News and Events

News and Events

Updated 25 June 2014

Save Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag Save Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag
End the abuse of human rights in Sudan

A woman in Sudan was sentenced to 100 lashes followed by hanging because a court wouldn't recognise her marriage to a Christian man and they considered it to be adultery, and she had converted from Islam to Christianity, an act of apostasy which is considered to be a capital offence. In fact she never converted to anything, she was brought up as a Christian by her mother from the age of six, after her Muslim father had deserted the family.

She was sent to prison with her young son Martin and while in prison and in chains she gave birth to a second child, a daughter called Mayo. The guards wouldn't even remove the chains at the moment of birth.

An appeal court annulled her conviction and she was released, only to be arrested the next day at the airport on the grounds that there was something wrong with her emergency travel document, issued by the Embassy of South Sudan and stamped with a visa by the American Embassy. Now it's turning into a diplomatic row, with the Republic of Sudan challenging the right of South Sudan and the USA to issue travel papers. Where will it all end?

Mike Gascoigne
Anno Mundi Books

Mike Gascoigne