Sudan Protects Women from Alien Influences
This is from today’s Daily Star
South Sudan arrests 20 women for wearing pants, short skirts
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
JUBA, Sudan: A Southern Sudan Cabinet minister said on Tuesday that more than 20 women were arrested and beaten for allegedly dressing inappropriately under a new edict against “bad behavior.” “Between 20 and 30 girls were picked up from different points, hurled into police lorries, arrested and taken to the police station and some of them were beaten,” said Mary Kiden Kimbo, the gender, social welfare and religious affairs minister in the semi-autonomous southern government.
“This is absolutely not acceptable: it is not the job of police to judge what is and what is not a correct way to dress in such a manner of blanket punishment,” she said.
The police crackdown on young women wearing trousers or short skirts follows an order from the commissioner of Juba county, the capital of Southern Sudan. Most of the women, said to be in their late teens and 20s, were rounded up as they left Catholic mass in Juba on Sunday, Kimbo said.
Others were picked up in market places.
The order bans “all bad behaviors, activities and imported illicit cultures,” according to a copy seen by AFP, signed by Juba’s commissioner, Albert Pitia Redantore.
Inappropriate behavior may include wearing tight trousers, short skirts or skimpy tops considered “Western” attire.
The order, dated October 2, said that it aimed to “preserve the cultural values, dignity and achievements of the people of southern Sudan, checking out the intrusion of foreign cultures into our societies, for the sake of bringing up [a] good generation.” Those deemed in contravention of the order are liable to three months imprisonment. Those convicted for a second time face another three-month sentence and a fine of 600 Sudanese pounds ($300).
Traditional values are important in largely Christian and animist Southern Sudan, which is recovering from decades of war against the mainly Muslim north. It was the imposition of Sharia law by the north that helped spark the southern rebellion, which was rooted in complaints of marginalization.
“This kind of thing looks like the old days of Sharia law, and it is dangerous because creating such a situation can encourage mob justice,” Kimbo told AFP.
The minister said that the principle of gender equality was enshrined in Southern Sudan and added that she was investigating the matter. – AFP
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How exactly does one import an “illicit culture”? And what exactly is an illicit culture? People really need more to do.
Mimfoy, Guess what? “Illicit culture” is what the morality police/ committee, etc deem it to be. In this case – women wearing pants.
I realize that, I was just being facetious. I really find this stuff so demoralizing, as we all do I guess. I just don’t see how everything they deem “bad” has to come from somewhere else. Most young people are influenced by those closest to them… their friends… and last I checked, fashion designs come from all over the globe, from Tokyo to Milan to Paris and New York. Young women, no matter where they come from want to be in fashion. Just take a look at the shoes women wear in Kuwait, because many times, that is all anyone can see. Even the clothes in the shops here are more daring than an illicit westerner may be willing to wear. I often wonder when I see women buying these clothes where they wear them… but that is another conversation. We expats are the lucky ones, we get an amazing glimpse into other peoples worlds, we get to incorporate the good things we see into our own world, and leave the bad. We go home, eventually, maybe, and live in freedom to express ourselves without fear. I truly feel for people that cannot live to know what freedom really means.
Mimfoy, I agree with you. Especially about all that we are learning from this culture. Living among the Moslems for so many years has helped me value hospitality, graciousness, family time and community all the more. We’ve learned so much.
My issue with morality police is: Who decides? Most of it is interpretation . . .Moslem women in Turkey, Chinese Moslem women were wearing pants long before any of the Westerners. There is a range of what might be acceptable and what might be forbidden, and this change in the Sudan came arbitrarily, and was enforced with beatings. Also, many of the women beaten were not Moslem women, but Sudanese Christians and animists, who don’t follow the same traditions.
This really displays the characteristic of a government that is close minded. People wouldn’t really enjoy their culture if they are force to accept it. Also, they can do some other activities that would really preserve the culture. Here in my country, one way that we can preserve our culture is to devote a week of festival in commemoration of our history and culture. punishing women for wearing attires that has been widely accepted around the world, and for wearing what they feel is comfortable, is just plain stupid and very stiff… This is quite demoralizing towards women, women deserve a lot better. I really think that they are really against any culture that isn’t their’s. By the way I have recently found The Emma Academy Project, and they will be building a school in Leer, Sudan. This way, the children there will have a lot of things to learn have fun.
Wow. His song gave me shivers. Thank you, Mandino, for posting the Emma Academy project.