Cairo, Nov. 28 (AP): A 16-year-old Christian girl from southern Sudan said yesterday she was lashed 50 times for wearing a skirt deemed indecent by authorities in the north who enforce a strict version of Islamic law.

Silva Kashif said she was arrested by a plain-clothed policeman in a Khartoum market last week for wearing a skirt beneath the knee. She was convicted of offending public morality and received 50 lashes in the courtroom.

“I was treated like a criminal,” Kashif said in a telephone interview. “I am confused what to wear. The trousers were an issue. My skirt was beneath the knee. What more can I do? I am Christian. My tribe and my customs permit me to dress like this.”

Human rights lawyer Azhari al-Haj said a legal team plans to sue the authorities for procedural mistakes and to exonerate Kashif. Kashif’s ordeal follows the high profile case of Lubna Hussein, a female journalist who was sentenced to 40 lashes for wearing trousers deemed indecent. Hussein’s sentence was reduced to a fine, and she is now lobbying to change the morality laws.

Sudan’s indecency law allows flogging as a punishment. Human rights campaigners say the law is vaguely defined and arbitrarily enforced — and often incorrectly applied to non-Muslims such as south Sudanese Christians living in the capital. Under a 2005 peace deal that ended a 20-year civil war between the Muslim north and the Christian south, laws are supposed to be reviewed to respect human rights and freedom of expression.

Sudan’s government implements a conservative version of Islamic law in the north. Public order police enforce the laws, banning alcohol, breaking up parties and preventing men and women from mingling in public. In northern Sudan, many women wear traditional flowing robes that also cover their hair.