WUNRN
Sudan Tribune - Article & Video: http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article48075
SUDAN - VIDEO OF WOMAN BEING FLOGGED
- TORTURE
Still photo taken from the YouTube video showing a women being flogged.
September 16, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – A new
video shows a Sudanese police officer flogging an unidentified woman in
public, marking the second recording of its kind the last two years.
In 2011, a
similar YouTube video was published on the video sharing website drawing
widespread condemnation as the woman was seen screaming and begging for mercy
while police officers laughed as they carried out her sentence.
But the
Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir at the time dismissed the criticism
saying that the “woman’s punishment was legal under [Islamic] Shar’ia law and
she deserves it”.
The new
video, which runs for a little under a minute, shows a woman groaning in pain
as police officers whipped her while they made sarcastic remarks.
It is not
clear what crime she was sentenced for.
The governor
of Khartoum Abdul Rahman Al Khidir, told the independent Blue Nile TV channel
that the woman was "rightfully punished according to the Shar’ia law, but
the violation was in the manner her punishment was carried out”.
The Sudanese
people are trying to break the wall of isolation imposed upon them by the
government through the Public Order Law (POL) which prohibits women from
wearing tight trousers, or sometimes any trousers, and bans public and private
parties after midnight amid calls by liberals to repeal it.
Many
Sudanese, who are suffering from a deep and far reaching economic crisis, fear
that the POL could turn into a tool for harassing girls and college students
who wear new fashions designed specifically to fit the hot weather in Africa
and the Middle East.
But
authorities claim that the POL will prevent negative behaviour even though the
law was denounced by politicians and activists who say that it violates
citizen’s fundamental rights.
“We have
become accustomed to rush to our homes early in the evening because Khartoum
yawns early due to the government decision to stop private parties at 11:00 pm,
an hour before midnight”, says Rasha Abdeen.
Abdeen, who
lives in the prestigious Al-Riyadh neighborhood, added that she joined a
private dancing club in order to work around "boredom" in the
evening, but says that most of those clubs also close before midnight to avoid
police harassment.
Last month,
police in Khartoum’s southern suburb of Jabal Al-Awliaa reportedly forced a
girl named Suhair Ali to write a pledge not to appear in public places without
wearing a headdress.
She posted a
picture on her Facebook page of herself without a headscarf to protest the
measure and wrote “I was abused by a policeman who dragged me to the police
station to write a pledge not to uncover my head”.
In spite of
the government’s ban on wearing tight pants, clothing market is full of ready-made
garments including expensive women trousers which attract large numbers buyers.
Liberal
activists say that the Islamic government in Sudan is deliberately harassing
and abusing girls who hold opposing political views.
A liberal
activist named Abd-Alqayoum said that women are facing daily harassment and
insults beginning with the fee collector in the public transportation and
ending with the college gatekeepers who rebuke her for wearing a transparent
headscarf and may send her back home thus missing a full school day.
In 2009, the
Sudanese government suffered a major PR blow after the case of a female
journalist by the name of Lubna Hussein swept the world media when she was
arrested by Public Order Police (POP) along with a dozen other girls and charged
with dressing inappropriately.
Hussein
resigned from her post at the then United Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) to waive her
immunity bestowed upon employees of the world body and face trial to use her
case to draw attention to the POL which allows flogging as a punishment for any
acts or wearing clothing that are viewed as offending morals.
Following
international pressure, the Sudanese judge did not impose a flogging sentence
and instead ordered Hussein to pay a fine of 500 Sudanese pounds ($200) or else
be jailed for 30 days after being convicted of indecent dressing.
She refused
to pay the fine but was released well before her one month jail sentence
expired after the head of the pro-government Journalist Syndicate went ahead
and paid it.
These
government measures enjoy the support of the Islamists particularly the Salafi
groups who often hold religious lectures in the public squares which were
frequented by youths and college students.
The
controversial MP, Dafa-alla Hassab Al-Rasool, has continued to issue statements
mocking working women and criticising groups which call for combating female
circumcision.
Last June,
he made a controversial statement demanding that Sudanese men practice polygamy
in order to produce more children to join the army in the future and criticised
the pro-government Islamic cleric, Abde-Galeel Al-Karuri, for joining an
anti-female circumcision campaign, saying that he was being deceived by the
secular groups.
Journalist
and columnist, Faisal Mohamed Saleh, who is a recent winner of the Peter
Mackler award for courageous and ethical Journalism has described the POL as
“the worst law on earth”.
“The regime
is insisting on enforcing the POL in order to harass ordinary people unduly”,
said Salih.
