Girl flogged for wearing 'indecent' skirt

Published: 28/11/2009 at 09:25 PM
Online news: Breakingnews

A Sudanese Christian teenager has been lashed 50 times for wearing what a judge considered an "indecent'' knee-length skirt, her lawyer said on Saturday.

The family of Silva Kashif, 16, plans on suing police and the judge, said attorney Azhari al-Hajj who insisted that the verdict was in violation of Sudanese law because the girl is a minor.

Kashif "is a minor, not a Muslim and did not have the right to get in touch with her parents'' before the verdict was served, Hajj told AFP.

"These are violations of the law and that is why we plan on suing the police and the judge,'' the lawyer added.

Kashif was strolling in a south Khartoum neighbourhood earlier this month wearing a knee-length skirt when a policeman arrested her and marched her to court. She was sentenced on November 21.

"The judge sentenced her to 50 lashes and she was immediately flogged. The whole thing lasted 30 minutes,'' said Hajj, who is also a human rights activist.

Sudan applies Islamic law in the Muslim north but it is not in force in the Christian and semi-autonomous south, which fought a two-decade war with the north that ended in 2005.

Kashif was the latest person targeted in Sudan on charges of violating a law against public indecency.

Last month, a judge sentenced two women to 20 lashes for wearing trousers and no headscarves.

Sudanese journalist Lubna Ahmed Hussein drew international attention to the law following her arrest in July, along with 12 other women, for wearing "indecent trousers.''

Hussein faced a punishment of 40 lashes but instead the court ordered her to pay a fine which she refused. She was jailed briefly until a Sudanese journalist group paid her fine.

She is now in France promoting a book about her ordeal.

Earlier this month Nigerian football star Stephen Worgu, who plays for a local Sudanese outfit, was sentenced to 40 lashes for driving under the influence of alcohol.

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Jean-Paul Patrick

Discussion 14 : 29/11/2009 at 03:01 PM14
Charlie (11) say it all, can't agree more.
DDuck

Discussion 13 : 29/11/2009 at 02:16 PM13
So much rage for 1 girl still living and reasonably healthy as far as I can tell.
Where is the outrage for the thousands or is it millions of children who die of starvation and neglect every year. Many of these children living in democracies with "liberal" laws that have western values?
Truth Today

Discussion 12 : 29/11/2009 at 01:53 PM12
Communists didn't need religion to kill hundreds of millions. Its greed, disparity, and the desperation caused by our current economic system based on scarcity.

In the future, when scarcity is eliminated by technology, conditions will be created that are conducive to the ideal state of human nature. Then we will finally see most if not all of this sort of behavior stifled.

In my own opinion, I see no difference between flogging a girl for wearing a short skirt and arresting someone for smoking marijuana or file sharing. Silly laws to protect the ruling elite's power.
MMouse

Discussion 11 : 29/11/2009 at 01:20 PM11
No Bill I am not, I think the things you mention are horrific but then so are many other things as I point out.

How about a little perspective this is 1 girl, she is not dead. How many would die if you had your way and the country were invaded and occupied?
Charlie

Discussion 10 : 29/11/2009 at 12:37 PM10
If you need a religion to tell you what to think then do you really think you should be trying to tell others what they should think ?
Double Ngo Ngu

Discussion 9 : 29/11/2009 at 12:09 PM9
Even with various respected religions for a few thousand years of mankind, human beings could not discipline themselves, imagine what would happen
if there is no religion on this planet EARTH ???
Ben Trein

Discussion 8 : 29/11/2009 at 11:58 AM8
Free (#3): I sincerely disagree. It is not religion that caused this. It's the beast in every human. If there weren't any religion in the world, people would find other reasons to go to war, kill, rape or otherwise brutalise others and their freedoms. Barbarianism is the nature of the beast (see Gitmo; or do you consider that driven by religion too?), and only until we as a whole learn to control it properly will humanity advance.
bill

Discussion 7 : 29/11/2009 at 11:19 AM7
#5MMouse
Would you please clarify exactly what you mean. Are you saying that it's quite acceptable to stone people to death, arrange ethnic cleansing or kill the infadels providing it is the culture or beliefs of that particular country. If as you say we need to be more tolerent, tell that to the people who arranged for this young girl to be flogged!!!
bill

Discussion 6 : 29/11/2009 at 10:37 AM6
Any country that allows this barbaric behaviour should be annexed by the civilised world. These acts are nothing to do with religion. They are barbaric acts committed by evil people who twist islamic law to suit there own perverted beliefs.
MMouse

Discussion 5 : 29/11/2009 at 10:17 AM5
Free disc 3 Excellent comment I agree.

This is a tricky one, to us westerners this is indeed outrageous, but to many muslims there are many outrageous things in the west.
Here in Asia many don't understand what all the fuss is about when we talk about discrimination and racism.
Different people have different ideas about what is right and wrong. The old saying of when in Rome do as the Romans comes to mind.
There are already too many problems in the world because some try to impose their value system on others. I think people of all faiths and nationalities need to be more tolerant of others.

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Girl flogged for wearing 'indecent' skirt