30, May 2018

Lawyers for Noura Hussein, 19, have formally filed an appeal after Hussein was given the death sentence for killing her husband as he attempted to rape her, the Guardian reported last week. Hussein was forced to wed at age 16 to an older man selected by her father, but she escaped to her aunt’s house. However, after three years, she was tricked by her family into coming back home, and then turned over to her husband’s family. According to Hussein’s supporters, she had been with her husband for six days when he raped her, with the help of his brother, another relative, and a witness who held her down. When he tried to rape her again the next day, Hussein stabbed him to death and returned to her family, who turned her in to the police. Hussein’s case has highlighted the issues of women’s rights and forced marriage in Sudan, with her lawyer Ahmer Sibair saying that it is “common” in the country, and “causes so many problems. They marry a girl as a child and without her consent, and so many of them lost their chances to be educated.” Hussein’s legal team issued a statement, saying, “Noura was a victim of child marriage, forced marriage, rape and denial of justice,” adding, “As if that was not enough, she now is at the brink of losing her life for defending herself from violence, where law, tradition and culture failed her.”