In this Egyptian Gazette article, Manāl ‘Abd al-‘Azīz questions whether Sudanese president ‘Umar al-Bashīr is seeking to unite or divide the nation of Sudan by threatening to apply Islamic Sharī‘ah law if South Sudan carries through with its plan to separate from the North.

‘Abd al-Azīz says that in the upcoming secession vote, many southerners who would have voted for unification may vote for separation after hearing al-Bashīr’s statements.

In any case, she questions the Sudanese leader’s commitment to Islamic law, especially after his support of the recent flogging of a woman for wearing trousers.

“The issue is that he is presenting the worst image of Islamic Sharī‘ah and giving evidence that non-Muslim Sudanese have the full right to seek their independent state apart from a regime that does not consider human rights and insults women in an an appalling way.”