A Sudanese court on Sunday acquitted 24 women accused of wearing indecent clothes at a women’s party in Khartoum.
The young women, mostly from South Sudan, were arrested last Thursday for wearing short skirts and tight trousers at a women’s concert in Al-Mamoura district south of the Sudanese capital Khartoum.
The public order police (Community Security) brought charges against the young women under article 152 of the Sudanese Criminal Code for wearing "obscene" clothing.
The judge of Arkaweet Court Ibrahim Khaled, on Sunday, acquitted the girls and ordered for the case to be closed.
However, he found the party’s organizer, Helene Gabriel, guilty for providing false information and ordered her to pay a 10,000 Sudanese pounds ($1502) fine or a month’s imprisonment in case of non-payment.
Gabriel had informed the local authorities that the event was a family party when it was actually a commercial event for cosmetics and beauty products.
The court also fined the sound technician 5,000 Sudanese pounds ($751) for violating the Public Order Law by disrupting the peace of the neighborhood with music.
The controversial public order police is tasked with regulating the behavior of men and women according to Islamic Shari’a law. Many critics say that the law is not applied uniformly and in many cases allows for abuse by police officers, particularly against women.
Civil society activists demand the Sudanese government repeal laws that violate human rights and contradict the 2005 Sudanese constitution and the international conventions including the Public Order Act.
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This article has been adapted from its original source.
