Flogging in Sudan has girl confused

CAIRO, Egypt – A 16-year-old Christian girl from southern Sudan said Friday she was lashed 50 times for wearing a skirt deemed indecent by authorities in the north who enforce a strict version of Islamic law.

Silva Kashif said she was arrested by a plain-clothed policeman in a Khartoum market last week for wearing a skirt beneath the knee. She was convicted of offending public morality and received 50 lashes in the courtroom.

“I was treated like a criminal,” Kashif said in a telephone interview. “I am confused what to wear. The trousers were an issue. My skirt was beneath the knee. What more can I do? I am Christian. My tribe and my customs permit me to dress like this.”

Human rights lawyer Azhari al-Haj said a legal team plans to sue the authorities for procedural mistakes and to exonerate Kashif.

Kashif’s ordeal follows the high profile case of Lubna Hussein, a female journalist who was sentenced to 40 lashes for wearing trousers deemed indecent. Hussein’s sentence was reduced to a fine.

Sudan’s indecency law allows flogging as a punishment. Human rights campaigners say the law is vaguely defined and arbitrarily enforced – and often incorrectly applied to non-Muslims such as south Sudanese Christians living in the capital.

Under a 2005 peace deal that ended a 20-year civil war between the Muslim north and the Christian and animist south, laws are supposed to be reviewed to respect human rights and freedom of expression.