The Customer Authority

Obviously this is not an post about customer service today. But I felt compelled to write something about this topic after I read today’s article about a Sudanese woman who is on trial because she wore “indecent clothing” aka, a pair of slacks.

The punishment for wearing pants can be up to 40 lashes. She initially appealed her sentence of 10 lashes in order to bring international attention to this backwards law and her hopes to have it changed once and for all.

Any Westerner today, particularly women, I’m sure would be as appalled as I was when I heard about this story. I still shake my head in amazement that there are such strict religions out there that keep women so ridiculously subservient.

I’m all about respect for other religions and such, but in this day and age, I still don’t understand how women can be treated this way. And for something so minimal in my eyes, it simply makes no sense. Can you imagine answering the question; “Why’d they flay the skin off your bones?” – “Oh, I was wearing pants.” Yeah sure, that makes sense. Uhhhh….. I think not.

Unfortunately my opinion is not going to be changing anything about this law or the general laws and treatment against women withing these religions. And as long as men continue to control the laws, nothing will be changing anytime soon.

I applaud this woman’s courage and tenacity in facing up to those who want to keep women oppressed in an oppressed society. I can’t imagine taking one lash of a whip against my bare skin, let alone 40. But she intends to stand up and fight the courts to the very end for what she believes in, and she intends to do it wearing pants.

While I have doubts that she will win, I truly have hope that perhaps – just perhaps – her plight could be the one instigator that begins a slow movement of positive change for women to come.

See the full story here:

A Sudanese woman facing 40 lashes for wearing pants declared she was ready for thousands as she battles the country’s laws.
Lubna-Ahmed al-Hussein, a journalist with the United Nations Mission in Sudan, is on trial after being arrested July 3 along with 12 other women for wearing… (read more).