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Nigerian
Court Frees Woman Sentenced Under Sharia Law |
Posted:
09.29.03 | |
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Human rights organizations and women's rights groups are cheering
the acquittal of a northern Nigerian woman sentenced to death
by stoning under a strict Islamic code of justice known as Sharia
law.
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On Sept. 25, an Islamic
court in the Nigerian state of Katsina cleared Amina Lawal, a
31-year-old mother of three accused of  having
sex outside of marriage and sentenced in March 2002 to death.
The court overturned Lawal's sentence after four of the five
judges hearing her case decided that she had not been given "ample
opportunity to defend herself" and that her crime had not
been proven beyond a doubt.
"It is a victory for justice, it is a victory for the law,
it is a victory for freedom," said Hauwa Ibrahim, one of
Lawal's lawyers. "Amina is free today."
Though Lawal was acquitted, human rights groups argue that other
cases of cruel and excessive punishments, based on Sharia and
other Islamic laws, still exist around the world.
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| What
is Sharia? | |
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The Arabic word Sharia refers to the
way of life encouraged by Allah, or God, in the Islamic holy text, the Koran.
Though some people call Sharia Koranic law, Sharia is more an interpretation of
religious practices outlined in the Koran. Interpreted by strict, conservative
Muslims and fashioned into legal code, Sharia calls for punishments such as the
severing of limbs, stoning, hanging and flogging, or beating. But scholars
observe the code is more than just harsh sentences for crimes. "When
people think about Sharia law, they often think about the penalties for certain
crimes," Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf of Masjid al-Farah in New York City told
Frontline. "They don't think about the sum total of Islamic law and
its jurisprudence, which means the underlying structure and philosophy and understanding
of how you arrive at what we call the Islamically correct decision. You do not
define Sharia law by just a couple of penalties."
Not all Muslim countries practice Sharia. In countries like Jordan
in the Middle East and Mauritania and Morocco in North Africa,
 Islam
pervades the culture and way of life of the citizens in areas
such as education and dress, but not the legal codes. Turkey,
another majority Muslim country, maintains a strict rule of secularism,
or formal separation of government and religion, and turns away
from Islamic law.
Countries that do practice Sharia include Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Malaysia.
In Saudi Arabia, perhaps the most well known practitioner of strict Islamic law,
moderate Saudis have called for a less extreme form of the law. In Nigeria,
the institution of Sharia in 1999 in 12 of the country's 36 states, led to violent
clashes between the country's Christians and Muslims. Christians and human
rights groups accused Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo of ignoring the plight
of citizens -- both Christian and Muslim -- subjected to Sharia law and called
on the president to overrule state laws. To date, only one person has been put
to death in Nigeria under Sharia, a man who was hung on murder charges. | |
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| Sharia
law and women | |
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Lawal's case drew international attention and led to protests in countries
like South Africa, where hundreds of women marched through the streets. Their
main argument was that Sharia courts, and the conservative male judges who decide
penalties, discriminate against women. Though the father of Lawal's child also
faced charges, he denied any wrongdoing and was acquitted earlier in the trial.
"We do not have in modern times any state which has  introduced
Sharia and has been able to respect women's rights," said
Ziba Mir Hosseini, author of the book "Islam and Gender."
According to a BBC report, one human rights
report in Pakistan showed that of the 1,800 women in jail in Pakistan, 80 percent
of those were there for offenses under Islamic law. Far fewer men are in jail
under the same laws. | |
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| Intersections
of religion and law | |
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While critics of Sharia are calling for the separation of mosque and state
in some Islamic countries, critics of Western legal systems also question the
separation of church and state in countries including England, which has a state
church. Some critics of America's use of the death penalty, including the
United Nations and many European countries, argue that capital punishment is based
on the biblical notion of "an eye for an eye." During a 2002 discussion
on religion and the death penalty, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who supports
the death penalty, pointed out that, historically, people in Western societies
believed that governments were empowered by God and therefore had the right to
impose harsh penalties.
"The core of [St. Paul's] message is that government, however
you want to limit that concept, derives its moral authority from
 God.
It is the minister of God with powers to revenge, to execute wrath,
including even wrath by the sword, which is unmistakably a reference
to the death penalty," he said.
In arguing
for the morality of the death penalty, Scalia said, "In the words of one
of the Supreme Court's religion cases in the days when we understood the religion
clauses better than I think we now do - 'we are a religious people whose institutions
presuppose a supreme being.'" Scalia added that the emergence of democracy
- which heralded the idea of the separation of church and state - challenged traditional
ideas of government and its ability to enforce harsh punishment. One thing
is certain, the diversity within both Western and Muslim countries ensures that
the debate over the intersection of religion, law and punishment will continue. --
Kristina Nwazota, Online NewsHour | |
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