Dear Networkers,

The year 2002 was a very exciting and busy one for this network. Our membership increased to over 1300 organisations all over the world. The network became more interactive with members utilizing the medium for information sharing, advocacy and solidarity.

Our Women's Rights Watch Legal Aid Clinic rendered legal advice online to victims of gender persecution and submitted a legal opinion to an assylum proceedings in far away Canada ( this is the second time we are rendering such services on behalf of Nigerian women, the first one was in The Netherlands in 2001)

Our online petition has also been very successful and has attracted signatories from all over the world including a British Member of Parliament . For this I would like to thank Pamela Watson of Strategy Safari and Marlyn Tadros of Virtual Activism for their inspiration and technical advice. Still on Virtual Activism, the organisation has been very helpful in bridging the digital divide by designing websites for African organisations free of charge. Our organisation and SWAPHEP( another networker have benefited from this assistance- you can check them at www.virtualactivism.org . We also acknowledge the immense contribution of our web host KABISSA SPACE FOR CHANGE IN AFRICA by providing free web services for African civil society organisations.

We also received enquiries from researchers, journalists, lecturers, students and members of civil society organizations from all over the world on some of the issues we have worked on. One of our objectives is to create a database on all known instances of gender persecution in Nigeria, therefore our archives are open to the public and we continue to refer people to it.

We dealt extensively with the following issues this year:

We dealt with the introduction of Sharia Criminal law into Nigeria and the death by stoning penalty for Adultery. The first victim of that law was Safiya Hussaini .Her conviction generated international and national outcry by civil society world wide. This network received hundreds of letters in support of Safiya. Our Legal Clinic dispatched a petition to the Governor of Sokoto State we also travelled 1000 km by road to show solidarity with Safiya at the hearing of her appeal in The Sharia Court of Appeal.We thank three of our networkers who sent donations to us to augment our expenses, we are indeed very grateful

.International support for Nigerian women has been tremendous, our Nigerian embassies received millions of petitions world wide protesting the death by stoning penalty. We also reported that French Women marched in Paris to support Safiya, musicians in the UK, schoolgirls in Washington. .Also in Italy there were rallies on behalf of Safiya and an Italian football team and their wives wore Safiya's picture on their jerseys and T- shirts during matches to create awareness on her plight.Ugandan women also staged a rally in Uganda to protest the death sentence on Amina Lawal.. We at Women’s Rights Watch staged a ‘Save Safiya Rally’ on International Women’s Day , March 8th to draw attend of Nigerians to her plight ,the rally was shown on national network television and was widely reported in opur national dailies.

Happily Safiya was set free on appeal and she has since been relocated to a safer place. Recently Safiya was given an award by the city of Rome and she went personally to receive it. However some Islamic groups here in Nigeria also protested the Italian award and threatened to kill Safiya if she converts to Christianity. Safiya has however relocated to a safer place.

Other victims of the Adultery penalty are Hafsatu- she was freed on appeal. Amina Lawal - she lost her appeal against the death penalty and her further appeal to the Court of Appeal is pending. Furthermore 92 prostitutes were arrested in Kebbi state, four await amputation in Bauchi, two men were charged to court in Mada over conversion to Christianity. The prosecutor demanded the death penalty. Happily the men were discharged and acquitted. A 19-year-old woman from Zaki local government area of
Bauchi State, Adama Yunusa, who dragged her fiance,
Isa Katagum, before a sharia court over unwanted
pregnancy, would receive 100 strokes for indulging in
immoral act.Some nurses were dismissed from their workplace in Bauchi State for their refusal to wear sharia compliant uniforms.The nurses are Christians and they sued the hospital to court.

Women’s Rights Watch oppose the Sharia Criminal law because the punishment induce torture and is a violation of the UN Convention on Torture of which Nigeria is a signatory. The Law proof discriminates against women contrary to section 42 of our constitution in that the proof of evidence for a male accused of Adultery is testimony from four MALE eye witnesses, but for the woman, her pregnancy or baby is the proof of the commission of the crime. Most of the victims so far have been women, though a cow thief in Zamfara had his hand amputated, a man has also been found guilty of adultery, while another male was beheaded after being found guilty of murder.

Furthermore, section 10 of our constitution states that there shall be no State religion. The implementation of the Sharia law has created State religions because Sharia implementing committees are public servants paid from taxpayers money. Although the protagonists say the law is for only muslims, transportation for all females are segregated and sale of alchohol is prohibited within the State.

Amina's case continued to put Nigeria in the spotlight and appeals for clemency were made by Bill Clinton, Canadian Prime Minister, at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), South Africa,our nobel laureate Wole Shoyinka and so many other world leaders.

With the introduction of Sharia Criminal Law by 18 of the 36 states of Nigeria, the Attorney General wrote to the states advising them on the constitutionality of the law but his letter was totally disregarded by the states.

