Teenage mother’s whipping violated Zamfara’s laws, NGO says

Authorities in Nigeria’s northern state of Zamfara wrongly applied Islamic law in the case of a teenage girl whipped publicly on 19 January for premarital sex, a rights group said on Friday.

Baobab for Women’s Human Rights said that in subjecting 17-year-old nursing mother Bariya Magazu to 100 lashes, officials violated Zamfara’s penal code, which provides for the right of appeal. Magazu was in the process of exercising that right when she was whipped, Boabab said.

“This abuse of power by the Zamfara State government has terrible implications for the rule of law, justice and security in the state. The incident shows up clearly the misuse of religion, as this abuse was carried out in the name of Islamic law,” Ayesha Imam, the Baobab executive director, said.

“The timing (of the whipping) was clearly not part of a normal legal process,” Imam said. “Bariya and her family were informed that the sentence was to be carried out only the night before the whipping.” The next day a car was sent to bring her to the town of Tsafe where she was whipped in public and, “afterwards, humiliated, bruised, crying and in pain, she was left to make her way home alone”.

The group said that, under the penal code, minors could be fined or subjected to no more than 20 strokes of the cane. Moreover, the Islamic court that sentenced her in September disregarded evidence that she was coerced into sex, which had grave implications for rape victims.

“The clear implication of this decision is that men may violate and rape girls and women with impunity in Zamfara, as they will be acquitted so long as they make sure there are no witnesses to their crime,” Imam said.