Lashings in Khartoum Soudan

Two days ago I read about the flogging of several non-Muslim women in Khartoum, Sudan. Eating at a popular restaurant they were arrested for dressing indecently. I will state at the outset, that all of my knowledge about this information is coming from the BBC on line. Googling this topic, the first ten results show nothing carried by the US Press. As Americans whose history includes the whole scale flogging of slaves, where is our indignation?

Having lived in Khartoum for four months last summer, I understand the tensions about being true to yourself and culture and the respect for the culture that you live in. I quickly decided to err on the side of society in Khartoum, and wore long skirts and tops going to work and church. Running next door to the little corner store, very baggy pants were worn with long sleeved tops. Inside my home, anything was the custom.

At a very popular ex-pat restaurant, women wore slacks, some young girls in jeans. It was considered an oasis for women.

I imagine this was where these women thought they were, an oasis of safety.

The punishment for this crime is 40 lashes. Ten women who pleaded guilty were given 10 lashes. The rest have chosen trial.

This morning the BBC carries this headline and story:

France condemns Sudan floggings

France has condemned the flogging of several women in Sudan, who were being punished for wearing trousers.

The foreign ministry called on Khartoum to abandon the prosecution of several others charged with the same offence.

The women were arrested in a Khartoum restaurant and accused of wearing clothes that threatened the values and virtue of Sudanese society.

One of the women facing charges is a well-known local journalist who has invited reporters to attend her trial.

Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein said several of the women who she was arrested with had pleaded guilty to the charge and been flogged immediately.

The French foreign ministry said in a statement it "strongly condemned" the punishment.

"France, which is fighting for the abolition of cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment or treatment and is combating violence against women, demands that the Sudanese authorities break off its prosecution of these people," the statement said.

Khartoum, unlike South Sudan, is governed by Sharia law.

Several of those punished were from the mainly Christian and animist south, Ms Hussein said.

Non-Muslims are not supposed to be subject to Islamic law, even in Khartoum and other parts of the mainly Muslim north.