Sudanese Islamists Want to Show Who Wears Pants

The Islamists are busy in Sudan, and once again are showing their misogynistic views for all those who care to comment:

Sudanese police fired tear gas and beat women protesting outside a Sudanese court Tuesday during the trial of a female journalist accused of violating the Islamic dress code by wearing trousers in public.

Police moved in swiftly and dispersed about 50 protesters, mostly women, who were supporting Lubna Hussein, a former U.N. worker facing 40 lashes on the charge of "indecent dressing." Some of the women demonstrators wore trousers in solidarity with Hussein while others wore more traditional dress.

Trousers are considered indecent under the strict interpretation of Islamic law, adopted by Sudan's Islamic regime which came to power after a coup led by President Omar al-Bashir in 1989. But activists and lawyers say the implementation of the law is arbitrary

Hussein, along with 12 other women, were charged with indecent dressing for wearing pants.

The punishment for such a "crime" is 40 lashes. For her part, she has gone on the record saying that she'd take 40,000 lashes to protest this Islamist nonsense. She's done nothing wrong, and exerting her rights puts her and her supporters in mortal peril.

The judge has delayed ruling on the case until September 7, 2009, to address the possibility that Hussein is immune from prosecution as a UN worker. That does nothing to help the other women who were arrested along with Hussein, but for her part, Hussein has said that she wants the prosecution to go forward to highlight the misogynistic attitudes of the Sudanese regime.