Today, September 1, 2013 at 6:00 AM GMT Amira Osman an engineer and activist for women rights in Sudan will face a trial in a special court in Khartoum Sudan for not covering her head in public. Amira is prosecuted under article 152 of the 1991 Penal Code on indecent dress code. Should she be found guilty, she could be sentenced to flogging and paying a fine or receiving a prison sentence that could go beyond one year.
Only in Sudan Amira as a woman faces a trial over not wearing a scarf in Public while a rapist convicted of raping a student get pardoned by the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for Genocide and Crimes against Humanity that includes raping of thousands of women in Darfur.
Last month Sudan was hit by devastating floods, thousands lost their homes and hundreds were killed, the Sudanese government instead of dealing with the crisis was too busy chasing women and harassment them over clothes.
I had been before to the Sudanese Public Order Courts and I had been prosecuted for wearing a pant in public. These courts are one of their kind in the modern times; the legal process in them is similar to witches courts in the dark ages. The judge will only listen to the prosecutor’s witnesses whom are the Public Order Police officers who arrested the woman and refuse to listen to the defendant or her witnesses. In most cases, the verdict will be this woman is guilty of dress offenses and immediately punishment will follow by flogging her 40 lashes in public outside the court. Without solidarity and Support, I received from local and International Public, media and Human Rights Organizations I was supposed to be flogged like 43,000 thousand women whom being prosecuted under public order laws in Sudan every year.
I appeal to the conscience of the free world, all media, women’s rights and Human Rights organizations to show supports and solidarity to Amira Osman and movement of “No to Oppression of Women in Sudan” to put pressure on the Sudanese government to stop flogging of Amira Osman and change these laws that degrade Sudanese women and discriminate against them.
Lubna Ahmed Hussein
Ottawa – Canada