‘Trouser-wearing’ Sudanese woman spared lashes

A SUDANESE woman was found guilty of indecency and fined yesterday for wearing trousers in a case that has attracted worldwide attention, but she will be spared lashes, an official who attended the trial said.

The woman, Lubna Hussein, was arrested at a party in July with 12 other women and had faced the possibility of 40 lashes for wearing trousers deemed indecent. The court ordered her to pay a fine of €140 or face a month in jail.

Hussein’s case was seen as a test of Sudan’s Islamic decency regulations, which many women activists say are vague and give individual police officers undue latitude to determine what is acceptable clothing for women.