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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Uganda's female politicians protest police strippings |
| 2015-10-15 |
| [AA.TR] Police in Uganda are facing a barrage of criticism after they allegedly stripped a leading female opposition politician during an arrest. Fatuma Zainab, environment secretary for the main opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday of her ordeal as she travelled to a political rally over the weekend. The incident, which was capture by local TV news broadcasters, showed Zainab, a Muslim mother-of-two, being incarcerated Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! when the convoy she was travelling in to a rally in the western town of Rukungiri was stopped. Police began arresting the activists, including politicians, and putting them in waiting trucks. "I assumed that since I was the only woman and not doing any wrong they would not arrest or beat me," she said. However, a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... an officer then pointed at her and shouted for others to arrest Zainab. "They got me, I tripped and fell down," she said."That was when some three coppers came and pulled off my trouser and my blouse leaving me naked." Wearing just her headscarf, Zainab crawled under a vehicle to try to preserve her dignity. Police then called for a tow truck to pull the vehicle away from where she lay. "One man called out to the driver not to move saying, 'Please stop, you are going to kill her'," Zainab told Anadolu Agency. She recounted how male coppers tossed her clothes towards her as she lay under the vehicle. Having put her clothes back on, Zainab was then grabbed by a group of male and female police. "They started dragging me on the road, they pulled at my trousers and my pleas fell on deaf ears," she added. "By the time they carried me to the police vehicle, I was again naked and they were giving me my clothes saying dress up. I told them 'No, you wanted to see me naked, I don't want to cover myself, take me the way I am.'" |
| Posted by:Fred |