Pant-Clad Sudan Woman Faces 40 Lashes

Dozens of Sudanese women were holding a protest outside a Khartoum court where a female journalist was going on trial Tuesday for wearing trousers in public, a violation of the country's Islamic laws.

Lubna Hussein faces 40 lashes on the charge of "indecent dressing."

She was among 13 women arrested July 3 in a raid by members of the public order police on a popular cafe in Khartoum. Ten of the women were flogged at a police station two days later and fined 250 Sudanese pounds, or about $120, but Hussein and two others decided to go on trial.

Trousers are considered indecent by the strict interpretation of Islamic law, adopted by Sudan's Islamic regime that came to power after an army coup led by President Omar al-Bashir seized power in 1989. Activists and lawyers say the implementation of the law is arbitrary.

Hussein's hearings opened last Wednesday but adjourned so that she could resign from her job at the media department of the U.N. Mission in Sudan, a position that could have granted her immunity from trial.

Hussein said she wanted to challenge the law on women's public dress code and invited human rights workers, Western diplomats and fellow journalists to the hearings.

On Tuesday, she told reporters she expected a swift sentence and that she didn't know if the court would allow an appeal. Public order cases usually involve quick summary trials with sentences carried out shortly afterward.

"I am ready for what may come," Hussein told The Associated Press, adding that the protesters showed that "Sudanese women from different political parties and groupings stand with us."

Police were deployed around the courthouse since early Tuesday and kept media and cameras at bay.

Some of the women demonstrators wore trousers in solidarity with Hussein, while others wore the traditional Islamic dress for women that includes a shawl covering the head and shoulders.

"We are here to protest against this law that oppresses women and debases them," said one of the protesters, Amal Habani, a female columnist for the daily Ajraa Al Hurria, or Bells of Freedom in Arabic.

The U.N. Staff Union urged authorities last week not to flog Hussein, calling the punishment cruel, inhuman and degrading.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described himself as "deeply concerned" about Hussein's case and said flogging was a violation of international human rights standards.