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| Africa Horn |
| Sudan's trouser journalist sneaks out with niqab |
| 2009-11-25 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] Sudanese journalist Lubna Ahmed Hussein said Tuesday she had donned a full Islamic veil to sneak out of Sudan and travel to France, two months after she was freed from jail for wearing trousers. On a visit to Paris to promote her new book, Hussein accused Khartoum of trying to block her departure and said she was determined to exercise her right to travel freely as she met Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. "They wanted to prevent me from leaving, I resorted to the niqab and managed to leave," said Hussein, who was jailed for a day in September for violating Sudan's clothing decency, laws by wearing trousers. "I requested documents to be able to leave, to be able to travel, and this is the only means I found to be able to leave Sudan," she told journalists. "I did not flee Sudan. I am a Sudanese citizen." Hussein faced a punishment of 40 lashes when she was convicted in July for wearing her green trousers in public. But a Sudanese court in September ordered her to pay a fine instead, while 10 of the 12 other women arrested with her at a Khartoum restaurant on July 3 were lashed. After she refused to pay the fine, Hussein served a one-day jail sentence. |
| Posted by:Fred |