Each time I arrive at Khartoum airport, I marvel at the campaign laid out by the Sudanese state to welcome foreign arrivals. The trouble is I always land at night and so once again I have returned without any decent photos. The one to the left is a quick snap out the cab window that […]
She Wears the Pants
September 9, 2009 by 1 Comment
By Rebecca Hamilton Lubna Hussein, the Sudanese woman found guilty of the crime of wearing trousers, may not have won her case, but she has done one important thing: made the Khartoum regime fear the world’s response. Lubna Hussein’s trial for the “crime” of wearing trousers went ahead in Khartoum yesterday morning. It was her […]
Lubna: Case not closed
September 7, 2009 by 1 Comment
As was entirely predictable, today a Sudanese court tried to save face – saying it would not flog Lubna Hussein for wearing trousers (something it didn’t want to do given the global attention on her case) but trying to maintain that she was still “guilty” by fining her 500 Sudanese pounds. No doubt they hoped […]
Lubna’s trial is on Monday Sept. 7
September 4, 2009 by 1 Comment
Somehow I got my dates wrong. I just spoke to Lubna (who is sounding good, and very much cheered at the prospect of the Sudanese who are rallying in support of her in London today). Her trial is on Monday (not today as I previously stated). Read Lubna in her own words in a piece […]
Lubna and her domestic supporters
September 2, 2009 by 1 Comment
This ran anonymously in Foreign Policy while I was inside Sudan. A quick scan of google news today unfortunately supports the suggestion that the international spotlight on this may be fickle, but I remain confident that Lubna’s supporters in Khartoum will be out in full force when her trial resumes on Friday (see correction – […]
“The perfume of the good guys”
September 1, 2009 by Leave a Comment
August 15, 2009 Tonight I took my “driver” to watch his football team (Merriek) play Zambia’s Zesco team in the African Cup. I put “driver” in inverted commas, because this gentleman – who looks to be pushing 80 – is so much more than the role he appears to assume when he gets into his […]
Lubna: “It’s not about the trousers”
August 29, 2009 by 2 Comments
Next Friday, September 4, is the third time Lubna Hussein will be going to court for the “crime” of wearing trousers. I met with Lubna a number of times when I was in Khartoum, and will be posting some background on her in the coming days. When I left, Lubna insisted on seeing me off […]
Key issues from my visit to Darfur
August 28, 2009 by 4 Comments
I’m still digesting my pages and pages of notes, and ordering my thoughts, so take this as a non-exhaustive list: 1. Collapse of GBV services following the expulsion of the humanitarians If there was one issue I could get a spot on CNN to talk about, it would be this. I had an inkling of […]
Welcome to Khartoum
August 27, 2009 by 4 Comments
Rarely have a felt such a deep-seated sense of rage, as came with flying into Khartoum by night. It was the lights – the number of them, like a fairyland. These were not the kind of piecemeal lights here and there among a few locations lucky enough to have a generator. No, Khartoum is clearly […]
Public response to questions raised
August 27, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Hi everyone I got a number of emails following my post yesterday and a couple of questions were raised (summarized below) that I thought were worth responding to publicly: 1. You mainly just give the names of “bad guys” you spoke with. It might have been helpful to include the names of some others. . […]
