(CNN) -- Scores of protesters gathered outside a Sudanese courtroom Tuesday as the trial of a woman who faces 40 lashes for wearing clothes deemed indecent was postponed. Lubna al-Hussein, who says she was arrested for wearing pants that were too tight, faces a new trial date of September 7, her attorney Nadil Adib said. The delay was to allow the judge to consult Sudan's Foreign Ministry on whether al-Hussein is immune from the charges because she was formerly a U.N. employee, he said. Al-Hussein -- who writes for a newspaper and worked for the media department of the United Nations mission in Sudan -- resigned from her U.N. position to deliberately lose immunity and face the charges. She was "disappointed" with the court's decision to delay her trial, Adib said. "She wanted to have her case tried in order to clear her name and have the law announced unconstitutional," he said.[Source: cnn.com].This was a bold move. While I respect her bravery and her dedication to furthering women’s rights and more progressive fashion choices in Sudan, I have to wonder if this was a solid plan on her part. The article goes on to explain that she did all of this in order to call international attention to inhumane punishments (i.e. flogging people) and female repression by morality police. Problems with this plan:
1. World history of ignoring Sudan (Clooney’s not making Darfur documentaries for his health)
2. The international community rarely involves itself in laws and/or countries that don’t directly impact them
3. Shitty governments such as that of Sudan rarely give a crap what other people think when it comes to the justice system (see also: Myanmar, China, Venezuela, Cuba, Russia…)
So…yeah. Um. Good luck with that. I mean, it’s not like they’ll torture her if she gets convicted. What’s that? Oh, right, the 40 lashes. Well, on the brightside, 40 lashes are only deadly if the wounds become infected, so it’ll probably just hurt a lot.
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