Women in trousers arrested

2008-10-07 14:02

Juba - 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 behaviour".

"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 behaviours, activities and imported illicit cultures", according to a copy seen by AFP, signed by Juba's commissioner, Albert Pitia Redantore.

Inappropriate behaviour may include wearing tight trousers, short skirts or skimpy tops considered "Western" attire.

The order, dated October 2, said 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 are liable to three months imprisonment. Those convicted for a second time face another three-month sentence and a fine of 600 Sudanese pounds.

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 marginalisation.

"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 said.

She said the principle of gender equality was enshrined in southern Sudan and added that she was investigating the matter.

The new order applies only to Juba but crackdowns elsewhere in the south against women wearing trousers or miniskirts have also been reported.

- AFP