WOMEN’S HUMAN RIGHTS UNDER SHARI’A:
UPDATE ON RECENT DEBATES AND PUBLICATIONS

Preface to the Second Edition of the Book "Shari'a Implementation in Nigeria" [published December 2004; this version updated June 2005]

by Joy Ngozi Ezeilo & Axel Harneit-Sievers

Since the publication of its first edition in November 2003, the book "Shari'a Implementation in Nigeria - Issues and Challenges on Women's Rights and Access to Justice" has been well received by the reading public in Nigeria and beyond. It is regarded by many as the most comprehensive volume on the subject so far and has been distributed rapidly; hence the decision to publish a second edition. In the meantime, a number of interventions, debates and new developments around women’s rights issues under Shari’a law in Nigeria have emerged. The preparation of this second edition provides a good opportunity to give an overview about the journey so far.

General Observations

The book "Shari'a Implementation in Nigeria" has emerged from a conference on “Women’s Rights and Access to Justice under Sharia”, held in Abuja on February 25th – 28th, 2003. Shortly afterwards, Nigeria’s general elections were held. Even though the election process had numerous flaws, at least it can safely be stated that pre-election campaigning and the elections themselves were not accompanied by a further escalation of the Shari’a controversy in Nigeria. Given the potential of the Shari’a issue to create more conflict in an already deeply divided country – indicated sharply by the violent crisis in Kaduna and Abuja around the Miss World Beauty Pageant in November 2002 –, this came as a positive surprise to many observers. It once more turned out that, at least on the national level, elections in Nigeria cannot be won on a single religious (or ethnic, for that matter) ticket, and that even the perception of a presidential candidate being too. The situation was different on the state level in parts of the North, especially in Kano, where the perceived lack of the incumbent governor’s commitment to the implementation of Shari’a led to a change of government. However, confrontations of this kind remained without major repercussions in national politics.

On 25th September 2003, the Katsina State Shari’a Court of Appeal reversed the two earlier judgments against Amina Lawal, who had been condemned to death by stoning for alleged adultery (zina). This acquittal not only came as a big relief for the human and women’s right community in Nigeria and elsewhere. It also reinforced the hope and expectation, held by many activists and specialists for Islamic law alike, that a careful application of the Shari’a law by well-trained jurists and judges could eventually lead to an end of hudud punishments that are incompatible with internationally accepted human rights standards. For political reasons, a formal abolishment of hudud punishments from Northern Nigerian Shari’a criminal codes continues to appear unrealistic, for the time being at least. However, many observers hold the expectation that a decreasing politicization of the Shari’a issue would ease political tension and thus create a climate in which Northern Nigerian Islamic legal institutions (provided with better training and capacity) would be enabled to deliver more adequate decisions.

Of course, the Amina Lawal case had only formed the tip of an iceberg. A number of other hudud sentences (eg. amputations for persons convicted of theft) remained valid for the time being, with several cases in appeal at higher courts. Even though no hudud punishments appear to have been executed in Nigeria during 2003-04, judicial practices of Shari’a courts dealing with criminal cases continue to give reason for grave concern. Just at time of writing it became known that Shari’a courts in Bauchi State passed two more zina death sentences against pregnant women in September and early October 2004, respectively; one of them was rescinded again by an Upper Shari’a court in early November. These recent developments once more call for the immediate attention of lawyers and activists. They show that the issues raised in this volume remain highly relevant.

Update on Recent Engagements

Women’s Aid Collective [WACOL] and Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre [WARDC], supported by the Nigeria Office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation [HBF], have been among the first to open up the debate around Shari’a, human / women’s rights and access to justice in Nigeria. In October 2002, they organized a conference in Abuja that developed strategies for action,[1] calling for political engagement and debate, as well as public enlightenment and legal training programmes. While the current volume presents results of the political and legal debate largely on the academic level, WACOL and the Department of Public Law, A.B.U. Zaria, furthermore organized a conference addressing judges of higher Shari’a courts in Kaduna on 30th – 2nd December 2003. The conference aimed at disseminating knowledge about the Shari’a Criminal Justice System, at analyzing the perception and application of human rights in the Shari’a Justice System, at identifying the factors and issues that affect the application of human rights provisions by major actors within the system and at providing strategies in improving ways of dealing with offenders or suspects/accused persons with a view to providing fairness to them. The seminar was enthusiastically received as it provided a rare opportunity for the real stakeholders to deliberate on the issue of human rights protection in the Administration of Shari’a Criminal Justice. After the initial euphoria on the part of Muslims following the introduction of Shari’a in some states, many are now beginning to perceive the gaps in the system and the need to address these gaps. The seminar did just that, identifying several areas of controversy and collecting recommendations from the participants.[2]

