This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It will not be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/africa/8182658.stm
The article has changed 9 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 3 | Version 4 |
|---|---|
| Protests at Sudan woman's trial | Protests at Sudan woman's trial |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| Police have fired tear gas at supporters of a Sudanese woman charged with wearing "indecent clothing", shortly before her trial was postponed. | |
| Lubna Ahmed Hussein says she was arrested for wearing trousers. | |
| She has adopted a defiant attitude, urging authorities to try her although she faces up to 40 lashes in public. | |
| Earlier, she told the BBC she was not afraid, saying: "Flogging is not pain, flogging is an insult to humans, women and religions." | |
| Ms Hussein has resigned from a UN job that would have given her immunity to take on the case - indicating she wants it to become a test case for women's rights in Sudan. | |
| "If the court's decision is that I be flogged, I want this flogging in public," she told the BBC's Today programme. | "If the court's decision is that I be flogged, I want this flogging in public," she told the BBC's Today programme. |
| FROM THE TODAY PROGRAMME More from Today programme | FROM THE TODAY PROGRAMME More from Today programme |
| But Ms Hussein's trial in the capital, Khartoum, was delayed for a month after the judge said he needed to verify if she was immune from prosecution due to her former position at the UN. | |
| After her hearing was adjourned, Ms Hussein said the authorities wanted to delay her trial until the fuss around it went away. | |
| Scores of women protested outside the court, some holding up banners saying "No return to the dark ages". | |
| Then the riot police drove them away, reports the BBC's James Copnall in Sudan. | |
| First they marched up the road, banging their batons against their plastic shields, and later they fired tear gas and charged the protesters. | |
| 'My message' | |
| Ms Hussein was arrested in a restaurant in the capital with other women earlier this month for wearing clothing deemed "indecent" under Khartoum's Sharia law. | |
| She said 10 of the women arrested with her, including non-Muslims, each received 10 lashes and a fine. | She said 10 of the women arrested with her, including non-Muslims, each received 10 lashes and a fine. |
| "Before police caught me, there are maybe 20,000 girls and women getting flogged for dress reasons," she said. | "Before police caught me, there are maybe 20,000 girls and women getting flogged for dress reasons," she said. |
| If this could happen in a restaurant in Khartoum, imagine what the situation must be for women in Darfur, Ms Hussein said. | If this could happen in a restaurant in Khartoum, imagine what the situation must be for women in Darfur, Ms Hussein said. |
| "This is my message." | "This is my message." |
| Ms Hussein and two other women asked for a lawyer, delaying their trials. | Ms Hussein and two other women asked for a lawyer, delaying their trials. |
| Under a 2005 peace deal between the mainly Muslim north and the largely Christian and animist south, Sharia law is not supposed to be applied to non-Muslims living in the capital. | Under a 2005 peace deal between the mainly Muslim north and the largely Christian and animist south, Sharia law is not supposed to be applied to non-Muslims living in the capital. |
| Ms Hussein says she has done nothing wrong under Sharia law, but could fall foul of a paragraph in Sudanese criminal law which forbids indecent clothing. | Ms Hussein says she has done nothing wrong under Sharia law, but could fall foul of a paragraph in Sudanese criminal law which forbids indecent clothing. |