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At the Oslo Freedom Forum 2010, leader of the Progress Party Siv Jensen introduced Lubna Al – Hussain at the session “Human Rights Heroes” on Thursday April 29th at Christiania Theatre. Lubna Al- Hussain is a Sudanese journalist and activist who gained international attention in July 2009 when she was prosecuted for wearing trousers. Hussein refused to plead guilty and demanded a trial. When the court fined her for her behavior, she chose to remain in prison instead, but was freed to avoid more international embarrassment for the government.
Below is the speech Siv Jensen held when introducing Lubna Al – Hussain:
I have a few people I really look up to – true heroes. In a moment you`ll meet one of them. It is an honor for me to introduce the next speaker, who`s fighting one of the most important battles of today. Last year in Sudan, Lubna Al-Hussain was arrested. She was humiliated in front of hundreds of people in the streets of Khartoum, then being beaten around the head in a police van before being hauled before a court to face a likely sentence of 40 lashes.
Why you may ask? What had Lubna done to deserve this kind of treatment? What was her crime? She had been wearing trousers. The morality police in Sudan wanted to whip her 40 times for wearing trousers, when she should have worn the traditional Islamic dress.
The journalist and United Nation` press officer in her late thirties soon became one of the most important symbols in the fight for women`s rights in countries where religious extremists are in control. Lubna would not back down. She would not give up. She knew that she was right when she stood up for the woman`s rights. Lubna was one of 14 women arrested by the Sudan`s public order police, most of them for wearing trousers.
Lubna has said that the acts of the current regime have no connection with the real Islam, who would not allow the hitting of women for the clothes they are wearing. Lubna`s fight against the ones that have hijacked her religion is a fight I support one hundred percent, and so should we all do. Lubna is in my view one of the most important feminists of today. Let her fight be our fight, because her fight for women`s rights and against the oppression from Islamic extremists, is of concern to all of us.
Lubna shares the same dream as women all over the word living under extremist regimes have. The dream of freedom. Freedom from oppression, freedom from dogmatic interpretations of old religious texts, freedom to make their own choices and to live their lives as free individuals. Lubna knows what the lack of freedom means and what the costs are for not backing down. Let us stand shoulder to shoulder with Lubna, let us raise our voices for the issues she`s promoting, and let us make her fight and the issues she`s fighting for, the most important issues on the agenda for today`s feminism.
Lubna, you are a brave woman. I`m proud to be the one introducing you and so it is a great honor for me to give the floor to one of my great heroes, the true freedom fighter Lubna Hussain.
Read more about the Oslo Freedom Forum here: http://www.oslofreedomforum.com/