Throughout the years 2003-04 there has been a huge interest by like-minded organizations, international agencies, NGOs, women’s groups, academic and research institutions and other human rights organizations to deepen the discourse around the subject, all aimed at enhancing the rights of women living in Nigeria and improving their access to justice. A number of events and publications (in chronological order) deserve specific mentioning:

International Conference “Sharia Penal and Family Law in Nigeria and in the Muslim World: A Rights Based Approach” (Abuja, 5th – 7th August 2003)

The conference, organized by the International Human Rights Law Group and supported by the German Embassy in Abuja, brought together Nigerian and international experts on Islamic law and representatives of Nigerian human and women’s rights organizations aimed at providing a forum for the various stakeholders in Shari’a penal and family law to come together and debate various contentious issues that has generated concerns in relation to the introduction of Shari’a penal system in the States in Northern Nigeria. These contentious issues are related to concerns on the possible impact of Sharia penal law on human rights. The conference gave an overview about the application of Islamic law in Northern Nigeria, with a special focus on civil law (marriage and inheritance matters) and the opportunities and constraints it provides for Muslim women. It also discussed the wide variety and diversity of interpretations of Islamic Law and jurisprudence worldwide and in history.[3]

International Conference “Comparative Perspective on Sharia in Nigeria” (Jos, 15th – 17th January 2004)

This conference was organized by the University of Jos in conjunction with the Universität Bayreuth (Germany). It was the culmination of a joint research project of the two universities, sponsored by the Volkswagen Foundation of Germany. The research project’s main objective was to document the various changes affecting the laws governing Nigeria as a result of the Shari’a implementation in about twelve states of Northern Nigeria, and to collect necessary data on the working of the penal code and how it has affected Nigerian Muslims and Christians and shaped their respective identities. The conference in Jos brought together a broad spectrum of academics and independent scholars of Religious and Islamic Studies and the social sciences, as well as religious commentators, from Nigeria, Europe and the U.S. Attended by several hundred participants, the conference turned out to be a major event that went far beyond the academic sphere where it had originated. The conference discussed current academic approaches towards the study of religion and about the meaning of the concept of secularism. A number of papers about Shari’a historicity (i.e., the changes it has undergone over time) and variations in Shari’a interpretation led to highly controversial and sometimes rowdy debates.[4]

"Shari’ah and the Rights of Muslim Women in Northern Nigeria” Report by Ibrahim N. Sada et.al, June 2004

This ambitious research project was conducted by the Centre for Islamic Studies of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, under the Access to Justice programme of the British Department for International Development [DFID], Nigeria Office. The report is one of three parts of a larger project that aims to promote respect for the rights of women in the Northern States of Nigeria through the application of Shari’a-based norms to combat practices and local customs that hinder Muslim women in the full enjoyment of their rights. It sets out a catalogue of both positive exemplary practices and negative harmful practices affecting Muslim women’s rights in Northern Nigeria. It also determines the prevalence of such practices to the extent, as they are determinable in available literature and other relevant media. The report then evaluates the practices as against Shari’a provisions. The adopted methodology involves review of existing literature with the purpose of documenting positive and negative practices affecting women and identifying gaps or issues not covered in the literature. The need for the project is underscored by the fact that women in Muslim societies of Northern Nigeria, as in other societies, suffer various forms of rights violations. However in the case of Muslim women in Northern Nigeria, these rights violations are due to practices that contradict Shari’a, the very norms that Muslims aspire to uphold. The project seeks to employ the legitimacy enjoyed by Shari’a in the Muslim societies of Northern Nigeria as the basis for promoting women’s rights and for combating practices that negatively affect women. Identified practices were analyzed on the basis of [a] description of the practice, [b] prevalence of the practice, [c] evaluation according to Shari’a and [d] what can be done to promote or change the practice. Issues covered in the report include marriage, divorce, inheritance, property ownership and disposition, custody of children, access to justice, criminal justice, access to health and reproductive rights. A key finding of the study is that most identified practices are identically manifested in all parts of the study area, except for the seclusion of women, which is more widespread in Hausa-Fulani areas. It was also found that most of the harmful practices were contrary to the provisions of Shari’a or at best, remotely hinged on some peculiar interpretation of the Shari’a deliberately contrived to support the practice. Most importantly, it was found that ignorance about Shari’a especially by women is the biggest threat to their rights and access to justice.

