… she was being “punished under sharia, Islamic law, but there was a mistake in the way the punishment was carried out.”
Yup. Those were the words of Khartoum state Governor, Abder Rahman al-Khidir, of the ruling National Congress Party. They constituted his reaction to the furious Sudanese reactions to this lovely video. (Warning: some of you will find this quite disturbing).
This week a YouTube video surfaced showing an unidentified woman in a voluminous cloak on her knees screaming and pleading in agony and pain with blue-uniformed policemen who took turns whipping her across the head and feet.
The policemen are shown to be laughing as the woman received the punishment and they are heard saying that she is sentenced to 50 lashes.
The video stirred widespread outcry among Sudanese around the world and even some pro-government columnists wrote critically of the incident.
“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.
The statement said the investigation would look into whether the punishment was carried out improperly.
The investigation would look into whether the punishment was carried out improperly? Are you kidding me? That’s a serious load of bullshit. The only “investigation” anyone needs to conduct to know if this punishment was carried out improperly is to simply watch the damn video.
You see dear ladies and gentlemen, if you’re wondering what the proper way to implement this punishment is, then let me briefly break it down for you according to the wide-spread traditionalist interpretation of Islam, and without getting too technical.
- Firstly, there obviously needs to be a fair trial.
- Secondly, the scourger must not at any point raise his hand above his shoulder when he flogs.
- And thirdly, the scourger is required to hold a copy of the Koran under the armpit of his striking arm while carrying out the sentence, to discourage him from whipping too hard and potentially dropping the holy book on the ground.
Now, not only where there two men whipping the poor girl at the same time, and in the midst of other people’s humiliating laughter, but they also had no Korans held under their armpits. And my, oh my, if only they held them. If only there was just one man flogging her softly. Gosh, that would have made the situation so much better, right? It would have made it a lot less cruel, right? It would have made the punishment proper and less humiliating, right?
Wrong.
And that’s precisely the thing that upset me the most and boiled my blood when I read too many of the reactions of angry Sudanese to this appalling video, reactions and opinions that are very similar to the one voiced by Khartoum’s Governor.
What we should be outraged about is not how this punishment should have been applied “properly,” but instead, we should be outraged that such punishments continue to exist at all. Flogging should be abolished completely, and we should stop shying away from criticizing troubling aspects of all organized religions.
Yes, there are things about Sharia—dietary laws, the amount of money you should pay for charity, rules that eliminate the practice of usury—that in many ways are actually good and beneficial when we willingly apply them in our lifestyles, and they are not imposed on us.
However, deeply troubling punishments such as stonings, beheadings, and lashings are not good, not humane, and not fit for modern times, and we need to have a frank conversation about that. But when is it going to happen on a large scale? When? If anything, that conversation needs to happen now. The video above should trigger it, but it looks like it hasn’t, at least not adequately… at least not very publicly.
And some Sudanese Muslim friends wonder why I support a secular (not secularist) state. Maybe it’s time they read Abdullahi An-Na’im’s book Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Shari’a. Maybe it’s time they delved into Tariq Ramadan’s and Reza Aslan’s writings. Maybe it’s time they began listening to Muslim scholars like Rashied Omar.
Maybe it’s time they stopped being fooled by the Islamist notion that Sharia is sacred and hence automatically beyond criticism. Maybe they should repeatedly watch that video of that poor girl getting whipped, ehm, not so “properly,” and agonizing in pain. Maybe only then, they’ll reconsider and rethink their stance.
On a related note, Lubna was surely lucky to get away with a fine for the horrible evil crime of wearing trousers. Oh, and let’s not forget Ms. Gibbons. I bet those 40 lashes would have hurt her like hell.
Ah, don’t you just love this? I surely do.
Have a wonderful day everyone.



SudaneseThinker
SudaneseThinker



