Noura Hussein had no desire to get married. She was about 16, an aspiring teacher who hadn't even finished high school. But the Sudanese teenager's family forced her to marry the man of their choosing, a cousin, against her will. Her family made a contract with the groom's family, and the marriage was settled.
Hussein refused to accept it, running away to live with a relative in a neighboring city for nearly three years, according to Amnesty International and other activists involved in her case. In April of last year, her family convinced her to return to their home in the outskirts of Khartoum, Sudan's capital. The wedding was off, her father promised.
It was a trap. Hussein's family forced her to participate in a wedding ceremony and move in with her arranged husband. And when she refused to consummate the marriage, her husband sought the help of his brother and cousins. The men held her down as her husband raped her, according to activists in Sudan and her lawyer, who spoke to the Associated Press.
The following day he tried to rape her again, her lawyer told the AP. Hussein grabbed a knife from the kitchen and stabbed him to death. Her legal team called it a desperate act of defense. A court in Sudan called it murder.
Late last month, Hussein was found guilty of premeditated murder. On Thursday, she was sentenced to death by hanging. Her legal team has 15 days to appeal the sentence before she is executed, according to witnesses in the courtroom, who spoke to The Washington Post and documented the hearing on social media.
Hussein's conviction and pending execution have prompted an international campaign calling for clemency for the young woman. Across social media, Sudanese activists and supporters in Europe, Australia and Washington have rallied around Hussein. Her case, they say, sheds light on a culture that subjects women to male violence, and a broken justice system that renders many women powerless.
In Sudan, a girl as young as 10 can be legally married with the permission of a judge and a guardian, Reuters reported.
"Noura Hussein is a victim and the sentence against her is an intolerable act of cruelty," Seif Magango, Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, wrote in a statement.
Hussein has been held in a women's prison in Omdurman, Sudan's second-largest city, since May 2017. After she told her family what happened, Hussein's father turned her into police, calling her a "shame" to the family, according to Afrika Youth Movement, an activist group working with Hussein's lawyers.
Hussein's story, and the hashtag #JusticeForNoura, have circulated on social media in Sudan in recent weeks, and supporters packed the courtroom on Thursday to witness the sentencing. But none of Hussein's relatives attended the hearing, "because of the social stigma," Badreldin Salah, a 25-year-old activist with Afrika Youth Movement who was in the court Thursday, told The Post.