Judging Lubna Hussein's pants

The significance of a Sudanese court's decision not to flog a woman for wearing trousers in public

A Sudanese court tried to "save face," said Bec Hamilton in BecHamilton.com, by saying it would not flog United Nations employee Lubna Hussein for wearing pants in public. "Not so fast." The court still maintains Hussein is "guilty" and should pay a $200 fine. But she refused to pay (she went to jail instead and was released after a day when a journalists' union paid the fine) because it's the law "in its entirety" she is fighting, not just the punishment.

Whatever Lubna Hussein does now, said Andrew Heavens in Reuters, she has won. But so has everybody else. Hussein got to publicize the case against the law that holds that it is indecent for women to wear trousers; Islamists got their law upheld with the guilty verdict they wanted; and police saw the street protesters they've had to contend with go home after digesting the news of the court's compromise.

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