Sudanese Police Arrest 43 Protesters Against Indecency Laws in Khartoum
Sudanese police arrested 52 people protesting against the Public Order Law, a week after a video circulated on the Internet showing police whipping a woman, according to the police, one of the detainees and an opposition spokeswoman.
“We were expressing our anger peacefully,” Amal Habani said by phone from inside the police station where she was being held with other detainees in Khartoum, the capital. “We want the abolishment of all laws that humiliate Sudanese women.”
The protest, which took place outside the Ministry of Justice, was called by a group known as “No to Subjugating Women Initiative,” said Mariam al-Mahdi, spokeswoman of the Umma opposition party. Its goal was to deliver a memorandum to the minister calling for the abolition of the Public Order Law, Habani said. Policemen beat the protesters and dragged them on the floor as they arrested them, she said.
The Public Order Law criminalizes acts such as the mixing of unmarried couples sitting together and women wearing trousers in public, and punishes them with fines or lashes. Amnesty International has called on the Sudanese government to amend its penal code and abolish laws that allow for flogging as a penalty, calling it “cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.”
Indecent Clothing
Khartoum’s police “contained an illegal assembly” today arresting 46 women and six men, because the organizers didn’t get permission for the protest, the police said in a statement on the Interior Ministry’s website.
The detainees were released, but they remain under investigation for illegal assembly, disturbing public safety and public nuisance, the statement said.
Lubna Hussein, a female journalist and former United Nations employee, stood trial in July last year on charges of wearing indecent clothing in a case that drew international criticism of Sudan, including by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and rights groups. The court fined Hussein $210 for wearing trousers and didn’t order lashes.
Seven male models and one female makeup artist were convicted of indecent acts this month and fined 200 Sudanese pounds ($84) each following a mixed fashion show, their defense lawyer, Adam Bakr, said.
Rights groups say the law doesn’t give guidelines about what constitutes an indecent act, leaving it up to the personal interpretation of each policeman.
Sudan has been governed by Islamic Shariah law since 1983 when it was introduced by former president Gaafar al-Nimeiri.
To contact the reporter on this story: Maram Mazen in Khartoum via the Cairo newsroom at mmazen@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg at phirschberg@bloomberg.net.
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