Raped, pregnant teen to be lashed
DA urges government to assist Nigerian girlJanuary 08, 2004 Edition -1
Hans Pienaar and Sapa-AP
The South African government has been urged to call on Nigeria to overturn a sentence of 100 lashes imposed on a 15-year-old girl allegedly raped and impregnated by her stepfather.
The girl, now six months pregnant, will be whipped once she has had her baby, a Nigerian sharia court decided after finding her guilty of having pre-marital sex.
Her step-father, farmer Umaku Tori (45), was sentenced to be stoned to death for adultery last week. The pair have until January 29 to appeal.
Yesterday the Democratic Alliance said the sentence on the girl was an abrogation of several rights, against which the South African government had to take a stand.
The case showed that abuse of women in Nigeria had worsened.
The party's Women's Network co-ordinator, Helen Zille, said she had written a letter to Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma urging her to call on Nigeria to overturn the girl's sentence.
Dlamini-Zuma was expected to respond to the letter today after her return from Haiti, where she attended its bicentennial celebrations.
Zille said it was outrageous that the victim of statutory rape - in most countries the girl would be under the age of consent - should get 100 lashes.
Last year, the case of Amina Lawal succeeded in uniting women across party and religious lines in protest. Lawal's sentence to death by stoning for adultery was overturned in September by a sharia court of appeal after sustained international pressure.
In the latest case, the sharia court in the remote town of Alkaleri, 80km north-east of the Bauchi state capital, heard that the girl's mother married Tori following the death of the girl's father 13 years ago.
In September, the teenager was found to be pregnant. The girl told her family that her stepfather had raped her in July when she took him food while he was working in the fields.
The pair were later arrested by police, and Tori confessed to having sex with the girl on three or four occasions.
Abubakar Imam, an official of the Bauchi state sharia court of appeal, said the girl's sentence was "lighter" because she was a minor, and, being unmarried, did not technically commit adultery, officials said.
In her letter to Dlamini-Zuma, Zille wrote: "If we do not stand up for the rights of an individual in such circumstances, when the eyes of the world are focused on her plight, then how can we expect the world to accept our undertaking to respect and protect human rights under the AU charter."
