Christian, Under Age Girl Receives 50 Lashes in Sudan

A typical flogging in the Arab world, this one we believe in Sudan but it’s unconfirmed.Another lashing case in Sudan spotlights the indiginity and growing persecution of young women in Khartoum and elsewhere in the country. Walking down the street puts any woman at risk for being flogged within the hour.

In a sequence of events that Lubna Hussein asserts to be the typical process for women in Sudan — the girl’s name and family are public; the family in the case is talking to the press; and the family has hired a lawyer.

The mother of teenager Silva Kashif told Reuters on Friday that she plans to sue the police and judge, who imposed the 50 lashings on her underage, Christian daughter.

Kashif, whose family comes from the south Sudanese town of Yambio, was arrested while walking to the market near her home in the Khartoum suburb of Kalatla last week, her mother Jenty Doro told Reuters.

Bullet points of the case include:

- The girl Silva Kashif was arrested in the market wearing a “normal skirt and blouse, worn by thousands of girls”, according to her lawyer Azhari al-Haj.

- Under the current sharia law, people under 18 should not be given lashes.

- No parents or legal guardian was contacted

- Because of her Christian religion, Kashif is theoretically not subject to Islamic sharia law in Khartoum, per the terms of a 2005 peace deal between north and south.