Nigerian woman sentenced to death
 

Good Afternoon,

This was sent to me and I thought I would pass it along:


As you have probably read in the newspapers recently, a Nigerian court has convicted Amina Awal to death because she had a child fathered by a man to whom she was not married. As soon as the child has been weaned, she will be buried up to her chest and stoned to death. Amnesty International has started a worldwide campaign to reverse this decision. If you click on the following link, or copy and paste into your browser, you can sign your name in opposition to and to repeal this sentence.


http://www.mertonai.org/amina/OpenLetter.htm

Re: Nigerian woman sentenced to death
 

HOW BARBERIC (sp) !!!:mad:

If this is the same case that I read about, wasn't rape the reason why she even has a child? :( :mad:

Isn't this terrible? This is a different case, the first woman had her conviction overturned arguing that she was the victim of rape. This new woman has until January 2004 to stop breastfeeding her baby and face the stoning. Here is an article from back in March. I will continue to pray for this and many women of color who face these unconsitutional laws. I am blessed that I am an american. Can you imagine if we had those laws here?


http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/...25_sharia.html

According to Islamic law, which is what is used to run that part of Nigeria, her punishment, while barbaric to outsiders, is not unconstitutional. She had a child out of wedlock, and that is punishable by death by stoning in Islamic culture. Please correct me if I am wrong, Islamic GCers.

But you are right, I am glad that we live in the U.S. :o

So what happens to the father of the child. If I remember correctly, isn't he already married?

Why is she the only person that comes out looking bad in this?

Since obviously she did not create the baby by herself, what is, if any, the penalty for the man that impregnated her? He equally had a child either out of wedlock or via an extramarital affair. Is there an Islamic law that addresses that issue? I'm also curious to know the laws.

I'm also glad that I live in the U.S. Unwed mothers may be talked about and talked down on, but it certainly is not a cause for the death penalty. :(

I might be wrong, but the man denied it. So nothing happened to him. I'll have to recheck the story.

I'm from Nigeria but not from the Northern region which is where this is taking place. I've been following this story and it is very depressing and disturbing that this is going on. As far as I knew the Sharia law was not enforced this strictly before but now it's the status quo - so much so that I was worried about visiting my dad when he was working in one of the Northern states. Fortunately for me, my family lives one of the many states where this is not accepted.
I know numerous efforts had been made to try to save her life but apparently they have been unsuccessful. In answer to the question about the man's punishment, I'm not Muslim, but I believe while what he's done is a crime, she is held more responsible. I believe there is a law concerning his part. But then if the society is one in which women are not on equal footing, that allows the man's story to be more easily accepted.

This is really horrible. And yes, it's different in the US but it's sad because it wasn't always like that.

LA Times article
 

Unfortunately, this article didn't have a picture of Ms. Lawal's beautiful, bald baby girl with it. It was written by a mentor of mine:
And I'm also angry that the baby daddy, as it were, seems to be getting off scot-free. :mad:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.latimes.com/features/life...iving%2Dmanual
A Baby and an Outcry
Nigerian who had child out of wedlock is sentenced to death, but people worldwide are adamantly protesting
By GAYLE POLLARD-TERRY
TIMES STAFF WRITER

September 17 2002

A photograph of a mother nursing her baby travels the world via e-mail. It is an image of maternal bliss, of bonding, of life itself. But the woman is Nigerian and she is not married. Because of that, after Amina Lawal weans her daughter, she is to be buried in the ground up to her chest and then stoned to death. Her crime: having a baby out of wedlock.

The sentence by a religious court has generated international controversy and has created an unusual alliance of protesters, from feminists to human rights activists, from book club members to beauty queens.

With the Miss World beauty pageant scheduled for Nov. 30 in Nigeria, at least a half-dozen contestants say they won't participate in the pageant if it is held before the execution is stayed. Pageant organizer Julia Morley said from London on Monday that she has received personal assurances from Nigeria's foreign minister, Dubem Onyia, that the nation's constitution, which forbids such an extreme punishment, would stand supreme.

In the West African nation's "history of justice" no woman has ever been punished in that manner, he pointed out. Only one other woman has been sentenced to execution by stoning and her sentence was reversed last month on a technicality.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International, the London-based human rights group, is circulating an open letter to Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo protesting the sentence and including a petition signed by nearly 800,000 people from around the world.

In an address to the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, Obasanjo spoke of the poverty, hunger and disease in his country, and of the nation's attempts to attract foreign investment, like the tourist dollars from the Miss World pageant.

But he made no mention of Lawal. At home, Obasanjo, who has the authority to commute the sentence, has said only that "Nigeria will weep" if the mother is killed.

The Amnesty petition, with Lawal's photo attached, will be delivered a week from today to the Nigerian High Commission, or embassy, in London. That picture of a mother and child persuaded Sandra Williams, an entertainment lawyer in L.A., to do something she never does--sign a petition. "When I saw the photo of her, I realized how young she is," Williams said. "She looks very vulnerable. She looks like someone in my family." Williams forwarded the e-mail to her Sisterfriends book club, a group of African American women who meet monthly. Among them, Shirley Ann Harris, a junior high school teacher, insisted of the petition, "We must get our vote in." After Annette Parker-Goode, a legal analyst, looked at "that sweet little baby," she too e-mailed her support. But she remained concerned. "She may be spared, but they're not abolishing the law."

On Sunday, members of the book club met at the Torrance home of Carmen Ramos-Kennedy, an advertising executive. They were joined by women from the Rancho Palos Verdes chapter of The Links Inc., a black women's international philanthropic organization.

Most knew that Lawal, a 31-year-old village woman, lives in a northern state governed by Sharia, a radical interpretation of Islamic law. About a year after her divorce, Lawal got pregnant. Her baby, now 9 months old, is "proof" of her adultery, according to the Muslim judge who ordered her stoned to death in January 2004.

