Amina Lawal is freed

The Nigerian Islamic Appeals Court freed Amina Lawal, a young woman sentenced to death by stoning by the Bakori Sharia court in the Katsina Islamic state of Nigeria. Lawal was accused of having a child out of wedlock and subsequently found guilty by the Sharia courts. The Appeal Court's decision saved Lawal from a death sentence imposed by the lower courts. Lawal's case became an international case that highlighted the plight of women in Nigeria's northern Muslim states, which were given self-autonomous status under Nigeria's federal system. Click here to read more about the case and Sharia law. Click here to read more.