Susie Steiner explains the Islamic legal system which has sentenced a Nigerian woman to be stoned to death
Why is sharia law in the news?
An Islamic court in Nigeria yesterday upheld a sentence of death by stoning for a woman accused of adultery. The case is the latest in a series of sentences passed under sharia law - a set of religious laws adopted over the past two years in northern regions of Nigeria, which have predominantly Muslim inhabitants.
Sharia law, which derives from the teachings of the Koran and from Sunna (the practice of the prophet Mohammed), is implemented to varying degrees in different Islamic countries - from the beheadings of Saudi Arabia, to the relatively liberal social mores of Malaysia.
What is sharia?
The word sharia means "the path to a watering hole". It denotes an Islamic way of life that is more than a system of criminal justice. Sharia is a religious code for living, in the same way that the Bible offers a moral system for Christians.
It is adopted by most Muslims to a greater or lesser degree as a matter of personal conscience, but it can also be formally instituted as law by certain states and enforced by the courts. Many Islamic countries have adopted elements of sharia law, governing areas such as inheritance, banking and contract law.
What does sharia decree?
Sharia offers a code for living governing all elements of life, from prayers to fasting to donations to the poor. It decrees that men and women should dress modestly, which in some countries is interpreted as women taking the veil and the sexes being segregated.
"Sharia governs the lives of people in ways which are not governed by the law," says Lynn Welchman, director of the Centre for Islamic and Middle Eastern Law. "Over 50 countries are members of the Organisation of Islamic Conference, and you can expect there will be some form of compliance with sharia - either in people's personal lives or enforced through the courts by the state. A lot of states in the Middle East are taking more elements of sharia into their state laws."
What are Hadd offences?
Within sharia law, there is a specific set of offences known as the Hadd offences. These are crimes punished by specific penalties, such as stoning, lashes or the severing of a hand. The penalties for Hadd offences are not universally adopted as law in Islamic countries.
Some countries, such as Saudi Arabia, claim to live under pure sharia law and enforce the penalties for Hadd offences. In others, such as Pakistan, the penalties have not been enforced. The majority of Middle Eastern countries, including Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria, have not adopted Hadd offences as part of their state laws.
Hadd offences carry specific penalties, set by the Koran and by the prophet Mohammed. These include unlawful sexual intercourse (outside marriage); false accusation of unlawful intercourse; the drinking of alcohol; theft; and highway robbery. Sexual offences carry a penalty of stoning to death or flogging while theft is punished with cutting off a hand.
"This is a system of criminal law which has become a potent symbol of Islamisicing the law," says Dr Welchman. "But there is the question of whether it's actually applied in the countries which have adopted it. There is supposed to be a very high burden of proof, but that clearly often doesn't happen in practice."
Many Islamic countries will have adultery and the drinking of alcohol defined as criminal offences in law, but they are not defined as Hadd offences because they do not carry the Hadd penalty. They are often punishable by a prison term instead.
What is likely to happen to the woman sentenced to death in Nigeria?
Amina Lawal, 30, has been sentenced to death by stoning - a fate which would involve being buried up to her neck in sand and have rocks thrown at her head. However, the Islamic court has ruled that the penalty cannot be carried out until Lawal has finished breastfeeding her baby daughter, Wasila, which the judge said would not be before January 2004.
Meanwhile, the sentence is provoking civil unrest, with riots breaking out between Christian and Muslim communities over how far the rule of sharia might spread.
In sentencing Lawal, the Islamic court disregarded an earlier ruling by the federal courts, which deemed the death penalty unconstitutional for offences such as adultery.
The supreme court is likely to step in, particularly as many sharia trials fall short of the expected standards of proof. But it faces stiff opposition from governors of Nigeria's northern states, which have made political capital out of promising a Saudi-Arabian style strictness in the adoption of sharia, offering it to the disenfranchised poor as a way of improving their lives. In the past two years, 12 out of Nigeria's 36 states have adopted sharia law.
What sentences have been passed down so far in Nigeria?
Safiya Hussaini, 35, was sentenced to death by stoning in October for allegedly having a child with a married neighbour. She had the child after her divorce, but maintained the father was her former husband and that they were married when the child was conceived. The court convicted her, but Hussaini won an appeal, this time alleging that she had sex out of wedlock before sharia law took effect. Amina Lawal put forward a similar argument during her trial, but it was rejected by the courts.
Last year, a teenage single mother was given 100 lashes for adultery, even though she argued she was raped by three men. The court said Bariya Ibrahim Magazu could not prove that the men forced her to have sex.
In May this year, a sharia court in Jigawa sentenced Sarimu Mohammed, 50, to death by stoning for raping a nine-year-old girl - the first death sentence imposed on a man for rape or adultery. In Bauchi, Adama Unusua, who is 19 and pregnant, was recently sentenced to 100 lashes for having sex with her fiance.
Will sharia law prevail in Nigeria?
The issue is already provoking violence between Muslim and Christian communities, particularly in the south, where sharia law is not in force. Nigeria has a Christian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, who hails from the south. He has stated that "sharia is not a new thing and it's not a thing to be afraid of", and said the federal government would not dispute the rights of states to use it. General Obasanjo received significant support from northern Muslims at the last election.
He has attempted to deal with the sharia problem through compromise, by persuading courts in the north to modify their sentences. In March, the government ruled that the strict version of sharia law practised in Nigeria's north was illegal under the country's constitution. Though it did not explicitly mention the case of Safiya Hussaini, the ruling came days before her appeal hearing.
The justice minister, Godwin Agabi, wrote to the 12 northern states which have Muslim majorities, saying that "a Muslim should not be subjected to a punishment more severe than would be imposed on other Nigerians for the same offence". Mr Agabi noted that Nigeria "cannot be indifferent" to international outrage over the sentences. The situation is likely to be further inflamed in the run up to elections in April 2003.
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