November 24, 2009 (PARIS) — France’s foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, today commended the courage of Lubna Hussein a Sudanese journalist and women’s rights activist who was recently released from jail after charges of violating Sudan’s rigid dress code.
- French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, left, gestures towards Sudanese journalist Lubna Hussein during a press conference in Paris, Tuesday Nov. 24, 2009. (AP)
Last September, the judge ordered the female journalist to pay a fine of 500 pounds ($200) or else be jailed for 30 days after being convicted of indecent dressing. Lubna refused to pay the fine but she was released well before her one month jail sentence expired.
"We are all concerned by this (situation) because the subject of the violation of human rights, particularly the rights of women, affects us all," said Kouchner in a joint press conference with the Sudanese journalist who is visiting the French capital this week.
"It is a very great struggle," he further said adding "It is a very important struggle for Arab women and for African women." The minister also disclosed that Lubna would receive soon an award in Cairo from an Arab Women’s organization for her work.
Kouchner said Tuesday that 43,000 women were arrested in and around the Sudanese capital alone in such cases last year.
Last July Lubna had been arrested by Public Order Police along with a dozen other girls and charged with dressing inappropriately. She also resigned from her post at the UNMIS to waive her immunity bestowed upon employees of the world body.
The minister stressed that Lubna has not only fought against her arrest, "she had the courage to speak out against the article 152 of the Islamic law which is applied in Sudan since President Bashir is in power.”
Article 152 of the Sudanese Penal Code 1991 states, in summary, that: Whoever does in a public place an indecent act or wears an obscene outfit shall be punished with flogging which may not exceed forty lashes or with fine or with both.
"This woman is a model for her great simplicity and her persistent courage," he added, noting that France considers itself "a comrade in her struggle."
The ex-employee at the United Nations Mission Sudan (UNMIS) has used her case to draw attention to a law that allows flogging as a punishment for any acts or wearing clothing that are viewed as offending morals.
The Sudanese journalist who is Paris to promote for a book she wrote about her case told reporters she had been unfairly banned from leaving her country but got out by hiding under a head-to-toe Islamic niqab.
Lubna left Khartoum for the Yemeni capital Sana’a and paid a visit to Cairo and Amman where she had been invited by women organizations before to arrive in Paris.
"I have not fled the Sudan. The Constitution gives me a number of rights including the right to travel. Those who prevented me from traveling previously violated the constitution," she said.
The former French President, Jacques Chirac also received today the Sudanese journalist to show his solidarity with her cause.
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