In recent
years, several Sudanese and foreign investors opened massage and slimming
centers in prestigious neighbourhoods in downtown Khartoum. However, the police
continued to raid those centers claiming that they are used for lewd practices.
Aliaa, who
is a client of one of those centers, said that the center was shut down by the
police who claimed that it is being used for lewd acts, denying that such
practices were taking place in the center.
An activist
in cultural centers in downtown Khartoum said that the city was full of bars
and beverage shops but they were shutdown after the former president Ja’afar
Nimeiri declared Shar’ia laws in the early 80’s.
A Sudanese
citizen, who preferred to stay anonymous in order to avoid social stigma, said
that they used to drink alcohol in the bars and return to their homes in the
early hours of the morning but nowadays they have to go back before 10:00pm.
He added
that Khartoum has become a "big primitive village", saying that
private parties and weddings stop before midnight.
Sudan is
currently working on a new constitution following the secession of the mostly
Christian and animist south in July 2011.
President
Omer Hassan al-Bashir said that since Sudan is overwhelmingly Muslim, the new
constitution will be 100% Islamic.
Opposition
parties claim that the constitution will be used to crush social and political
dissidence.
__________________________________________________
SUDAN
- STOP THREATENING WOMEN WITH FLOGGING - UN EXPERTS WARN SUDAN
GENEVA
(6 November 2013) – Flogging women, including for “honour-related offences”
amounts to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in international law and must
stop, two independent UN human rights experts said Wednesday in the wake of
recent cases involving women in Sudan.
Amira Osman Hamed, a 35-year-old Sudanese civil engineer and women's rights
activist appeared in court on Monday charged with dressing indecently or
immorally – for refusing to cover her hair with a headscarf. If she is found
guilty, she could be sentenced to corporal punishment of up to 40 lashes.
Following Monday’s hearing, the woman remains in legal limbo while the
prosecution decides if additional hearings will take place or if the case will
be dismissed.
“Premarital sex, adultery, failing to prove rape, dressing ‘indecently’ or
‘immorally’, being found in the company of a man, or committing acts that are
deemed incompatible with chastity – these are some of the “offences” for which
women have been chastised with flogging in various parts of the world,” said
the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and
consequences, Rashida Manjoo. “This needs to stop. Women like Amira must not be
forced to live in fear of being flogged. Governments need to stop flogging
women and girls.”
Frances Raday, the chairperson of the Working Group on the issue of
discrimination against women in law and in practice, added that it was women
who were disproportionally found guilty of offences that were punishable by
flogging.
“Given continued discrimination and inequalities faced by women, including
inferior roles attributed to them by patriarchal and traditional attitudes, and
power imbalances in their relations with men, maintaining flogging as a form of
punishment, even when it applies to both women and men, means in practice that
women disproportionally face this cruel punishment, in violation of their human
rights to dignity, privacy and equality,” Ms. Raday said.
The experts called for the immediate release of Ms. Osman Hamed and for the
Sudanese Government to review its legislation related to flogging. Under
international human rights law, corporal punishment can amount to cruel,
inhuman or degrading punishment or even to torture, and States cannot invoke
provisions of domestic law to justify violations of their human rights
obligations under international law.
“Corporal punishment of women and girls is usually linked to the control and
limitation of their freedom of movement, freedom of association, as well as
their personal and sexual choices. Punishment usually has a collective
dimension, and is public in character, as the visibility of the issue also
serves a social objective, namely, influencing the conduct of other women,” the
experts said.
“We call on States to abolish all forms of judicial and administrative corporal
punishment, and to act with due diligence to prevent, respond to, protect
against, and provide redress for all forms of gender-based violence,” the
experts said.
The experts are in contact with the government of Sudan to clarify the issue in
question.
####
For more information or media enquiries, please contact Gabriela Guzman (gguzman@ohchr.org / +41 22 917 9412) or write to vaw@ohchr.org
Ms. Rashida Manjoo (South Africa) was appointed Special Rapporteur on Violence against women, its causes and consequences in June 2009 by the UN Human Rights Council. As Special Rapporteur, she is independent from any government or organization and serves in her individual capacity. Ms. Manjoo also holds a part-time position as a Professor in the Department of Public Law of the University of Cape Town.
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/SRWomen/Pages/SRWomenIndex.aspx
The UN Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice is composed of five independent experts from all regions of the world: Frances Raday (Israel/United Kingdom) Chairperson-Rapporteur; Emna Aouij, Vice-Chairperson (Tunisia); Patricia Olamendi Torres (Mexico); Kamala Chandrakirana (Indonesia) and Eleonora Zielinska (Poland).
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/WGWomen/Pages/WGWomenIndex.aspx