25 March, 2002

Nigeria court to rule on stoning

Safiya Husseini became pregnant outside marriage

By the BBC's Dan Isaacs

Sokoto, northern Nigeria 

A Nigerian appeal court is due to give its judgement on Monday in the case of a Muslim woman convicted of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning.

Safiya Husaini is the first woman to be convicted of this crime under a strict Islamic legal system introduced in Nigeria's majority-Muslim northern states two years ago.

Others have committed worse crimes, but because they are men, and because they have influence in high places, they are not punished

Safiya Husaini 

While she awaits the outcome of her appeal, Safiya has been free to live at home with her family in the village of Tungar Tudu, about 90 kilometres (55 miles) from the state capital, Sokoto.

 She looks far older than her 35 years.

 With her head covered in a Muslim veil, she comforts a small child in her arms. A life of hardship and poverty have taken their toll.

 Sharia law

 As we sit together on a mat in the courtyard of her family home, her daughter Adama is crying.

 The existence of this little child was enough to convince the judge of her guilt.

Safiya looks far older than her 35 years

 Under Islamic law as practiced in Nigeria, pregnancy outside marriage - even for a divorcee - is sufficient evidence to convict a woman.

In the court case, during which Safiya had no legal representation, the man accused of fathering the child was acquitted.

 Although she believes Muslims should live by sharia law, Safiya feels that she has been treated very unfairly.

 "It's because I am poor," she tells me. "Because I am a woman, this is happening to me. Other people have committed worse crimes, but because they are men, and because they have influence in high places, they are not punished."

 A 'sleeping' embryo

 Safiya's lawyers have advised her that her original claim that she was coerced into the relationship would not convince the court, because she did not say this at her first trial.

 So during the appeal hearing, it was claimed that Safiya's former husband - from whom she was divorced two years ago - was the father of the child.

 She was not claiming that they had slept together after the dissolution of the marriage, but that the pregnancy had lain "dormant" in her womb - a valid defence within sharia law.

 Judge Mohammed Bello Sanyinlawal passed sentence last October

 In fact, it is possible to claim this defence of the "sleeping" embryo up to seven years after a divorce.

 There has been widespread international pressure on the Nigerian Government to pardon Safiya.

 But the federal authorities have been powerless to intervene directly, because of Nigeria's devolved system of government that give the country's majority-Muslim northern states the powers to introduce their own legal codes.

 The case has not only tested Nigeria's constitution and the independence of individual states to conduct their own affairs - it has also clearly caused divisions with Nigeria's federal government.

 Difficult position

 President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is himself a devout Christian, has been placed in a very awkward position.

 Although he is clearly uncomfortable with the strict Islamic punishments, to challenge the validity of sharia law would be seen as "anti-Muslim".

 And in a country with a recent history of communal and religious violence, such a position could have a dangerously destabilising effect.

 If she loses her appeal, Safiya's lawyers can take the case further, right up to the Supreme Court in the federal capital, Abuja.

 Only then would the legality of sharia criminal punishments be truly tested within the Nigerian constitution.