Police laugh while whipping Sudanese woman

WARNING:

This is footage of a woman being whipped in a public square.

Story: The Guardian

Sudan investigates case of woman seen being flogged on YouTube clip

Footage sparks international condemnation as police laugh and joke as they administer whipping to screaming woman

  • Xan Rice in Nairobi
  • guardian.co.uk, Monday 13 December 2010 15.15 GMT
  • Screengrab from a YouTube clip of a woman being lashed in a carpark by police in Sudan. Screengrab from a YouTube clip of a woman being lashed in a carpark by police in Sudan.Sudan‘s judiciary has launched an investigation into the public flogging of a woman after footage of her being whipped by laughing policemen was posted to the internet.

    The YouTube video shows an unidentified woman in a long black dress and a headscarf being ordered to sit down in a parking lot (Warning: Video contains graphic images of violence some may find disturbing).

    A uniformed policeman proceeds to whip her all over her body as she screams in pain. A second officer laughs when he realises he is being filmed, before joining in the punishment, which lasts a minute and a half.

    Flogging is relatively common is northern Sudan, where sharia law is often enforced arbitrarily. But the cruel, nonchalant behaviour of the security forces amid the distress of the victim in this case caused a stir in the country and the diaspora, and even attracted condemnation in some pro-government newspapers.

    Initially Sudan’s deputy police chief, Adel Al-Agib, tried to downplay the incident, saying that the footage was circulated in order to damage the image of the country, according to the Sudan Tribune newspaper.

    But the judicial authority, which oversees the legal system, released a statement yesterday saying it had launched an official inquiry to see if the punishment had been administered improperly.

    “The investigation was started immediately after the images of the young woman, being punished under Articles 154 and 155 of the 1991 Sudanese penal code, appeared on the internet,” the judiciary said in a statement, according to state media.

    These articles allow up to 100 lashes for adultery and running a brothel, in addition to a jail sentence. In this case the woman’s alleged crime is not known, although comments on social media sites suggest it could have been the wearing of trousers, which has in the past been judged to violate a law governing “indecent or immoral dress”.

    In the subtitles on the clip, a policeman can be heard telling the women that her punishment is 53 lashes, and that she will be jailed for two years if she does not submit to the flogging. Another voice says the woman should comply because “we want to go [home]”.

    During her ordeal, which was witnessed by numerous passers-by, the victim shouts repeatedly for her mother and grabs one the whips of one of the policeman in a vain attempt to stop the beating. The case follows the well-publicised trial last year of Lubna Hussein, a UN worker who was arrested with a dozen other women for wearing trousers at a party in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

    While most of the women accepted the punishment of 10 lashes, she refused, challenging the verdict in court. Ultimately found guilty, she was given a fine rather than being whipped.

    Though less frequently, men have also fallen foul of the laws on dress. Last week a Khartoum court convicted seven men of indecency for wearing make-up. The defendants, all amateur models appearing at the “Sudanese Next Top Model fashion show”, were fined 200 Sudanese pounds (£54) each.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

10 Replies to “Police laugh while whipping Sudanese woman”

  1. Barbaric behaviour from barbarians and our government still insists on getting these people here so the rest of us can be force to either live like them or tolerate their behaviour.
    Sudan will be broken up into North and South in the very near future. The North will be for the cavemen and the South will be mostly Christian. The sooner that happens, the less Christians will be murdered there.

  2. It is a very premitive behaviour, these policemen play God. who are they to judge this poor lady. I wish they rot in HELL. It is very disgusting to watch.

  3. This is what our people are suffering. A government so ignorant and dictatorship is the way they rule the country. They a bunch of thieves who are stealing our money and deposit it in Indonesia. If we let this go like that next time they will kill our people in the street. May God bless our people and destroy Abashir gang.

  4. MariaS what makes you think the Moslems are g0ing to stop their genocide? All the treaties in the world aren’t worth the paper they are written on unless they can be ratified on the battlefield, and no nation is willing to come to the rescue of the South Sudanese. The Moslems will c0ntintue to raid south of the new border and take slaves.

  5. Dear policemen.

    I pray to the gods that our paths some day will cross. I’m a tall, big and strong male for scandinavia, descending from the vikings. You’re gonna wish you never were born. You will beg me to finish your life that suddenly will turned into a nightmare. But i won’t. I will just keep on whipping you bleeding ass… laughing all the way. I will make you cry for your mom, I will prove that the god have deserted you. I will finish up cutting your balls off, you’re not worthy of them you fucking pig.

    Be afraid, be very afraid…