The Sharia’s evidence laws codify unjust and unequal treatment for men and women in such cases. From Reuters, with thanks to JE:
Bauchi, Nigeria: Islamic courts in northern Nigeria have sentenced two women to death by stoning for having sex out of wedlock, but two men whom they said they slept with were acquitted for lack of evidence.
Both sentences have to be confirmed by the Bauchi state governor before being carried out, and are open to appeal.
Nobody has been lawfully stoned to death in Nigeria since 12 northern states introduced sharia law in 2000, because all such sentences have been overturned on appeal.
Hajara Ibrahim, 29, was sentenced on October 5 by a sharia court in the Tafawa Balewa area of the state, having confessed to having had sex with 35-year-old Dauda Sani and becoming pregnant.
The court said it had handed Ibrahim to a guardian “until she delivers the baby before the sentence will be executed by stoning her to death according to the provisions of the sharia penal code”. Of Sani, “there is no evidence to link him with the allegation” and consequently the court had acquitted him.
The second woman, 26-year-old Daso Adamu, was handed the same sentence on September 15 by a sharia court in Ningi area of Bauchi state. Adamu admitted having had sex with a 35-year-old man 12 times, and is now in Ningi prison.