By Dan Wooding, Founder of the ASSIST News Service
KHARTOUM, SUDAN (ANS – July 21, 2015)
-- Two of 10 young Christian women charged with wearing indecent
clothing in North Khartoum, Sudan were fined 500 Sudanese pounds (US$85)
on Wednesday (July 15), a Christian leader said.
According to the Sudan Correspondent for Morning Star News (http://morningstarnews.org),
Ferdoos Eltoum, 19, and 18-year-old Rehab Omer Kalkom were arrested on
June 25 along with 10 other women; two of the 12 were released without
charges the next day. The remaining eight young women, released on bail
after spending a night in custody, remain charged.
The
12 women arrested, some of whom may have been minors, were forced to
remove their clothing for Sudan’s notorious Public Order Police to
“inspect” the clothes, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide
(CSW). The women were all wearing standard blouses with either skirts or
pants, the source told Morning Star News.
“They have targeted these girls because of their faith and their race,” the Christian leader said.
The story goes on to say that
Police in the Arab-majority country arrested the 12 black women as they
were on their way home from a service at El Izba Baptist church in North
Khartoum. They were taken to El Sababi Police Station, where they spent
the night in police custody, the source said. Two of them were released
at dawn, and the other 10 were later released on bail.
“At the police station the
women were charged with indecent dress under Article 152 of Sudan Penal
Code, a law that human rights groups have criticized as vague. Public
Order Police can decide what is indecent or immoral in a wide range of
shifting standards under the law,” Morning Star News continued.
“Article 152 calls for flogging
with at least 40 lashes, a fine or both. It prohibits dressing or
behaving inappropriately in public place. The young women could also
face other, yet unknown charges.”
Harassment, arrests and
persecution of Christians have intensified since the secession of South
Sudan in July 2011, when President Omar al-Bashir vowed to adopt a
stricter version of sharia (Islamic law) and recognize only Islamic
culture and the Arabic language. The Sudanese Minister of Guidance and
Endowments announced in April 2013 that no new licenses would be granted
for building new churches in Sudan, citing a decrease in the South
Sudanese population.
Sudan since 2012 has expelled
foreign Christians and bulldozed church buildings on the pretext that
they belonged to South Sudanese. Besides raiding Christian bookstores
and arresting Christians, authorities threatened to kill South Sudanese
Christians who do not leave or cooperate with them in their effort to
find other Christians.
“Due to its treatment of
Christians and other human rights violations, Sudan has been designated a
Country of Particular Concern by the U.S. State Department since 1999,
and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended
the country remain on the list in its 2015 report,” Morning Star News
concluded.
Sudan ranked sixth on Christian
support organization Open Doors’ 2015 World Watch List of 50 countries
where Christians face most persecution, moving up from 11th place the
previous year.
Photo captions: 1) Ferdoos Eltoum, 19. 2) Dan Wooding.
About
the writer: Dan Wooding, 74, is an award-winning journalist who was
born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, now living in Southern
California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for 52
years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who
all live in the UK. He is the author of some 45 books.
** You may republish this and any of our ANS stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net)
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