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Globe Editorial
WHEN A lone individual takes on a repressive state and its unjust laws, she deserves solidarity from the global village. So it is with Lubna Hussein, the Sudanese journalist and United Nations employee who was arrested with 12 other women last month for wearing trousers in a restaurant. This crime is punishable by 40 lashes and a potentially unlimited fine under a vague law that forbids “indecent clothing.’’
Tens of thousands of women have been flogged under that law, Hussein has said. To defend Sudan’s women from the caprices of patriarchal power, and to embarrass Sudan’s rulers into changing the misogynistic law, she cast away her immunity from prosecution by resigning her post as a UN public information officer.
She was released from prison Tuesday after Sudan’s journalists’ union paid her $200 fine, but that will not end her campaign to defend the human rights of women in Sudan. And it should not deceive the outside world into confusing her release with their liberation.
The UN’s human rights office has rightly denounced Hussein’s conviction as a violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Sudan ratified. The case also tests the mettle of the African Union and the Arab League, both of which include Sudan. If these groups want any credibility on matters of human rights, they should join Hussein in protesting Sudan’s vicious “indecency’’ law.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
