People are calling for 19-year-old Noura Hussein to be pardoned after a Sudanese court sentenced her to death.
She had stabbed her husband, who she said raped her, to death.
The relative of the man she was forced to marry had held her down, she said, while he raped her.
Her husband’s relatives refused the option to pardon her, and rejected compensation. They requested that she be executed.
According to CNN, Noura had been forced to marry at the early age of 15, and ran away from home.
She was tricked into returning by her dad three years later, who promptly handed her over to her husband’s family.
One of her lawyers, Adil Mohamed Al-Imam, told CNN that she was raped after she refused to consummate the marriage. He said:
His brother and two cousins tried to reason with her, when she refused she was slapped and ordered into the room. One held her chest and head, the others held her legs.
When her husband attempted raping her again the next day, she stabbed him to death.
Noura’s lawyers had 15 days to appeal after the ruling. 7 days are left now.
People have been calling for her to be pardoned, trending the hashtag #JusticeforNoura.
The hashtag has been trending on social media, and even supermodel Naomi Campbell has tweeted her support, sharing a photo of herself holding a piece of paper with the hashtag written
She says:
“I, Naomi Campbell, urge the Sudanese government to pardon rape victim Noura Hussein and show the world that women who are brutally raped are the real victims. #JusticeForNoura,’’ she said in the tweet.