NEO•GRIOT

Lubna al-Hussein, a journalist and author from Khartoum, describes the injustices that face the women of today's Sudan. Lubna herself was arrested in the summer of 2009 for wearing pants - but, as she says, she was not the only one. 43,000 women were arrested in Khartoum in 2008 for clothing violations. Lubna explains how the current Sudanese government, which took power via coup d'état, has attacked and degraded women through a set of laws which are inspired by a perversion of true Islam. Today, hundreds of thousands of Sudanese women are fired from their jobs for not wearing sufficient clothing; 91% of Sudanese women face female genital mutilation; the government uses rape as a weapon in Darfur and southern Sudan; and northern Sudan is stained by laws that punish child rape with only one month in prison. Adult women who are raped are not defended by the law - instead, they are forced into four months of prison. Here, Lubna wants to tell the world, and especially the youth of the world, that we should all speak up about the plight of women in Sudan. She cries out in the name of millions who do not have a voice, and wants us to join her.