An Islamic Sharia court in Kano, northern Nigeria, on Wednesday sentenced Abubakar Hamza to six months imprisonment and a fine equivalent to $50 for living as a woman.
Handing down the sentence, the court deplored 19-year-old Hamza’s use of female identity to sell aphrodisiacs and advised him to stop his ”immoral behaviour”.
Hamza, who dressed as a male in court, said he had decided to leave the trade.
He had became a celebrity in Kano as sellers of other wares sold pictures of him in female dress all over the city.
A married man, Hamza settled his spouse and daughter in his village and moved to Kano, where he lived in quarters reserved for Moslem women under Islamic Sharia rules.
He took the name Fatima Kawaji to sell herbal aphrodisiacs and told customers that he was a woman as he had a high-pitched voice.
Nine months ago, he was caught unawares by a female household member who burst into the bathroom believing it to be occupied by a woman. She raised the alarm on finding Hamza, who was then arrested.
An observer of the court proceedings paid Hamza’s fine and he emerged a free man as he had already spent more than six months in prison awaiting trial. – Sapa-DPA