Sudan woman risks flogging over uncovered hair

AFP/Fox ^ | 9/8/2013

[markomalley]

A Sudanese woman says she is prepared to be flogged to defend the right to leave her hair uncovered in defiance of a "Taliban"-like law.

Amira Osman Hamed faces a possible whipping if convicted at a trial which could come on September 19.

Under Sudanese law her hair -- and that of all women -- is supposed to be covered with a "hijab". But Hamed, 35, refuses to wear one.

Her case has drawn support from civil rights activists and is the latest to highlight Sudan's series of laws governing morality which took effect after the 1989 Islamist-backed coup by President Omar al-Bashir.

"They want us to be like Taliban women," Hamed said in an interview with AFP, referring to the fundamentalist militant movement in Afghanistan.

She is charged under Article 152 which prohibits "indecent" clothing.

[cradle of freedom]

I’m with you.

[PapaBear3625]

In the real world, then probably even more than now, it isn’t necessary for the baron to rape young women. They throw themselves at him, as a rule.

Same deal with slavery a couple hundred years ago. Given a choice between working the fields, or working the master's bed, a more-than-sufficient number of cute women would have voluntarily picked the bed.

[PapaBear3625]

A young woman who managed to produce a child for the lord could have the child recognized and be raised as a member of the aristocracy, albeit an illegitimate one. Though this usually applied when the woman was a member of the nobility or squirearchy herself. Serfs were pretty much below being noticed.

At worst, the kid would have been given a tryout to be trained in arms, to be one of the lord's guards.