Nigeria: Will Hajara Ibrahim be stoned to death?

Local Sharia courts in Bauchi state in Northern Nigeria have recently sentenced two young women to death by stoning for alleged adultery. Hajara Ibrahim and Daso Adamu are waiting for the appeal courts to decide their fates. In Hajara's case, the appeal hearing in the Upper Sharia Court in Dass was opened on 27 October. Her lawyer argued that the ruling of the local court had serious legal and formal mistakes. Now the upper court is expected to give its verdict on 10 November. If it fails to quash the stoning sentence, there will be only few chances for Hajara to escape a barbaric death.

Hajara Ibrahim (18) was convicted by a Sharia court in Lere in Tafa Balawi area on 5 October as she was seven months pregnant from a man to whom she was not married. The 25-year-old student, whom she named as her lover and husband-to-be denied his involvement and was acquitted for lack of evidence. The court did not even consider a paternity test. Sharia laws are not the same for men and women. To convict a man for adultery, there have to be four reputed witnesses of the deed. In case of a woman, pregnancy is taken as sufficient evidence for her guilt. The judge gave Hajara time to deliver before execution. Her family appealed against the verdict.

Her lawyer Abdulkadi Suleiman argued that Hajara could not be convicted for adultery, as she had never been actually married. As a school girl in fourth standard, she had - against her own and her mother's wishes - been given by her adoptive father to a stranger for marriage. But before the marriage had been performed and before the man could touch her, she got scared and absconded. As an unmarried girl, she could be convicted for fornication only, which carries lesser punishment. The first court committed also a grave procedural mistake by not allowing the accused to make a statement before the judgement was finalized. Moreover Hajara was convicted in a case, in which she was not a party at all. Originally the case had been filed by her father against the student who allegedly impregnated her. Hajara had been a witness in this case, not the accused.

In case the upper court confirms the stoning sentence on 10 November, Hajara's life can only be rescued by intervention of the federal government. Every death sentence in Nigeria needs the final seal of the state governor.

In a similar case, Daso Adamu (25) was sentenced to death by stoning on 15 September. The judge found the twice-divorced woman guilty of adultery, as she had delivered a child, which was conceived after her second divorce. She insists that her last ex-husbands is the father, but the man denies. Daso was imprisoned together with her six-month-old baby. Weeks after her appeal, the appeal court granted her bail. The trial had been adjourned till 3 November.

Hajara Ibrahim and Daso Adamu are two out of five known cases in the state, in which women have been sentenced to death by stoning during the recent years. Yunusa Rafin-Chiyawa (35) was the first man sentenced to stoning. He is on the death row since June 2002, when he was convicted for allegedly having a sexual relation with the wife of a friend. There may be more cases. Sharia sentences go often unreported, as they are handed down in small courts in remote areas and the local media keep silent about them. So far, no execution by stoning has taken place. Several stoning judgements have been overturned in the appellate court due to immense international pressure. In 2002, the cases of Safiyatu Husseini in Sokoto state and Amina Lawal in Katsina state have been reported all around the world and unleashed a storm of protest. [See reports in Bulletin # 88, # 93 and # 102.]

Since Nigeria's return to civil rule in 1999, twelve predominantly Muslim states in the North of the country adopted Islamic Criminal Law. In the process, communal clashes erupted in many parts of the country and thousands were killed. Sharia punishments like flogging, amputating arms or legs, stoning to death etc. are not only barbarian and inhuman, they are also violating the constitution of Nigeria as well as several international human rights.

Germany: Headscarf ban for Christian nuns

Now, Roman Catholic nuns, teaching in German state-schools, may have to remove their habits before going to classrooms. If there is a local ban on Muslim teachers wearing headscarves at school, it must apply to teaching Christian nuns also, ruled the German Federal Administration Court. "Exceptions for certain forms of religious motivated clothing in certain regions are out of question."

In September 2003, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that the decision about Muslim teachers' headscarves should rest with the states. In April 2004, predominantly Roman Catholic Baden-Wuertemberg (BW) was the first German state to pass a ban. It was almost unanimously backed by the state parliament - dominated by a coalition of the opposition Christian Democratic Union and the liberal Free Democrats.

