The Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) Network has revealed that two women have been sentenced to death by stoning by courts in the cities of Khartoum Bahri and Ad-Damazin (Al-Roseires).
In a statement, the network indicated that the women have been transferred to the Omdurman Women’s Prison. Both cases are currently undergoing appeal proceedings, despite the complainant withdrawing the charges in one of them.
The network expressed its profound concern over what it described as the escalation of institutional violence against women and girls in Sudan. It asserted that these rulings represent an extension of the patterns of criminalizing women stipulated in the 1991 Penal Code, which it claims is used systematically against them, including during periods of conflict.
SIHA further explained that this comes amidst the ongoing war and the deterioration of humanitarian and security conditions. Since the outbreak of the conflict, women and girls have faced a wide wave of violations—including rape, sexual violence, exploitation, and forced displacement—according to human rights reports warning of the rise in patterns of gender-based violence.
The network called for a radical and comprehensive reform of the Sudanese Penal Code and an immediate halt to the application of laws that target women under the guise of morality and public ethics, especially given the current wartime circumstances.
Furthermore, the network urged a comprehensive and transparent legal review of the law within any “Sudanese-Sudanese” political process that ensures the integration of women’s rights and the adoption of a fair legislative framework based on the principles of democratic governance.
