Amnesty International has urged the Sudanese government to drop charges against 10 Christian girls for allegedly wearing indecent dress recently.

The right group called on the Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir and Minister of Justice to instruct the relevant authorities to release the girls who are facing charges under article 152 of the Sudanese penal code.

The organization also called on the authorities in Sudan to repeal this ‘crime’ of ‘indecent dress’ set out in Article 152 of Sudan’s 1991 Criminal Act.

The public order law is enforced in a way which is discriminatory and violates women’s rights, according to the rights group.

The Christian girls aged between 17 and 23 from the war-torn Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan were wearing either trousers or skirts. The Public Order Police stopped 12 women in front of the Evangelical Baptist Church where they had attended a ceremony on June 25.

Two of the girls were later released by police. The remaining 10 were charged and will be appearing in court next week.

With the exception of the 17-year-old student – whose case has been transferred to the Juvenile Court – the next scheduled court dates for the girls are 13, 16 and 17 July.

Article 152 of the 1991 Criminal Act gives the Public Order Police extensive powers to arrest any person for indecent dress, and the punishment if found guilty is 40 lashes, or a fine, or both.

Prominent Sudanese lawyer Nabil Adib told Radio Tamazuj earlier that they had demanded the abolition of the article, saying it can be loosely interpreted and gives excessive powers to police to arrest anybody without committing any crime.

Adib criticised the arrest of the students, describing the move by the police as "discriminatory".