Sudan will ban FGM, a practice that involves the removal of external female genitalia. (Representation)
Khartoum:
Sudan will allow non-Muslims to drink alcohol and strengthen women’s rights, including by banning female genital mutilation (FGM), his justice minister said on Saturday in a reversal of nearly four decades of policies radical Islamists.
According to the United Nations, approximately 3% of the population of Sudan is non-Muslim.
Alcoholic beverages have been banned since former President Jaafar Nimeiri introduced Islamic law in 1983, throwing bottles of whiskey into the Nile in the capital Khartoum.
The transitional government, which took power after the overthrow of autocrat Omar al-Bashir last year, has promised to drive Sudan to democracy, end discrimination and make peace with rebels .
Non-Muslims will no longer be penalized for drinking alcohol privately, Justice Minister Nasredeen Abdulbari said on public television. For Muslims, the ban will remain. Offenders are generally flogged under Islamic law.
Sudan will also decriminalize apostasy and ban FGM, a practice that usually involves the partial or total removal of the external genitalia of girls and women, he said.
Women will also no longer need a permit from men in their families to travel with their children.
Nimeiri’s introduction of Islamic law was the main catalyst for a 22-year war between the Muslim north of Sudan and the predominantly Christian south which in 2011 led to the secession of South Sudan.
Bashir extended Islamic law after he came to power in 1989.
Sudanese Christians live mainly in Khartoum and in the Nuba Mountains near the South Sudanese border. Some Sudanese also follow traditional African beliefs.
The transitional government led by Abdalla Hamdok is leading the country in a worried coalition with the military that helped expel Bashir after months of mass protests.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
