You are listening to Amira Osman, a Khartoum-based engineer who runs her own company and was recently confronted by Sudan’s Public Order Police on August 27, 2013. It was not the first time. Osman has led a personal campaign against Sudan’s Public Order Regime, as SIHA, the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa refers to the brutish squads that roam Khartoum arresting women for the slightest perceived offense.

Amira Osman refused to cover her head, as ordered on August 27. In her own words, Osman was physically assaulted, forced to sit on the floor, verbally abused and later dragged out of the government office to the police station where she was pressured to undergo a summary trial. Osman refused and insisted on having a lawyer present. After being held in detention for four hours, she was released on bail.

Amira Osman is due in court tomorrow September 1, 2013 under the now infamous article 152 of the 1991 Penal Code on how women must now dress in Sudan.

Anne of Carversville has a long history of fighting for the human rights of Sudanese women, a fight that began with the Lubna Hussein case in 2009. Lubna famously invited 500 journalists to her flogging after her arrest with a group of women, most of whom were flogged.

I am proud to say that if you Google image search “flogging in Sudan”, Anne of Carversville is in the top 2 positions, and I intend to retain that position.

Lubna will be submitting a statement overnight, one we will publish tomorrow in an effort to rally support for Amira Osman.

Let us be clear concerning the punishment of flogging in Sudan. These files were smuggled out of Sudan to me in 2010 after YouTube repeatedly took down the same video when Islamic fundamentalists — who now run the government of Sudan — protested that they are too violent.

Indeed, they are incredibly violent — but also true.

This is the punishment facing Amira Osman for refusing to cover her head in Khartoum. Her flogging could occur tomorrow, unless we can stop it. My sources tell me tonight that the government is engaged in an aggressive action against women’s rights activists in Khartoum generally this past week and has hatched a plot to discredit Lubna Hussein, with whom I am in contact.

More facts will be coming during the night, but let us put Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir and his brutal thugs on notice that the women of Sudan will not go silently into the night, nor will Anne of Carversville. I will be back in the morning, and I hope my heart is not overflowing in tears for the suffering of the incredibly brave and fierce woman leader Amira Osman. ~ Anne

Sudanese Men Laugh While Brutally Flogging Woman In Khartoum