (about US $100) each. The women were tried under Article 152 of Sudan’s criminal law, which criminalizes so called ‘indecent and immoral acts and behavior’ in public. Four of those were non-Muslim from Southern Sudan (and thus exempt from imposition of Sharia law as per the Comprehensive Peace Agreement which ended twenty years of war in 2005) but were nonetheless flogged. Lubna asked for a lawyer and as such her trial was postponed. She issued invitations to the media, diplomatic missions in Khartoum, and others, to attend her trial and flogging, if sentenced to flogging.
Lubna Hussein, who is currently in exile in France, quickly commented (in Arabic) on the YouTube video, exclaiming,
"Have you seen on YouTube what I saw on the ground? How about if you saw a girl, strained from the chest, waist, and other parts [of her body] by seven men in police uniform?...what if you saw a 16 years old child urinating on herself out of fear, in court? It is a painful seen.
(عدل بواسطة nada ali on 12-15-2010, 02:59 PM)
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nada ali
فيس بوك
تويتر
انستقرام
يوتيوب
بنتيريست