Woman Shackled With Baby in Sudanese Prison Faces Stoning for Adultery
By Stoyan Zaimov
, Christian Post Reporter
August 3, 2012|5:07 pm
Sudanese mother Laila Ibrahim Issa Jamool, accused of adultery by her husband, will likely be executed by stoning unless those intervening on her behalf can convince a Sharia-based court to review her case.
The 23-year-old woman was convicted on July 10 in the capital Khartoum, and is currently being kept in prison with her six-month old baby, Sky News reported. It was not made apparent if or when the stoning would take place, however."The appeal is understood to take not less than one-and-a-half months before a response can be got from the court of appeal," said the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA), a women's rights group that is working hard on the case and trying to save Jamool's life.
"During all this time, Mrs Jamool will still be shackled in Omdurman women's prison together with her six-month-old child," the statement added.
SIHA also suggested that the baby is in "poor condition" based on the observances of lawyers coming in to see her mother, and said that they are working to provide professional psychosocial support and medical assessment to both Jamool and her baby.
"SIHA condemns all forms of corporal punishment, but especially as a result of the criminalization of personal behaviors," said Hala Alkarib, Director of SIHA. "The victimization of women as the result of complex socio-economic and cultural relationships must be stopped and Sudan must urgently adopt measure and laws that protect and respect the dignity and the human rights of Sudanese women."
Other human rights groups, such as Amnesty International, have said that the conviction violates Sudanese criminal law and does not meet international standards.
"The stoning sentence was imposed after an unfair trial in which she was convicted solely on the basis of her confession and did not have access to a lawyer," Amnesty International said in a statement.
"Layla Ibrahim is the second case involving a death sentence against a woman by stoning for adultery in Sudan in recent months. On 13 May 2012, 20-year old Intisar Sharif Abdallah was sentenced to death, after an unfair trial, based solely on her confession, which was obtained under duress. On appeal Intisar Sharif Abdallah was retried and the charges against her were eventually dropped on 3 July. She was released on the same day," the organization added, affirming that they were against all forms of capital punishment.
Abduction, Forced Conversion in Egypt: 'Because We Are Christians, We Are Slaughtered'
By Myles Collier
, Christian Post Contributor
July 26, 2012|3:40 pm
A report recently released showcases the dire circumstances that young Coptic Christians in Egypt face on a daily basis including abductions and forced conversions.
The report, "Tell My Mother I Miss Her," was presented during a hearing at the Helsinki Commission which was chaired by Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) and was a follow up to a similar report released in 2009.Commissioned by Christian Solidarity International (CSI) and produced by Michele Clark, adjunct professor at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, and Nadia Ghaly, a Coptic human rights advocate, the report highlights the real and growing threat to young Coptic women in Egypt.
"Unless the Copts and Coptic women and girls are protected … Egypt will not be strong, Egypt will not be stable, and Egypt will not be a successful democracy" Rep. Smith said during the hearing.
The findings added to a previous report by CSI published in 2009 entitled, "The Disappearance, Forced Conversions and Forced Marriages of Coptic Christian Women in Egypt," and aims to illicit action from government bodies and the international community who seem content on turning a blind eye to these continued human rights violations.
"The Egyptians' [government] are not particularly concerned with following up with this, they don't take complaints of disappearances seriously, they don't prosecute the cases and there has not been a single conviction of the abduction of forced conversion of Coptic Women," the report stated.
Another obstacle preventing action on behalf of those women abducted is the fact that the Coptic Church, in Egypt, has limited resources in addressing these growing cases of abuse, which makes combating the issue that much harder.
"The Coptic church itself does not have a cohesive support network or reformed policy for dealing with the issue internally," Clark told The Christian Post during an interview. "This is a systemic war of attrition against women who are part of a Christian minority."
The report details several cases of abductions and forced conversions. One such instance in the report, whose family was interviewed for the report, is listed only as case #6 and describes the abduction of a 23-year-old single woman.
The young women lived at home with her parents. According to the report on Feb. 4, 2011, the young woman was attending an evening church service with her mother. When the pair became separated, her mother tried frantically to find her but was told from a person on the street that a "microbus full of girls stopped and took her daughter."
The report adds that the father of the women abducted knows of other families who have had similar experiences and explained that "because we are Christians, we are slaughtered."
