A fight for rights comes out of the wardrobe

In July,Hussein attempted to shame Sudans Islamist ruling party by inviting reporters to view her public flogging,a punishment under Islamic law that is sometimes applied hereby leather whip or bamboo cane of the sort used on camelsto women deemed to have violated decency laws.

As news spread,her court date drew crowds of women and men protesting in solidarity,and she received support from the likes of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Sudanese women started Web sites such as iamlubna.com,and some compared her to Rosa Parks,the American civil rights icon who challenged segregation laws.

Then,the campaign fizzled. Eager to dispense with the negative publicity,a judge sentenced Hussein to jail instead of flogging. She was released days later,and the attention surrounding her case settled into discussions among women about their experiences with Khartoums vaguely worded decency laws,and the politics of keeping public order.

When I was young,I used to see people free and wearing any kind of clothes they want, said Hussein,who is Muslim. Some women were wearing miniskirts. But since the Islamists came,women dont have that power.

Soon after Omar Hassan al-Bashir came to power in a 1989 coup,Islamists in his party began asserting tight control across Sudan,a country whose north,including Khartoum,is mostly Muslim. In Khartoum,local authorities showed their loyalty by adopting public-order laws requiring,among other things,decent dress and conduct.

Over the years,the public-order police have been relatively tolerant,and these days,womens fashions vary widely in the capital,from long black burqas and gloves to skinny jeans. Trousers are fairly common,but head scarves,long skirts and wraps remain standard attire for most Muslim women here. At times,though,police have implemented the law arbitrarily and even bizarrely.

For months,Sudanese women recalled,a man wearing a red bandana around his head and a whip on his waist was posted at a crowded bus station. He would call out to women he decided were showing too much wrist or ankle and whip them on the spot. Sometimes he would spit on them,they said.

Naglaseed Ahmad,who was among those protesting in support of Husseins case,recalled being arrested as she was demonstrating against the drafting of her fellow university students into the Sudanese army. A judge found her guilty of violating decency laws and ordered another woman,accused of being a prostitute,to administer 10 lashes in front of him. The judge,he was smiling the whole time, Ahmad recalled. He was enjoying these lashes.

Last year,about 40,000 women were arrested on charges of violating public-order laws,according to human rights groups. They say most cases involved Khartoums poorest women,such as those who sell tea under trees along the capitals sandy streets.

Husseins case was somewhat unusual in that she is a relatively wealthy professional. She was enjoying an evening of music with friends at a restaurant when police showed up and began picking women out of the crowd,asking them to parade across the room.

Police said Husseins green pants were too tight. She and several other women were hauled off to the police station. That night,Hussein,angry not only at her situation,but also at seeing a 16-year-old girl being harassed,began planning her campaign to overturn the decency laws.

I decided to cry,but in a different way, she said.