Pants, Part Two

About a month ago, I wrote about a Sudanese woman named Lubna, whose story I came across while reading Nicholas Kristof’s blog. Her trial was today. She did not win. She did not lose. She is now at a crossroads. As I sit here in my jeans and cleavage revealing tank top, I wonder what direction I would take in her position, secretly considering how I very likely would never have had the courage to be at this crossroads in the first place. Let me explain…

A few months ago, Lubna went to a cafe. She was wearing pants. She was arrested. Other women were arrested too. The other women accepted their punishment. Lubna did not. In the past month, Lubna has attempted to raise awareness about the punishment and, more importantly, about the law itself – a barbaric misinterpretation of Koranic Law resulting in Sudanese policy that women can not wear pants in public.

And Lubna has been successful, both in Sudan and abroad. She wants the law changed. Others agree. Her courage has inspired theirs. They showed up at her trial today, to lend her their support. Some of the women even wore pants (and were promptly arrested). Faced with so much attention, the judge decided to fine Lubna rather than force physical punishment on her.

And this is the moment.

This is the moment in which most people would see a straight road to freedom, accept the ruling, and run. For Lubna, however, this moment is her crossroads. She is refusing to pay the fine. She risks imprisonment, and potentially worse physical punishment than the initial charge conveyed, but standing by her charge that the law itself should be invalidated.

This has never been about Lubna not wanting to get hurt. She wants to change the system. And, as much as the idea that a woman could be brutally punished for wearing pants shocks me, the idea that one individual could have the courage to suddenly stand against the status quo, with a rallying cry of “NO MORE,” awes me.

Lubna isn’t the first person to do this. She isn’t even the first woman. And, I hope, she won’t be the last. I just wonder what mixture of nurture and nature made it so that she is one of the select few who step so far out of their comfort zone that they attempt to change the world for the rest of us, and enter the annals of history.

I do not think I am this kind of person. Perhaps I am, but I have yet to be tested. It’s possible. It is more likely, however, that I am one of the many who would have just accepted the flogging. I could easily have been the one to pee my pants in fear. Or, hell, I probably wouldn’t have worn pants in the first place. Fear is a powerful thing.

Thank god there are people out there, like Lubna, who remind me that, while fear may indeed by powerful, it isn’t ALL POWERFUL. It can be overcome.

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