Laws of men
The case of Amina Lawal drags on, again, with the case now adjourned until September 25. Perhaps her lawyers will manage to argue a loophole that allows the men of the Shariah court to “save face” and acquit her. Instead of saving their faces, they should be rubbing the medieval scales from their eyes to see the Enlightenment. But perhaps it’s too comfortable, from where they sit.
If anyone gets her out of the country, she’s welcome to sleep in our loft.
Comment by Joel — September 1, 2003 #
Just remember she comes with 3 children, so make sure you’ve plenty of room. It’s a horrifying situation, though. I blogged about it back in early May (on the 4th and on the 10th), but then was cautioned by a column that Michele Landsberg of the Toronto Star had. Her Nigerian feminist friends told her that all the protests might make the male oligarchy/ status quo tighten their grip (and my son pointed out that Nigeria is split North-South, a secular and religious split. The secular section runs the country, which the religious section resents. Protests are registered with the secular government, which has little power, however, in the religious section where Amina’s case is at issue.) I take Landsberg’s caveat seriously since her husband is Stephen Lewis, the former Canadian ambassador to the UN, former head of UNESCO (I think), son of David Lewis (former head of Canada’s NDP, the socialist party), and Landsberg & Lewis’s son Avi is married to the terrific Naomi Klein of No Logo fame (he had his own CBC tv show too); Naomi’s brother Seth is in the forefront of a leftwing policy thinktank alternative to the rightwing Fraser Institute in Vancouver. Landsberg’s in the thick of policy wonkland, in other words, and part of Canada’s first family of lefties, so when she said put the brakes on the protests, I paid attention. She recommended donating money to Amina’s legal fund:
BAOBAB/WLUML-AME Legal Defence Fund, c/o BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights, P.O. Box 73630, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria
Of course, in the wake of all the spam from “Nigeria” promising money to us, it’s a little bit of stretch to send it back the other way around. Too bad they don’t have PayPal, though.
Comment by Yule Heibel — September 2, 2003 #