Nigerian sued over play
2007-10-07 19:39
Abuja - A Nigerian human rights activist is
being sued in an Islamic court over a play he wrote exposing
what he calls abuses and double standards by those implementing
sharia law in 12 northern Nigerian states.
Shehu Sani, a well-known activist and author, said an upper
sharia court in Kaduna state had ordered him to cancel a planned
performance of Phantom Crescent and to stop printing or distributing the play. This was after a group called Concerned Sharia Forum launched a suit against him.
"I wanted to enlighten the citizenry on how sharia is being used to oppress them. It dramatises the human rights abuses and the harassment of women and poor people by members of the Hisbah," he said on Sunday.
Sparked bouts of violence
The Hisbah are sharia enforcement squads active in the 12
Nigerian states that introduced stricter punitive aspects of
Islamic law in 2000 - a decision that alienated sizeable
Christian minorities and sparked bouts of violence that killed
thousands.
Hisbah committees in some of the states have sometimes burnt
books deemed immoral, shut down bars where alcohol was served or
stopped women from using motorcycle taxis to prevent them from
touching male drivers.
"There are so many double standards. It's only the poor who
are oppressed. The governors of sharia states usually loot
public resources while advocating morality," said Sani, who is a
practising Muslim.
The predominantly Muslim north is the poorest part of
Nigeria and has the highest mortality rates.