Lubna al-Hussein
Encyclopedia
Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein is a Sudanese Muslim, media worker and activist who came to international attention in July 2009 when she was prosecuted for wearing trousers. Her case has become a cause célèbre
, with organisations such as the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information
and Amnesty International
issuing statements in support.
United Nations Mission in Sudan
.
She was known for her public criticism of the government of Sudan's treatment of women.
), and it permits judicial corporal punishment
such as flagellation
. The criminal law
prohibits dressing indecently in public, a charge which carries a punishment of 40 lashes and a fine. According to the director of police, in 2008 in Khartoum State alone, over 40 000 women were arrested for clothing offences; it is not known how many were convicted or flogged.
Whoever does in a public place an indecent act or an act contrary to public morals or wears an obscene outfit or contrary to public morals or causing an annoyance to public feelings shall be punished with flogging which may not exceed forty lashes or with fine or with both.
The act shall be contrary to public morals if it is regarded as such according to the standard of the person's religion or the custom of the country where the act takes place.
Al-Hussein — who had come to book a cousin's wedding party and was watching an Egyptian singer and sipped a coke while she waited — was arrested with twelve other women.
Ten of them pled guilty immediately, were given ten lashes each, and released. Hussein and two other women refused this offer and insisted on a trial.
Between the arrest and the trial, Hussein began to publicize the case by printing 500 invitation cards and sending emails with the subject line "Sudanese journalist Lubna invites you again to her flogging tomorrow".
thanks to her United Nations
job. Al-Hussein stated that she wished to resign her job, and test the law. If she is found guilty, she intends to appeal her case to the upper court and even the constitutional court, in an effort to change the law.
In Al-Hussein's second appearance in court, on 4 August, the judge again postponed her case, this time for a month, saying he wanted to get advice about whether she was immune from prosecution or not. Outside the courtroom, police fired tear gas at protesters.
Ban Ki-moon
, the UN Secretary-General, stated his concern about the punishment she faces.
On 7 September she was found guilty and fined 500 Sudanese pound
s, but not sentenced to flogging. She stated that she intended not to pay, and was prepared to face a month in jail instead. This third appearance again featured diplomats and human rights workers observing the case in court, and protesters outside. Journalists counted about 150 of the latter, who were heckled by a smaller number of counter-protesters and beaten by riot police. At least 40 protesters were arrested and released on bail.
in early August for an interview about this case, the Sudanese authorities prevented her from leaving the country.
Outside Sudan, support for her case developed slowly, despite her intimate knowledge of how the media works and her international contacts. The BBC
radio programme Woman's Hour
discussed the extent to which the case had been ignored by British feminists.
for women's rights in Sudan. Hussein, who considers herself to be a good Muslim and was wearing loose fitting pants covered by a long blouse, contends that the case "is not about religion, it is about men treating women badly." She wants to change the law on behalf of all the women of Sudan. She argues that Article 152, which allows the flogging or fining of anyone who “violates public morality or wears indecent clothing” without defining "indecent clothing", itself violates both the Interim Constitution of Sudan and sharia.
On the eve of Hussein's third appearance in court, Amnesty International
released a statement asking the Sudanese government to repeal Article 152 and drop the charges against her. It states that the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights
"ordered Sudan to amend Article 152 on the grounds that flogging amounted to state-sanctioned torture" in 2003.
According to an article in the American magazine Foreign Policy, this case has encouraged disparate activists, from NGOs to opposition politicians, to co-operate with one another in their efforts to change the law.
Cause célèbre
A is an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy, outside campaigning and heated public debate. The term is particularly used in connection with celebrated legal cases. It is a French phrase in common English use...
, with organisations such as the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information
Arabic Network for Human Rights Information
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information is a Cairo, Egypt, based non-governmental organization devoted to promoting freedom of expression across the Middle East and North Africa. It collects publications, campaigns, reports, and statements from almost 140 Arabic human rights organizations...
and Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
issuing statements in support.
