Plight of women prisoners highlights divisions in Sudan

Published: 2004-01-14

PORT SUDAN, Sudan (CNS) -- Sunlight streamed through the barred prison windows. In the shadows sat a young woman, cradling a baby at her breast and weeping bitterly. Mary Panasio, 22, was convicted of brewing alcohol, a serious offense under Sudan's strict Shariah laws. The judge sent her to the women's prison -- a grim place with no beds, foul-smelling latrines and stern female wardens. Wiping away the tears, Panasio said she was guilty and innocent. Yes, she had brewed beer. But she was a Catholic by faith, not a Muslim. In her hometown of Bentiu, 900 miles to the south, alcohol production was a time-honored tradition. Here in the North, it offered a rare form of income. "I had no choice," she said, rubbing oil onto six-month-old Emmanuel and shooing away a cloud of flies. "I have no money. How else can I survive?" Jails across government-controlled Sudan are packed with women like Mary. In Port Sudan, on the edge of the Red Sea, half of the 20 prisoners were Southern women imprisoned on alcohol-related charges. In the north, they find a ready black market among fellow Southerners and secretive Muslim drinkers.

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