There is no justice for a bride in Sudan who has been sentenced to death for fatally stabbing the man she was forced to marry after he allegedly raped her.
Nor Husseim, 19, was handed the death penalty after her husband’s family refused to receive financial compensation for his murder.
Abdulrahman Hammed was discovered dead at the family’s marital home. Ms Hussein married Hammed at the age of 16 and was forced to move in with him when she finished school in April 2017, the court was told.
The Sharia-law bound Criminal Court of Omdurman, the country’s second largest city, heard how Ms Hussein ran away from their home, which angered Hammad, according to her lawyer Ahmed Sebair.
The husband then allegedly raped her while his male cousins pinned the 19-year-old down.
But it wasn’t until the next day, when the couple were alone and Hammed tried to rape her again, that Ms Hussein defended herself, fatally stabbing Hammed with a knife.
According to witnesses present at the trial, Ms Hussein's family had abandoned her and she appeared alone during sentencing yesterday. Her lawyers have 15 days to appeal the court’s decision. Following the incident on May 3 2017, Ms Hussein has been held in prison awaiting her trial.
The legal age for marriage in the country is 10, while there are no statutory laws that protect women from rape as it is not considered a crime.
Women who are raped are classed as second-class citizens in the country and their rights are virtually non-existent.
Badr Eldin Salah, an activist from the Afrika Youth Movement who was in the court, said: “Under Sharia law, the husband's family can demand either monetary compensation or death. They chose death and now the death penalty has been handed down.
“Noura's lawyers say they plan to appeal against the decision, but we also need strong international support from organisations such as the African Union, the United Nations and the European Union to support her.”
Ms Hussein’s case and conviction has sparked a campaign on social media with the #JusticeForNoura.
Supporters from around the world have posted photos from around the world in solidarity.
User Ola Diab said: “It’s time we see marital rape as a crime. It’s time we call for marital rape to be recognized as a punishable crime. Marital rape is morally, ethically and religiously wrong. It’s time for the law in #Sudan to recognize that and make marital rape illegal.”
Another Twitter user wrote: “He didn’t rape her period. She was seeing a future of repetitive rape guarded by law and society. She ended it herself because frankly there isn’t another way for her to escape it. #JusticeForNoura.” Panda Elzein, one witness who was present during the trial, said of the atmosphere in court: “I was never sadder and more shaken than when i saw Noura today. She walked in with steady feet and a head held high.
"She is a hero, a survivor and a voice that dared refuse oppression in a society created to oppress. #JusticeForNoura.”
Sudan is ranked 165 out of 188 countries on the UN's Gender Inequality Index. The country has not signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Violence against women and girls is considered to be prevalent there.
Author Liv Tønnessen, of the Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre, published a report on Sudan’s s3xual violence problems in 2012.
She said: "Serious shortcomings in Sudanese laws and practices contribute to the lack of protection of victims of rape in Sudan. There is need for comprehensive legal reform, particularly of Sudan’s Criminal Law of 1991.
Going on the reports says: “The categorisation of rape as a form of adultery does not result only in the virtual impossibility of convicting a rapist, but may even lead to the incrimination of the female victim of rape instead.”
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