The move was triggered by Fereshta Ludin, who was denied a teacher's job in BW five years back, as she insisted on wearing her scarf. She filed a case and quoted the constitution granting her freedom of religion. The case went up to the highest court, which ruled in September 2003 that there was, in fact, no law that could stop Mrs. Ludin from wearing her scarf at school, but that from now onwards, the states should be free to pass such a law. BW was fast to do so. Meantime five out of the sixteen states are in the process of passing similar legislations.

While the ban of Muslim headscarves enjoyed wide support in BW, there is strong opposition against Christian nuns being forced to shed their headgear. Law professor Ferdinand Kirchhof, the author of the anti-headscarf legislation, defends the nuns' habits as "professional clothing", which cannot be subject to any ban.

Tanzania: Witch Football

Mwina Kaduguda, former secretary general of Tanzania's Football Federation, revealed in a TV talk show, why Tanzania had been unexpectedly defeated by Kenya in the preliminary round of World Cup qualifiers. Though well prepared and able to win safely, the Tanzanian players did not put up a serious fight, said Kaduguda, as they were angry and disappointed that the Federation had failed to pay them their match allowances. The money, 140 US Dollars per player, had been earmarked and kept ready for the game. He had personally accompanied the team to Nairobi, he said, and they were waiting for his colleagues to bring the money. They came, but instead of the money they brought a witchdoctor, whom they had hired for the amount.

Belief in witchcraft had caused other controversies also, Kaduguda reported. Recently, the federation had to penalize two top teams, Simba and Yanga, for performing strange rituals during matches. When a Tanzanian team played in Egypt last year, the African Football Council received complaints about their "improper" behavior during the match.

Spain: Let the Church finance itself!

Spain is rapidly transforming itself into a secular country, since the socialist government under Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero took power in March 2004. Now the government has set up a timetable to cut the state funding of the Roman Catholic Church half - a first step on way to zero. Up to now, more than 136 million Euro (nearly 174 million US Dollars) have been annually flowing from the state coffers into the alms-bag of the Catholic Church. The government also called off an arrangement that allowed Spanish taxpayers to offer a percentage of their taxes to the church. And it established a commission to implement the ban of crucifixes on public buildings. Though Spain is according to its 1978 constitution a non-denominational country, the Roman Catholic Church has been running on state funds and enjoying many privileges, which are now step by the step being scrapped.

Major changes are being implemented in the educational sector. One of the first acts of the new government was to scrap the education bill, approved by the Vatican-friendly previous Peoples' Party government, which would have made religious education for Spanish school children a compulsory exam subject like mathematics. According to a new draft legislation presented in parliament, religious education will now be optional. It is planned to offer besides lectures on Christian religion (not only Catholic, but also Anglican and Protestant) also lessons in Judaism and Islam. Now, there are 32,000 religious teachers, appointed by the bishop and paid by the state via government subsidies. In future teachers for religion will be regular state-employees like all other teachers. There will also be a new compulsory subject in Spanish schools: "education in citizenship", aiming at cultivating democratic values. The bishops have already expressed their dismay about it as they fear it would "indoctrinate" children against the church.

Three more government drafted legislations are presented in parliament, which promise to bring Spain out of the shadows of the Roman-Catholic church: The new divorce law will make divorce far easier and faster. The new abortion law will allow abortion within a stipulated time without giving reasons. The new marriage law will give same-sex couples equal legal status.

Spain's move towards secularism makes the bishops see red. Their outcry about the "moral degradation" of legislation and about the country's "general apostasy", however, does not have much echo among the population. Surveys show that a strong majority is in favor of the government's planned laws. 72% want to see that the church is left to finance itself. Though about 90% of the Spaniards are formally Catholics, only 25% are practicing their religion, among them few youngsters. The new policy, says Premier Zapatero, is exactly what people have voted for. "What the government will put before parliament is strictly a reflection of what was supported on polling day."