The man Lawal identifies as the father denies paternity. Without a confession, he cannot be found guilty under Sharia law, unless four witnesses come forward, a virtually impossible legal burden.

"The thing that really struck me was the part about the male partner," said Paula Gibson, an anti-trust attorney who belongs to the book club. "He was not punished because they indicated they had insufficient evidence. Unless four people witnessed the sex act, he could deny the baby was his. How can you deny it, if you're a woman? You can't. The law completely exempted him from punishment." Gibson said part of her family comes from the Caribbean, and because of that she is sensitive to gender issues. "When my grandfather was still alive, he had substantial property. My grandfather said this brother is going to get this, this brother is going to get that, and this male cousin is going to get that. Nowhere in the conversation was anything said about women."

Lawal's situation reminded Renee Kennard, also a member of Sisterfriends and an airlines sales representative, of a difficult time in her life 26 years ago. "I put myself in her place, because I had a baby out of wedlock. I know the fear that she is feeling, not knowing what the future will be." Kennard said her mistreatment came from her church, a strict denomination that she will not name because her mother remains in the church.

"My mother said, 'If you ever get pregnant, I'm not going to have anything to do with you,' " Kennard said. "At my church, you couldn't sing in the choir. . You had to sit in the back. They called it being silenced."

The stoning sentence embarrasses Nigerians who live in the U.S. "Why should we have two different legal systems? We have to let our voices be heard," said Patrick Wiro, an L.A. County corrections officer who on Saturday attended the Igbo Culture Day festivities at Cal State Dominguez Hills. Igbos are one of Nigeria's largest Christian ethnic groups.

In Nigeria, millions have spoken out in newspapers, raised money for Lawal's defense and have supported her in court. Of this nation's 120 million population, half are Christian, the other half Muslim, demographics not lost on Obasanjo, the nation's first democratically elected leader in nearly two decades. He is expected to stand for reelection in February, nearly a year before Lawal's sentence would be imposed.

Her case is currently on appeal in the religious court, when those proceedings conclude, the case will be heard by the federal court, which supersedes state courts, including Sharia, and is expected to reach Nigeria's supreme court.

That's not good enough for the women who participated in Sunday's discussion. They are asking others to get involved.

"When I saw that picture," said Lillie Veale Wilson, the chair of the Links' international trends and services committee, "in my soul, I felt if you do this to one of us, you do it to all of us."
If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives. For information about reprinting this article, go to www.lats.com/rights.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2002 Los Angeles Times

Nigerian Woman Spared from Stoning....
 

KATSINA, Nigeria, Sept. 25 — A single mother facing death by stoning for adultery had her sentence overturned by an Islamic appeals court Thursday in a case that has sparked international outrage.A five-judge panel rejected the sentence against 32-year-old Amina Lawal, saying she was not caught in the act of adultery and she was not given “ample opportunity to defend herself.”

IF THE SENTENCE had been carried out, the single mother would have been the first woman stoned to death since 12 northern states first began adopting strict Islamic law, or Shariah, in 1999.
Lawal, wrapped in a light orange veil, sat on a stone bench, eyes downcast, cradling her nearly 2-year-old daughter as the ruling was announced at the Katsina State Shariah Court of Appeals under heavy security.
The judges read their verdict, which is final, inside a tiny blue-walled courtroom equipped with ceiling fans to ease the sweltering heat.
Lawal was first convicted in March 2002 following the birth of her daughter two years after she divorced her husband. Judges rejected Lawal’s first appeal in August 2002.
In an hour-long hearing, the panel said Lawal was not caught in the act of adultery and wasn’t given enough time to understand the charges against her.
It also cited procedural errors, including that only one judge was present at her initial conviction in March 2002, instead of the three required under Islamic law.

WORLD OUTRAGE
The case had drawn sharp criticism from international rights groups. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government and world leaders had called for Lawal to be spared. Last week, Brazil even offered her asylum.
Few believed the brutal sentence — in which Lawal would have been buried up to her neck in sand and executed by stoning — would ever be carried out.
Francois Cantier, a lawyer with French group Avocats Sans Frontieres, or Lawyers Without Borders, said the punishment was contrary to the Nigerian constitution and would violate international treaties against torture. Prosecutors argued Lawal’s child was living proof she committed a crime under Shariah. But lead defense lawyer Aliyu Musa Yawuri said that under some interpretations of Shariah, babies can remain in gestation in a mother’s womb for five years, :eek: :eek: opening the possibility her ex-husband could have fathered the child.
He also argued Lawal’s case should be dropped because no lawyers were present when she first testified that she had slept with another man following her divorce. Yawuri said Lawal — a poor, uneducated woman from a rural family — didn’t understand the charges against her at the time.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOUR MORE STONING SENTENCES Lawal has identified her alleged sexual partner, Yahaya Mohammed, and said he promised to marry her. Mohammed, who would also have faced a stoning sentence, has denied any impropriety and has been acquitted for lack of evidence. Lawal is the second Nigerian woman to be condemned to death for having sex out of wedlock under Islamic law. The first woman, Safiya Hussaini, had her sentence overturned in March on her first appeal in the city of Sokoto. The introduction of strict Islamic law in a dozen northern states triggered violent clashes between Christians and Muslims that killed thousands. Four other people have been sentenced to stoning deaths. Two have been acquitted, and two others — a pair of lovers — are awaiting rulings. Also under Shariah punishments, one man has been hanged for killing a woman and her two children. Muslim authorities have amputated the hands of three others for stealing respectively, a goat, a cow and three bicycles. Despite such harsh sentences, the majority of Muslims in the predominantly Islamic north have welcomed the implementation of Shariah, saying it’s a key part of their religion and discourages crime.