We’re a day late to this but it shouldn’t be missed. The scene: A street protest in downtown Khartoum (or is it Tehran, or post-U.S. Kandahar?), organized to fight … violence against women.
The flogging is initially to her back, in keeping with the Sharia code, or Islamic law, governing flogging, but when she turns to ask for mercy, the whipping continues to the front part of her body, including her face, hands and legs…
On late Sunday, Sudan’s Judiciary Authority, which oversees the legal system, announced it had launched an inquiry to see if the punishment had been administered improperly. The authority said nothing about the punishment itself…
Flogging is common in northern Sudan, where Islamic law is often enforced arbitrarily under the Public Order Act. Police and “public order units” have powers to enforce what is inappropriate dress or behavior. Local human rights organizations have long accused police of abusing their authority to mistreat women.
It’s not the flogging — and laughing — that’s problematic, in other words, it’s whether they flogged her “the right way.” And lest you think the Sudanese regime somehow doesn’t realize that this is barbaric, here’s how the local police/gang reacted when a BBC reporter tried to record the beating:
Less than two minutes after getting my microphone and recording equipment out of my bag, I was surrounded by hostile men.
They wore plain clothes, but were clearly from a branch of the security forces. One grabbed my arm. Another gripped the microphone, trying to wrench it from my grasp.
‘I’m a journalist,’ I said. ‘I have a right to record this.’
But a third man, wiry, tough, with a moustache, kicked at my legs. The move was so neatly executed, he might have been a judo champion.
They confiscated his equipment. Given that they were trying to suppress coverage from foreign media, the only way I can explain the existence of this clip is that the cops trusted whoever was recording it. Which is to say, it might not have been intended as an expose but as a trophy video, to be circulated either as some sort of quasi-snuff film or as a warning to Sudanese women to knock off the protests pronto. Unbelievable. Needless to say, it’s difficult to watch, so please observe your official content warning.
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