Protesters back Sudanese woman in trousers case

KHARTOUM, Aug 4

Dozens of women rallied outside a Khartoum court on Tuesday in support of a Sudanese woman facing 40 lashes for wearing trousers in public, a case that has become a public test of Sudan's indecency laws.

Lubna Hussein, a former journalist and U.N. press officer, was arrested with 12 other women during a party at a Khartoum restaurant in early July and charged with committing an indecent act.

Ululating women carried banners and headbands with the message "No return to the dark ages" and shouted slogans against laws which ban dress deemed indecent. Riot police armed with batons moved in to clear the streets around the protesters.

"We are against this law. It is against women, against Islam and against human rights," said Zainab Badradin, one of the women in the crowd.

Indecency cases are not uncommon in Sudan, where there is a large cultural gap between the mostly Muslim and Arab-oriented north and the mainly Christian south.

But Hussein has attracted attention by publicising her case, posing for photos in her loose green trousers and inviting journalists to campaign against dress codes sporadically imposed in the capital.

Her case has attracted widespread support among women's groups in Khartoum, and a number of women -- some also wearing trousers -- waited outside the capital's downtown Khartoum North court ahead of the proceedings on Tuesday.

"Her main argument is that her clothes are decent and that she did not break the law," defence lawyer Nabil Adib Abdalla said.

"Failing that, we will ask for a stay of the proceedings to challenge the trial in the constitutional court ... We are saying the law is so widely drafted that it contravenes her basic right, her right to a fair trial," he added.

Women's groups have complained that the law gives no clear definition of indecent dress, leaving the decision of whether to arrest a women up to the judgement of individual police officers.

-Reuters