Sudan: Luba Cannot Return

From Capital News:

The Sudanese journalist briefly jailed for wearing "indecent trousers" said Wednesday she might not return to her country but instead continue her campaign for women's rights from abroad.

Lubna Ahmed Hussein, who said she defied a travel ban and sneaked out of Sudan wearing a full Islamic veil to hide her identity, said however she was not planning to ask for asylum in Europe.

"I am waiting for the network of women in Sudan (campaigning for women's rights)... to decide whether it is better for me to continue the campaign at home or abroad," she told reporters in Paris.

"I will follow their decision," she said, speaking on the UN-sponsored International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Hussein said Sudanese authorities had tried to stop her leaving the country but that she had contacts in Khartoum airport who helped her get past passport control and board an international flight.

Hussein was in France to promote her new book "40 coups de fouet pour un pantalon" (Forty Lashes for a Pair of Trousers), which is published in French and is set to be translated into English and other languages.

Activists Scuffle With Islamists

From the Independent:

Sudanese women's rights activists scuffled with Islamists and riot police today before a court session for Lubna Hussein, who faces 40 lashes for wearing trousers deemed indecent by the authorites.

Hussein's case is being seen as a test of Sudan's Islamic decency regulations, which many women activists say are vague and give individual police officers undue latitute to determine what is acceptable clothing.

The judge had adjourned Hussein's last court session to investigate whether she was immune from prosecution because she was working as a press officer for the United Nations at the time of her arrest.

Sudanese Women: Flogged - Part II

From Middle East Online:

A Sudanese journalist facing 40 lashes for wearing "indecent" trousers vowed on the eve of her judgment that she is ready to be whipped 40,000 times in her bid to change the country's harsh laws.

Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein, who works for the media department of the United Nations Mission in Sudan, is to be judged on Tuesday after waiving the immunity granted to UN workers.

She is to be judged under Article 152 of Sudanese law, which promises 40 lashes for anyone "who commits an indecent act which violates public morality or wears indecent clothing."

Police arrested Hussein and 12 other women wearing trousers at a Khartoum restaurant on July 3. Two days later 10 of the women accepted a punishment of 10 lashes, but Hussein is appealing in a bid to eliminate such rough justice.

Hordes of people, many of them female supporters and some also wearing trousers out of solidarity, crammed into the courthouse for the hearing.