A Sudanese court on Thursday sentenced two women to 20 lashes for dressing "indecently," an AFP reporter said.

The two women, who have not been identified, were arrested in Khartoum in July along with journalist-turned-activist Lubna Ahmed Hussein who spent a day in jail after refusing to pay a fine for wearing "indecent trousers."

Hussein, who attended the hearing an East Khartoum court, vowed to press on with a campaign against the law.

"This sentence shows that we are not equal before the judge... I will continue to fight this law," she told AFP.

"We were 13 women, arrested at the same place. Ten were sentenced at the police station and whipped on the spot. But I was sentenced by the north Khartoum court and I was not sentenced to lashings.

"Today the east Khartoum court condemned the two women to lashings," she said. "In my case, there were several diplomats at the hearing, but today there were none," she said.

Judge Hassan Mohammed Ali told the court: "The two women wore trousers and no headscarf. The court therefore finds them guilty according the public order laws."

"The fixed penalty is 20 lashes each and a fine of 250 Sudanese pounds (100 dollars). If the fine is not paid, it would be one month in prison," the judge said.

Hussein last month opted for prison by refusing to pay the fine imposed by a Khartoum court for wearing trousers that the court ruled to be indecent.

She could have remained in jail for a month but was freed after one day when the journalists' union paid her fine.

Hussein felt the loose trousers she was wearing when arrested were not indecent and the incident spurred her to wage a public challenge to the law.

In her case, the court opted for the 500 Sudanese pounds (200 dollars) fine rather than a flogging, but ten of the 12 other women who were arrested in a Khartoum restaurant at the same time as Hussein have been whipped for their offence.

Sudanese law in the conservative Muslim north stipulates a maximum of 40 lashes for wearing indecent clothing.

Women in trousers are not a rare sight in Sudan but the authorities can take offence at trousers which reveal too much of a woman's shape, leading to accusations from rights groups that judgement is arbitrary.

Last year nearly 43 000 women were detained for indecent clothing offences in Khartoum region, where five million people live, according to Hussein's supporters.

Rights group Amnesty International has demanded the repeal of the law used to justify flogging women for wearing clothes deemed "indecent".

AFP

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