Tear gas quells demonstration Sudan for trouser wearing Lubna

KHARTOUM (4 August) – The riot police in Khartoum used tear gas today to quell a demonstration by supporters of the Sudanese journalist Lubna Ahmed Hussein. She faces 40 lashes for wearing trousers in the Sharia-ruled North of Sudan. Most of the female protestors also were wearing trousers in solidarity. Lubna’s case was due at the court for today (Tuesday), but the judge postponed the case again, this time it will be due the 7th of September. The judge told the prosecutor that he wants to ask the minister of Foreign Affairs and the UN commissioner about the UN status Lubna Hussein. UN employment might give her a kind of immunity. But Lubna Hussein told Radio Dabanga today that she wants the case to be tried and for that she had already resigned from her UN-job some weeks ago. ‘The court will not be able to use that excuse for avoiding the case. I know they like to find an excuse for themselves, since they feel ashamed for the exposure of this case. But we need to stop all cases against women wearing trousers and randomly given lashes for such choices’. The demonstration today demonstration started with a couple of hundreds of demonstrators in front of the Khartoum North-Court, told Lumeya Ageili, a journalist working for Al Akhbar newspaper and an activist of the closed Khartoum Centre for Human Rights participated. The majority of the demonstrators were women, activists and lawyers. Some women were wearing a pantalon and others had strapped a black banner around their head. The women carried large banners and shouted slogans like ‘’ No Public Order Law’. They repeated the sentence for hours, while heading for the Court-building. But when they arrived they were stopped to enter the building. Also journalists did not get access to the court room. The demonstration in Al Huria street ended in a clash after some women started a sit down action. The rot police used teargas and behind a cordon of policemen they were beating some female demonstrators. The number of victims is still unknown. Some women decided to collect signatories from the demonstrators and to file a petition to the government to be handed over later. ‘It is better to die than to be curtailed’, they shouted after the tear gas forced them to leave the court area