Amina Lawal
From Free net encyclopedia
Amina Lawal is a Nigerian single mother. In March 2002, an Islamic Sharia court in the northern state of Katsina sentenced her to death by stoning for adultery for conceiving a child out of wedlock.
The affair exposed civil and religious tensions between the Christian and Muslim regions of Nigeria. The sentence also caused widespread outrage in the West, and a number of campaigns were launched to persuade the Nigerian government to overturn the sentence. The Miss World beauty contest, to be held in Nigeria in 2002, was pulled out of the African nation to protest Amina Lawal's treatment.
On 25 September 2003 the Sharia court of appeal overturned her conviction. The five-judge panel stated that she was not given "ample opportunity to defend herself" in the previous proceedings. CNN reported that since she was pregnant before Shar'ia law was imposed, she was not guilty.