Confronted with the prospect of 40 lashes as punishment for wearing trousers, many women would jump at the prospect of immunity.

Not Lubna Ahmed Hussein, however, as her drive to overturn the Sudanese anti-trouser legislation has prompted her possible resignation from the United Nations, whose immunity she waived in favor of a full trial:

I wish to resign from the UN, I wish this court case to continue. I want to change this law, because hitting is not human, and also it does not match with Sharia law. [Listen]

The journalist was arrested in a Khartoum restaurant with ten colleagues for sporting “indecent” clothing.

The ten women received ten lashes and a fine, while a female journalist who subsequently penned an article in support has been charged with defaming the police and could receive a high fine.

Writing for Ajrass Al-Horreya, Amal Habbani’s article debated the event under the title “Lubna, a case of subduing a woman’s body”.

It is one of life’s enduring mysteries as to how Islamic scholars can pass years debating minutae, occasionally surfacing with a fatwa against, say, Pokémon or breastfeeding, yet cannot conceive of amending the aspects that would render a woman’s life equal and joyous.