What can WE do??!
TV ClubHouse: Archive: What can WE do??!
Dahli | Friday, August 23, 2002 - 11:53 am     Nigerian Mother's Death-by-Stoning Must Be Halted Two news dispatches out of Nigeria cast an appalling light on a nation divided by ethnicity and religion. They ought to generate international outrage. In one instance, a woman's life is at stake; in the other, only a beauty pageant. Both should cause Nigeria and nations dealing with it to question the barbaric manner in which Islamic religious law is applied. In northern Nigeria, an Islamic court threw out an appeal Monday by a woman sentenced to death by stoning under shariah, the name for Muslim law, for having had sex outside marriage. The woman, Amina Lawal, 30, is to be executed once her 8-month-old baby is weaned. Her lawyers are seeking an appeal in Nigeria's highest court, but if they fail, she could become the first Nigerian to be stoned to death since 12 northern states reintroduced shariah in 2000. Shariah is also at the root of a warning issued Monday by Nigeria's Culture and Tourism Ministry to participants in this year's Miss World Pageant, which Nigeria is hosting. Beauty queens have been told to avoid the parts of Nigeria where shariah is enforced because their lives could be at risk; militant Muslims say the contestants offend Islamic customs and have threatened violence against them. The introduction of shariah has left Nigeria in turmoil, with more than 3,000 people killed in Muslim-Christian clashes in the past three years. Lawal is the second woman who bore a child out of wedlock to be sentenced to death by stoning. But in March, an appeals court acquitted Safiyah Hussaini Tungar-Tudu after the European Union led a worldwide appeal for clemency. A similar show of outrage is needed now. That a sovereign nation cannot enforce its civil laws on a good half of its territory and guarantee the safety of foreign guests is lamentable enough. But the horror of Lawal's sentence is unspeakable. How could a civilized nation condone such a punishment? How could its civil authorities stand by and watch a young mother being imprisoned until she is no longer needed to breast-feed her baby and then dragged out to a square, buried in sand up to her chest and stoned to death? How could the women of the world put up with that? It must be stopped. Co |
Corriecat | Saturday, August 24, 2002 - 05:31 am     The first thing I can think of is an email campaign to the pagent organizers demanding they move the pagent. Pagents are already viewed by many as being demeaning to women and now they are holding one in a country which is treating women like this. It will bring more publicity to the problem which could help. |
Reader234 | Saturday, August 24, 2002 - 08:46 am     The first thing I thought of was Maris Leno, Jay Leno's wife. She started the awareness campaign of the atrocities towards women in Afghanastan. I get chills thinking of how horrible women are treated in many parts of the world. You are right to post this, but it is so hard to read, and wonder, what could I possible do, sitting in my comfortable corner of the world? I am so spoiled, not only am I allowed access to this internet world, but dh just brought me a homemade muffin and a steaming cup of hot tea, my favorite. I am spoiled. I have a job that I love, and I'm respected in (teaching) and its too comfortable, as others suffer, we all do. |
Cjr | Sunday, September 15, 2002 - 10:36 am     I just read letter to the editor in People magazine regarding their article on this woman, Amina Lawal, and I can't believe what letter they printed. An American woman wrote in saying if we had laws like this that maybe we wouldn't have so many babies born to babies and into unmarried homes. I am truly disgusted. I cannot believe that this is indicative of the letters the magazine must have gotten. Can an American woman, who has the freedom to write this, really believes that stoning, murdering etc. of women is ok? And dares to write it? And People Magazine printed it??? I did send an email off to People Magazine to let them know how disgusting that was to me. I am in total shock and feel so damn helpless. |
Twiggyish | Sunday, September 15, 2002 - 10:56 am     What happens to the father of the child? Is he without blame? (Not that I think there should be blame) |
Cjr | Sunday, September 15, 2002 - 11:06 am     The father was let go after swearing on the Koran that he never had sex with her, although he initially admitted to being the father. |
Twiggyish | Sunday, September 15, 2002 - 11:21 am     Don't they have DNA tests? This poor woman. |
Dahli | Monday, September 16, 2002 - 10:15 am     The law requires 4 MALE witnesses to state they saw him having sex with her in order to convict him.... however no such requirement exists to find the woman guilty. |
Jewels | Friday, October 04, 2002 - 02:27 pm     For those who may be interested...I saw a commercial that this story is going to be done on Oprah today.  |
Twinkie | Friday, October 04, 2002 - 03:00 pm     Too much barbarism in the world. I'd like another planet please. |
Squaredsc | Friday, October 04, 2002 - 07:07 pm     men. hmph, if not for us there would be no men. i would like to stone him and the court to death. |
Karuuna | Friday, October 04, 2002 - 08:23 pm     What can WE do? Send a letter to the Nigerian embassy, courtesy of the Amnesty International website. It's a form letter, and you send it right from your computer: http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=1807&ms=H4 Or, you can adopt a woman from another country, for $25 a month: http://www.womenforwomen.org/ And you can encourage the United States to meet its obligation under the ICPD (International Conference on Population and Development) Cairo conference on women of 1994, to spend 1.9 billion annually on family planning and reproductive rights. So far we've spent a not-at-all impressive $500 million in 7 years!!! Write your senators!! http://www.senate.gov/ |
Sia | Saturday, October 05, 2002 - 02:24 pm     Read this article at msnbc.com about inhumane treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan: Scraping Bottom in post-war Kabul |
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