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Babatunde Adenodi
Pharmacist
East Orange,
New Jersey
 USA

more articles by Adenodi

Alhaji Ahmadu Bello was the best Nigerian muslim ever! He introduced Sharia but without the criminal element of it. He knew Nigeria that well! Those who introduced the criminal part of Sharia in Nigeria have done a great disservice to the memory of Ahmadu Bello.

 

Saudi Arabia: Where rape victim is jailed and lashed!
 by Tunde Adenodi.
 

It happened not long ago in Kano? Hawa, I believe the name was, had a fling. She became pregnant. A regular secular court would think that a man would not be too far from the scene of this “crime”. Not so for Sharia court! She was prosecuted for adultery and was to suffer jail term; but for the intervention of the international community and some Nigerian human rights lawyers. As for Hawa’s baby’s father, he was left off the hook. At this time, Hawa has no husband and the baby has no father. Hawa has no future, and the baby has none either! And the system that makes this possible does not care, if not for Hawa, at least for the innocent baby.

Not often do you hear that victims of gang-rape are prosecuted, jailed and lashed! Yes, lashed! Two hundred lashes on the naked butt of a 19 year old victim of gang-rape. And it could be worse. She must thank her stars that the judges had mercy on her. What if she was to be stoned to death in the market place or executed at a soccer field?! It happened at the height of the Talibans’ reign in Afghanistan. Not more than 3 months ago, the fundamentalists of the red mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan, were on the prowl, enforcing their brand of radical Islamic rule on their neighbors until they were halted by President Paves Musharaf.

There is a 19 year old, betrothed to her fiancé. Before this, she had dated another man who kept some pictures of hers. She wanted to retrieve those pictures and asked a male companion to accompany her. But in a jealous rage, the former boy-friend arranged an attack on her and the male concierge. Seven men raped her in turns and finally left her for dead.

The authorities in Saudi Arabia arrested all the 7 men and sent them in for various terms in jail. But they went further. They prosecuted the unfortunate victim for adultery and sent her to prison for 6 months with 200 lashes! Why? Her mail concierge was not a member of her household, nor was he a member of the household of the fiancé. The law in Saudi Arabia does not allow a woman to go out without a male concierge. And such man must be a sibling or a member of the spouse’s household. Where such man is not available to help the woman, she must not go out! Even to the hospital!

This woman would still be in jail now, but for international out cry against the Saudi government. President George W Bush called up King Fahd and told him to do something about it. Condoleezza Rice spoke to the Saudi foreign ministry and Gordon Brown also intervened. Then King Fahd buckled under pressure. He commuted the sentence to time already served and lifted the sentence on the lashes. He, however, did not pardon her.

In Saudi Arabia, no pardon could wipe out the stigma of “rape” on a victim. She is condemned for life. She will never get a husband. She will be an outcast. Just like Hawa who now lives in a remote village in Bauchi.

A human being is born with 23 pairs of chromosomes which determine everything in the body from hair color, eye color to gender. There are 22 pairs of autosomes and 1 pair of sex chromosomes x and y. In human reproduction, 2 gametes fuse to become a zygote which continues to divide to form a fetus. Each gamete contains 22 autosomes and one sex chromosome. In other words, the male and female produce equal numbers (22) of autosomes and equal number (1) of sex chromosomes x and y. Male gamete has x or y while the female gamete has only x chromosome. When the male contributes gamete that has x which fuses with the female’s x to become xx, then a female is formed. But when the male contributes a gamete with y chromosome, it fuses with the female gamete to form xy and forms a male child. In plain language, the male determines the sex of a child! I repeat: the male partner is the one who contributes the chromosome that brings forth male or female child!

Let me put it this way: wherever a child is born, the male parent is particularly responsible for the sex of that child. The question that arises is this: Why are women on the receiving end of discrimination; the type that seen in muslim societies?

If one drives a car with the intellect, which a woman has an abundance of, why does society ban a woman from driving or from going to school as in the case of the talibans? Why is a victim of gang-rape subjected to such further humiliation from a body that failed to protect her in the first place? Why was Hawa treated with contempt while the man responsible for her situation is left off the hook?

Alhaji Ahmadu Bello was the best Nigerian muslim ever! He introduced Sharia but without the criminal element of it. He knew Nigeria that well! Those who introduced the criminal part of Sharia in Nigeria have done a great disservice to the memory of Ahmadu Bello.

 

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