Background
Al-Hussein is a journalist who, at the time of her arrest, worked for the media department of theUnited Nations Mission in Sudan
United Nations Mission in Sudan
The United Nations Mission in the Sudan was established by the UN Security Council under Resolution 1590 of 24 March 2005, in response to the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the government of the Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement on January 9, 2005 in Nairobi,...
.
She was known for her public criticism of the government of Sudan's treatment of women.
Background
The legal system of the country is based on Islamic law (shariaSharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
), and it permits judicial corporal punishment
Judicial corporal punishment
Judicial corporal punishment refers to the infliction of corporal punishment as a result of a sentence by a court of law. The punishment can be flogging, caning, birching, whipping, or strapping...
such as flagellation
Flagellation
Flagellation or flogging is the act of methodically beating or whipping the human body. Specialised implements for it include rods, switches, the cat o' nine tails and the sjambok...
. The criminal law
Criminal law
Criminal law, is the body of law that relates to crime. It might be defined as the body of rules that defines conduct that is not allowed because it is held to threaten, harm or endanger the safety and welfare of people, and that sets out the punishment to be imposed on people who do not obey...
prohibits dressing indecently in public, a charge which carries a punishment of 40 lashes and a fine. According to the director of police, in 2008 in Khartoum State alone, over 40 000 women were arrested for clothing offences; it is not known how many were convicted or flogged.
Article 152
The full text of Article 152 in the Memorandum to the 1991 Penal Code is:- 152 Obscene and Indecent Acts
Whoever does in a public place an indecent act or an act contrary to public morals or wears an obscene outfit or contrary to public morals or causing an annoyance to public feelings shall be punished with flogging which may not exceed forty lashes or with fine or with both.
The act shall be contrary to public morals if it is regarded as such according to the standard of the person's religion or the custom of the country where the act takes place.
Arrest
On 3 July 2009, the Public Order Police entered the Kawkab Elsharq Hall, looking for any women and girls wearing trousers.Al-Hussein — who had come to book a cousin's wedding party and was watching an Egyptian singer and sipped a coke while she waited — was arrested with twelve other women.
Ten of them pled guilty immediately, were given ten lashes each, and released. Hussein and two other women refused this offer and insisted on a trial.
Between the arrest and the trial, Hussein began to publicize the case by printing 500 invitation cards and sending emails with the subject line "Sudanese journalist Lubna invites you again to her flogging tomorrow".
Appearances in court
When the case came to trial, the judge offered to dismiss it, pointing out that she enjoyed immunity from prosecutionDiplomatic immunity
Diplomatic immunity is a form of legal immunity and a policy held between governments that ensures that diplomats are given safe passage and are considered not susceptible to lawsuit or prosecution under the host country's laws...
thanks to her United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
job. Al-Hussein stated that she wished to resign her job, and test the law. If she is found guilty, she intends to appeal her case to the upper court and even the constitutional court, in an effort to change the law.
In Al-Hussein's second appearance in court, on 4 August, the judge again postponed her case, this time for a month, saying he wanted to get advice about whether she was immune from prosecution or not. Outside the courtroom, police fired tear gas at protesters.
Ban Ki-moon
Ban Ki-moon
Ban Ki-moon is the eighth and current Secretary-General of the United Nations, after succeeding Kofi Annan in 2007. Before going on to be Secretary-General, Ban was a career diplomat in South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the United Nations. He entered diplomatic service the year he...
, the UN Secretary-General, stated his concern about the punishment she faces.
On 7 September she was found guilty and fined 500 Sudanese pound
Sudanese pound
The Sudanese pound is the currency of Sudan and also used in South Sudan until finalization of the introduction of the South Sudanese pound. Both Arabic and English names for the denominations appear on the country's banknotes and coins. On 24 July 2011, Sudan launched a new currency...
s, but not sentenced to flogging. She stated that she intended not to pay, and was prepared to face a month in jail instead. This third appearance again featured diplomats and human rights workers observing the case in court, and protesters outside. Journalists counted about 150 of the latter, who were heckled by a smaller number of counter-protesters and beaten by riot police. At least 40 protesters were arrested and released on bail.
