Muslim woman whipped in public for wearing trousers

LONDON - A Sudanese Muslim woman was publicly whipped for wearing trousers, a video released on the internet shows.

The woman was apparently punished under the Sharia law for wearing trousers under her Islamic clothing, Sky News reported Tuesday.

The footage shows her crawling on the ground, raising her arm to try to ward off the attacks and screaming as the whip strikes.

The video also shows a man laughing at the woman after she is whipped.

It was, however, not clear as to who released the video on the internet.

This public punishment has sparked protests among women in Sudan against laws they said humiliated women. Dozens of them have been arrested.

The governor of Khartoum, capital of Sudan, meanwhile, said there had been a mistake in the way the woman’s punishment was carried out.

Sudan President Omar al-Bashir came to power in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989. Two years later he extended Sharia laws. The laws are enforced by his public order police, who seek out what are known as “trouser girls”.

Last year, a woman named Lubner Hussein became an overnight icon for many women in Africa and the Middle East, when she challenged the laws and dared the courts to flog her.

She ended up being fined for wearing trousers to court.