Omar al-Bashir’s government needs a serious reality check when it comes to its treatment of Women.

Journalist Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein has been fined 500 Sudanese pounds ($A235) and has escaped a whipping for Wearing Trousers in public in Sudan.

Article 152 of Sudan’s penal code – which came into force two years after the coup that brought President Omar al-Bashir to power – stipulates a maximum of 40 lashes for people Wearing “indecent clothing”.

Last Friday, London-based rights group Amnesty International urged the Khartoum government to withdraw the charges against the female journalist, saying the law used to justify flogging women for wearing clothes deemed “indecent” should be repealed.

al-Hussien: 

“I’m ready for anything to happen. I’m absolutely not afraid of the verdict,” she told AFP in an interview on August 3.

“If I’m sentenced to be whipped, or to anything else, I will appeal. I will see it through to the end, to the constitutional court if necessary.

“And if the constitutional court says the law is constitutional, I’m ready to be whipped not 40 but 40,000 times.”

Under Sudanese law, she could have been Sentenced to a maximum of 40 lashes for “indecency” after being arrested with 12 other women wearing trousers in a Khartoum restaurant in July.

“I won’t pay. I’d rather go to prison,” al-Hussien said after learning of her fine.