National Discussion on Shari’a and Women’s Human Rights in Nigeria (Abuja, 28th – 29th June 2004)

The aim of the national discussion, organized by BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights in Nigeria, was to build up on former dialogues, which have taken place on the issue. It also sought to identify some of the blurred issues and areas of misunderstanding concerning the shari’a and effectively resolve and patch these up. By this, it aimed at avoiding a re-occurrence of the situation that gave rise to the international controversy that followed the cases of Safiya Husseini and Amina Lawal. The papers presented covered such issues as ‘Islam, Human Rights and Child Marriage’, ‘Dress Code: The Malaysian Experience’, ‘Hudud and Women’s Human Rights’, ‘Divorce: An Issue for Women in Nigeria’, ‘Child Custody’ and ‘An Overview of the Judicial Sector and the Challenges of Shari’a Implementation’. The forum particularly noted the fact that the uncodified nature of Muslim personal law in the country has left Islamic provisions open to varied interpretations based on the whims and caprices of the judges – a situation that has given room for abuses. The repercussions of this and the mishandling of divorce related cases are mostly felt by women and their wards. The discussion of the papers provoked hot and passionate arguments, soul-searching questions and comments and insightful analysis which all contributed in clarifying the correct position of Islam concerning some of the issues identified. Many participants were disabused of their erroneous views by a logical explanation based on the Qur’an itself.

Training Workshop on Women’s Rights Under the Sharia in Northern Nigeria (Abuja, 23rd – 24th July 2004)

The training workshop, organized for Muslim women and women’s groups by the Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations in Nigeria [FOMWAN] in collaboration with the Open Society Initiative for West Africa [OSIWA], sought to highlight the rights of women as enshrined in the Qur’an and to enlighten the public, especially the women folk, about their rights and for the women to also appreciate and utilize those rights when and where necessary. Some of the papers presented covered topics such as “Fundamental Human Rights in Islam”, which are provided for in the Qur’an, and an in-depth discussion of the Amina Lawal and Safiya Huseini cases. The training surmised that for long, Islam despite its outstanding contributions to human civilization has been erroneously regarded as a factor of cultural stagnation and institutionalized human rights abuses. This was attributed to the over reliance on second-hand materials on Islam by some public commentators who have not bothered to study the Qur’an, the most basic source of Islam.

International Workshop on the implementation of Sharia in a Democracy (Abuja, July 2004)

The workshop was organized by the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy [CSID], Washington D.C., in collaboration with the Center for Islamic Legal Studies [CILS] of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. In attendance at the conference were the Chief Justice of the Federation Mohammadu Lawal Uwais, Executive Governors of Zamfara, Kano and Bauchi States, representatives of civil society and non-governmental organisations. The main objective of the workshop was to create awareness about the principles of democracy under the Shari’a, and about how Shari’a is practiced in other countries. The workshop also sought to analyze the implementation of Shari’a and women’s rights especially in the Shari’a-practicing states in Nigeria. Several papers were presented by experienced resource persons on various topics like “Islam and Women’s Rights”, “Democracy in the Muslim World – Obstacles, Difficulties and Best Methods”, etc.

“‘Political Shari’a’? Human Rights and Islamic Law in Northern Nigeria”. Report by Human Rights Watch, London (September 2004)

In September 2004, the London-based international NGO Human Rights Watch published an extensive, up-to-date survey of the human rights situation under Shari’a law in Northern Nigeria.[5] The report looks at Shari’a in the sphere of criminal law and includes detailed information on cases of hudud punishment. The report also “identifies specific aspects of the legislation and practices which have led or are likely to lead to violations of human rights” (p. 1), including an analysis of the extralegal activities of the hisbah groups and the de facto restrictions on the freedom of expression of opinion posed by the political climate of the North. Based largely outside of the universe of Nigerian public debate and applying the concept of universal human rights standards as yardstick, the Human Rights Watch report provides a reliable source of information.

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[1] Joy Ngozi Ezeilo & Abiola Afolabi (eds.): Sharia and Women's Human Rights in Nigeria. Strategies for Action. Lagos: Women's Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC) / Women's Aid Collective (WACOL), 2003. http://www.boellnigeria.org/sharia_rights.html

[2] Proceedings of this conference are being published as ‘Human Rights Protection in the Administration of Shari’a Justice System’.

[3] Proceedings have been published as Global Rights (ed.): Sharia Penal and Family Laws in Nigeria and in the Muslim World – Rights Based Approach. Zaria: University Press / Abuja: Global Rights 2004.

[4] The proceedings have been published as Philip Ostien, Jamila M. Nasir & Franz Kogelmann (eds.), Comparative Perspectivs on Shari'ah in Nigeria. Ibadan: Spectrum Books 2005. There are at least two published conference reviews: (1) Ibrahim Ado-Kurawa, “Review of the International Conference on Comparative Perspectives on Shari’ah in Nigeria”, http://www.gamji.com/NEWS3239.htm; (2) Axel Harneit-Sievers, “Encounters and No-Go Areas in the Nigerian Debate about Sharia”, Daily Trust (Abuja), 30th January 2004; http://www.gamji.com/NEWS3276.htm .

[5] Human Rights Watch: “‘Political Shari’a?’ Human Rights and Islamic Law in Northern Nigeria”. London, September 2004. Report Vol. 16 No. 9(A). http://www.hrw.org/reports/2004/nigeria0904/