The largest US feminist group on Monday slammed a Nigerian Islamic court ruling upholding a death-by-stoning conviction against a young woman for bearing a child out of wedlock and said it was asking Washington to intervene to get the decision reversed.
A court in Funtua, 300 kilometres north of Abuja earlier on Monday threw out an appeal by 30-year-old Amina Lawal and ordered that she be taken to a public place, buried up to her neck and put to death by stoning once her child is weaned.
“This penalty, death by stoning, is particularly barbaric. It’s horrendous and does not bode well for women in Nigeria,” said Karen Johnson, executive vice president of the National Organization for Women (NOW).
“We are asking the State Department to exert as much pressure as possible on the Nigerian Government to reverse this decision,” she said. “We should not support a country unless it supports the human rights of women.”
Lawal, a divorcee, gave birth in January and was denounced by police to the sharia court.
She told the authorities that the father of Wasila, her third child, was Yahaya Mahmud, her boyfriend of 11 months, whom she said had seduced her with an offer of marriage, the Nigerian court heard.
Mahmud admitted being Lawal’s boyfriend, but swore on the Koran that he was not the father. He was discharged. Lawal was tried and convicted based on her confession.
Her team of Abuja-based lawyers and rights campaigners had argued that her conviction was unfair, that her confession had been retracted and that she had never understood the case against her.
Amina’s legal team announced an immediate appeal. If they fail, their client could become the first Nigerian to be stoned to death since 12 northern states reintroduced the strict Sharia Islamic code after Nigeria returned to civilian rule in May 1999. – AFP