Are Men and Women equal under Islam?

Is there anyone out there with a deep knowledge of Sharia/Islamic law? This lady, and others like her, requires urgent assistance/pressure from the world community

Friday, 19 October, 2001, 17:25 GMT 18:25 UK

Nigerian appeals Sharia sentence
The introduction of Sharia sparked tension between Christians and Muslims

A woman in Sokoto in northern Nigerian is to appeal against the first death sentence passed since the state adopted strict Islamic Sharia law last year.

On Tuesday, a Sharia court sentenced 35-year-old divorcee Safiyatu Husaini to be stoned to death for adultery.

Residents in her village of Tungan Tudu reported the case to the police when they discovered that Miss Husaini was pregnant.

Although she was sentenced to death, Judge Alhaji Muhammad Bello Sanyinlawal acquitted 60-year-old Yahaya Abubakar, accused of impregnating her.

Confession

Mr Abubakar, who is her cousin, is said to have admitted to police that he had sex with her three times.

But the judge dismissed the testimony of the three policemen who heard his confession because, under Sharia law, four witnesses are required in a case of this nature.

Multi-ethnic Nigeria has been bitterly divided over Sharia

Miss Husaini told the BBC she would fight the verdict,

"I do not agree with it because it is wrong and because he is guilty and he should be made to swear by the Koran," she said.

The judge said that the sentence should be carried out after Miss Husaini has weaned the eight-month-old baby girl that resulted from the affair.

She was also given one month to appeal against the judgement.

Crime and punishment

Sokoto is one of more than a dozen states in predominantly Islamic northern Nigeria which have adopted Sharia law in the past two years.

A teenage mother Bariya Ibrahim Magazu was given 80 lashes early this year for committing adultery in neighbouring Zamfara, the first state to fully implement Sharia.

An elderly man was also sentenced to death by stoning for sodomy with a minor in Kebbi state, but that sentence is yet to be carried out.

Two people found guilty of theft have had their hands cut off in Zamfara and Sokoto states.

Hundreds of people were killed last year in clashes between Christians and Muslims after the introduction of Sharia in some northern states.

The country's second city of Kano has also been hit by outbreaks of violence between the two faiths in the wake of the US bombing of Afghanistan.

-- The BBC Online News

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim
Asalaam Aleikum,
I am not a qazi or a mufti, nor am I a scholar on Islamic law. But all Muslims are required to have a basic understanding of the Sharia if they are to practice Islam properly in their daily lives, Inshallah. So I will tell you what I know about the subject.
Since this woman is a widow and not married, she is NOT committing adultery. She is however, commiting fornication, which is punishable by adminertering 80 lashes to the woman in front of a group of believers. However, four men of credible witness must have been present to witness actual penetration to prove her guilt (I'm not sure what the case is if she admits guilt, since it seems that she did, and she is obviously guilty as she is with child). If the elderly man who impregnated her is married, then he IS an adulterer and his punishment is being stoned to death, provided the act was witnessed by four credible men.
This is not harsh. This is the will of Allah as expressed in Surat An Nur in the Holy Quran. The Sharia of Allah Ta'ala is intended to be used to keep order in society.
However, women have been oppressed by it for centuries since the only people in positions to interpret it were men who had it in their interest to exact mysogynistic and unfair judgements on women.
If this Nigerian women IS a fornicator, she should be lashed 80 times. But if she is sentenced to stoning, this would be yet another example of the sad reality of oppression of women by laws that are meant to protect them and society(i.e the Sharia). This is especially true if the man who impregnated her walks free.
He will answer to Allah on the Day of Judgement for his deeds, and so will we all.
Wa Salaam