The Miss World Beauty Pageant was to be hosted by Nigeria in November and The European Union, Islamic groups, the participants and Human Rights Organisations protested the venue. Threats of boycott later waned and 92 participants arrived in Nigeria for the competition .The preliminary part of the competition (photo shoots) were already in progress in Cross Rivers States, when pandemonium broke out. A journalist writing in a national daily This Day, Ms Isioma Daniel, made a comment which muslims considered blasphemous to the holy prophet Mohammed. Consequently, riots broke out in Kaduna State, which led to loss of over one hundred lives, thirty thousand people displaced, the burning of This Day's offices, churches and other properties. The riots spread to the federal capital Abuja. The contestants had to be hurriedly evacuated to London where the pageant was eventually held. Miss Turkey, a Muslim lady, won the competition.

Meanwhile, amidst all the recriminations over the senseless violence, the Deputy Governor of Zamfara State,Mamuda Aliyu Shinkafi issued a fatwa (death sentence) against Ms Daniel. The United States of America,, Salman Rushdie (a previous victim of a fatwa pronounced on him by Ayatollah Khomeni, for his book 'Satanic Verses' which was also considered blasphemous,) The Supreme Council on Islamic Affairs in Nigeria, Jama’tu Nasril Islam (JNI) and many other civil society organisations condemned the fatwa, and asked all Muslims to disregard it..

.We also dealt with Punitive Widowhood Rites and the plight of widows in Nigeria. We are happy to report that so far, three states, Enugu, Edo and Oyo have enacted laws protecting widows from some of the punitive and harmful rites they go through. Oyo State gave the widows the right to inherit their husband's properties. Here in Nigeria, widows do not have a right to inherit property of their husbands under customary law. Under Islamic law, widows inherit a portion of their deceased husband's properties. In Eastern Nigeria daughters cannot inherit property, though the landmark case of Mojekwu v Mojekwu 1997 NWLR(72) declared such custom repugnant to natural justice equity and good conscience. Unfortunately one of our very active women’s rights activists Mrs Oby Nwankwo lost her husband in very tragic circumstances- he was murdered. Mrs Nwankwo’s organasation holds a yearly public tribunal which addresses cases of violence against women. The victims testify at a public hearing of their ordeals and experiences .Enugu State women activists were the first to lobby for a law to prohibit punitive widowhood rites which include shaving of the head,not having a bath for seven days, eating from a broken clay pot ,eating with the left hand, staying in the same room with the corpse, swearing on the corpse, eating kolanut from the corpse’s forehead and in my state, Edo, drinking the water from the corpse and the wife being inherited by another male member of her husband’s family. All these are done in order for the widow to prove that she did not kill her husband. Mrs Nwankwo, who is a lawyer, when she became a widow, with support from fellow activists, was able to resist these traditions. We wish her a very peaceful New Year.

We also discussed the issue Trafficking in women and girls, and the plight of the deported victims of this trans national crime .The victims are usually deported in their hundreds. When they arrive in Nigeria, they are further stigmatized by being detained in the police stations and being forcibly tested for HIV/AID, .they are usually displayed on national television and come home penniless.

We are totally against the treatment of these victims both in the destination countries and in Nigeria. These girls are victims of transnational organized crime and have been denied their fundamental human rights and subjected to untold violence in the destination countries.We have received reports of some girls going insane and some have been murdered, the money they earn goes to the traffickers and some remain in serviude for up to five years before they regain their freedom. We have been told that they are made to have intercourse with at least ten men daily and some are further beaten by these men.. their families in Nigeria are further harrased by these traffickers and the crime is very difficult for the police to investigate because of the conspiracy of fear and silence.Some of these victims are as young as twelve years and the usually come from very poor families.The police, immigration authorities and the Nigerian Government have publicly asserted that they cannot cope alone with the prevention of the crime due to its transnational dimensions . The National Assembly passed a Law against Trafficking in Persons in Nigeria , however the victims are also penalized along with the traffickers. We reported that so far seven persons have been arrested and are being tried under that law.

We also reported the alarming increase of gang rape in Nigeria and the defilement or rape of children. We rendered free legal services to a girl who was gang raped by two boys. We reported a case of a man raping a two year old child in Lagos. His defence was that it was the devil's work

.We also reported the case of Osamagbe Idehen, a girl who was abandoned by her adopted mother on the allegation that she is a witch., she became a street kid, sleeping in churches at night. We took up her case, provided temporary shelter for her and made a formal complaint to the Honourable Commissioner for Women Affairs. The Edo State Government has taken up her case with a view to establishing the legality of her adoption and also trace her roots. She is now in an orphanage and has resumed schooling, she is much happier now and we also try as much as possible to look after her. Meanwhile a US based organisation has indicated interest in her case and we hope they will be responsible for her upkeep.

On behalf of all of us in Women's Rights Watch Nigeria I thank you all for your interest, encouragement, support and active participation in this Network. We wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.

Nogi Imoukhuede
Project Coordinator, Women's Rights Watch Nigeria
www.kabissa.org/mailman/listinfo/womensrightswatch-nigeria
Please sign our petition urging the Attorney General to go to court on Sharia criminal law at http://www.petitiononline.com/wrw/petition.html
Say NO to death by stoning in Nigeria