A British teacher ailed in Sudan for letting her students name a teddy bear Muhammad arrived home Tuesday, saying she was grateful her “ordeal” was over.
“I’m just an ordinary middle-aged primary school teacher. I went out there to have an adventure, and got a bit more than I bargained for,” Gillian Gibbons told reporters after arriving at London’s Heathrow Airport.
“I don’t think anyone could have imagined it would snowball like this,” she added.
Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, was freed Monday after being pardoned by Sudan’s president. She left Sudan Monday night.
“It has been an ordeal but I’d like want you to know that I was well-treated in prison and everybody was very kind to me,” she said.
She said her experience had not soured her on Sudan.
“I was very sorry to leave Sudan. I had a fabulous time there. It’s a really lovely place, and I managed to see some of the beautiful countryside while I was there.”
Gibbons moved to Sudan in July and began teaching at the Unity School in Khartoum. She was arrested Nov. 25 after some parents complained that she had allowed her 7-year-old students to name a teddy bear Muhammad.
The students themselves chose the name - the most popular for men in the Muslim world. But some consider giving a stuffed toy the name of Islam’s revered prophet to be blasphemous.
Although she protested tearfully that she never meant to offend anyone, Gibbons was convicted of insulting Islam and sentenced to 15 days in jail. She was spared the more serious punishment of 40 lashes.
Angry Sudanese who did not consider the penalty harsh enough rallied in the capital, calling for Gibbons’ execution.
The reaction stunned Britons, including Muslim Britons.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir pardoned Gibbons on Monday after meeting with two Muslim members of Britain’s House of Lords.
“I’d like to thank the government for all they have done, the hard work behind the scenes, especially the two peers who went out there,” said Gibbons’ 25-year-old son, John. “Everyone’s been really great."
Asked if she had been terrified in prison, Gibbons replied: “That’s an understatement.”
“I was treated the same as any other Sudanese prisoner in that you were given the bare minimum,” she said.
After mobs demanded she be put to death, she was moved to another location.
“Then I was moved to another prison and there the Ministry of the Interior sent me a bed which is possibly the best present I’ve ever had.”
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