Further developments
When Hussein tried to fly to LebanonLebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
in early August for an interview about this case, the Sudanese authorities prevented her from leaving the country.
Outside Sudan, support for her case developed slowly, despite her intimate knowledge of how the media works and her international contacts. The BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
radio programme Woman's Hour
Woman's Hour
Woman's Hour is a radio magazine programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the United Kingdom.-History:Created by Norman Collins and originally presented by Alan Ivimey the programme was first broadcast on 7 October 1946 on the BBC's Light Programme . It was transferred to its current home in 1973...
discussed the extent to which the case had been ignored by British feminists.
Opposition to the law
This has become a test caseTest case
A test case in software engineering is a set of conditions or variables under which a tester will determine whether an application or software system is working correctly or not. The mechanism for determining whether a software program or system has passed or failed such a test is known as a test...
for women's rights in Sudan. Hussein, who considers herself to be a good Muslim and was wearing loose fitting pants covered by a long blouse, contends that the case "is not about religion, it is about men treating women badly." She wants to change the law on behalf of all the women of Sudan. She argues that Article 152, which allows the flogging or fining of anyone who “violates public morality or wears indecent clothing” without defining "indecent clothing", itself violates both the Interim Constitution of Sudan and sharia.
On the eve of Hussein's third appearance in court, Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
released a statement asking the Sudanese government to repeal Article 152 and drop the charges against her. It states that the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights
African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights
The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights is a quasi-judicial body tasked with promoting and protecting human rights and collective rights throughout the African continent as well as interpreting the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and considering individual complaints of...
"ordered Sudan to amend Article 152 on the grounds that flogging amounted to state-sanctioned torture" in 2003.
According to an article in the American magazine Foreign Policy, this case has encouraged disparate activists, from NGOs to opposition politicians, to co-operate with one another in their efforts to change the law.
See also
- Human rights in SudanHuman rights in SudanSome human rights organizations have documented a variety of abuses and atrocities carried out by the Sudanese government over the past several years...
- Sudanese teddy bear blasphemy caseSudanese teddy bear blasphemy caseThe Sudanese teddy bear blasphemy case concerns the arrest, trial, conviction, imprisonment and subsequent release of British schoolteacher Gillian Gibbons working at Unity High School in Sudan in 2007.-Arrest:...
- Liberal movements within IslamLiberal movements within IslamProgressive Muslims have produced a considerable body of liberal thought within Islam or "progressive Islam" ; but some consider progressive Islam and liberal Islam as two distinct movements)...
- Islamic feminismIslamic feminismIslamic feminism is a form of feminism concerned with the role of women in Islam. It aims for the full equality of all Muslims, regardless of gender, in public and private life. Islamic feminists advocate women's rights, gender equality, and social justice grounded in an Islamic framework...
- We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our FamiliesWe Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our FamiliesWe Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda is a 1998 non-fiction book about the genocide of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda in 1994, written by The New Yorker writer Philip Gourevitch....
- HijabHijabThe word "hijab" or "'" refers to both the head covering traditionally worn by Muslim women and modest Muslim styles of dress in general....
- Islam and clothingIslam and clothingAdherents of Islam are concerned with clothing in two contexts: clothing for everyday wear, inside and outside the house; and clothing required in specifically religious contexts....
- Clothing laws by countryClothing laws by countryClothing laws vary considerably around the world. In general, in most countries, there are no laws which prescribe what clothing is required to be worn. However, the community standards of clothing are set indirectly by way of prosecution of those who wear something that is not socially approved...
- Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of ViceCommittee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of ViceThe Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice or HAIA is the Saudi Arabian government bureaucracy employing "religious police" or mutaween to...
- MutaweenMutaweenThe word mutaween most literally means "volunteers" in the Arabic language, and is commonly used as a casual term for the government-authorized or government-recognized religious police of Saudi Arabia....
, Islamic religious police