WUNRN
Amnesty International
Website Link Has Guide for Appeal.
SUDAN - SAVE AMIRA OSMAN HAMED FROM
FLOGGING FOR NO HEAD COVERING
Update
20/9/13:
Local organisation Girifna reports that lawyers have asked for charges against
Amira Osman be dropped. The trial judge will now consult with a higher court. A
response is expected in November. This gives us 6 weeks to help convince
Sudan's Justice Minister that the charges must be dropped.
The trial of Amira Osman Hamed starts tonight and if convicted she could be sentenced to flogging in Sudan for refusing to cover her hair with a headscarf.
Amira Osman Hamed is facing a flogging for
refusing to cover her hair. Picture: Ashraf Shazly/AFP
E-mail the Sudanese Minister of Justice and ask him to drop the charges.
On 27 August Amira was arrested by the Public Order Police. The 35-year-old civil engineer and women's rights activist was working in the outskirts of Khartoum when 10 policemen approached her and threatened to take her to the police station for her 'crime'. She was then charged under Article 152 of Sudan's 1991 Criminal Code with 'indecent or immoral dress' and faces the possibility of receiving up to 40 lashes if convicted.
We need to act quickly. Amira's trial begins tonight. Stand with Amira and the women of Sudan who face discrimination and disproportionate punishment every day.
Appeal to the
Sudanese Minister of Justice, Mohamed Bushara Dousa, to drop all charges
against Amira Osman Hamed.
Amnesty is against the use of flogging, which particularly affects women in Sudan, including girls under the age of 18. The practice is cruel, inhuman and degrading and in some cases judges have exceeded the legal limit and punished women and girls with up to 50 lashes. Flogging is not only wrong and humiliating, but can lead to long-term psychological and physical scars.
Write to the Minister of Justice now.
For offline actions, please send appeals before 29 October 2013 to:
HE Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir Office of the President People's Palace PO Box 281 Khartoum, Sudan Email: info@sudan.gov.sd Salutation: Your Excellency
Mohamed Bushara Dousa Minister of Justice PO Box 302 Al Nil Avenue Khartoum, Sudan Email: mb.dosa@gmail.com Salutation: Your Excellency
Ibrahim Mohamed Ahmed Ministry of Interior PO Box 873 Khartoum, Sudan
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A SUDANESE woman
says she's prepared to be flogged to defend the right to leave her hair
uncovered in defiance of a Taliban-like law.
Amira Osman Hamed faces a
possible whipping if convicted at a trial which could come on September 19.
Under Sudanese law, her
hair - and that of all women - is supposed to be covered with a
"hijab", but Ms Hamed refuses.
The 35-year-old's case
has drawn support from civil rights activists and is the latest to highlight
Sudan's series of laws governing morality, which took effect after the 1989
Islamist-backed coup by President Omar al-Bashir.
"They want us to be
like Taliban women," Ms Hamed said in an interview with AFP, referring to
the fundamentalist rebel movement in Afghanistan.
She is charged under
Article 152 which prohibits "indecent" clothing.
Activists say the
vaguely-worded law leaves women subject to police harassment and
disproportionately targets the poor in an effort to maintain "public
order".
Ms Hamed said she was
visiting a government office in Jebel Aulia, just outside Khartoum, on August
27 when a policeman aggressively told her to cover her head.
"He said, 'You are
not Sudanese. What is your religion?'"
"I'm Sudanese. I'm
Muslim, and I'm not going to cover my head," replied Ms Hamed.
Her dark hair, tinged
golden, is braided tight against her scalp with a flare of curls at the back.
In 2009 the case of Lubna
Ahmed al-Hussein, a journalist, led to a global outcry and attention toward
women's rights in Sudan.
Ms Hussein was fined for
wearing slacks in public but she refused to pay. She spent one day behind bars
until the Sudanese Journalists' Union paid the fine on her behalf.
Others rounded up with
her in a restaurant were flogged.
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