The winning lawyer discusses death-by-stoning adultery case

By Linda Myers

Hauwa Ibrahim, the lead counsel for a Nigerian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery in a case that captured international attention, spoke at Cornell April 27 in Myron Taylor Hall.

Brad Biren, left, a sophomore in landscape architecture and horticulture, gives Hauwa Ibrahim, right, fresh daffodils following her talk at Myron Taylor Hall, April 27, while Law Professor Muna Ndulo, director of Cornell's Institute for African Development, looks on. Sheryl Sinkow

Now a Humphrey fellow in human rights at American University's Washington College of Law, Ibrahim described how she defended Amina Lawal, who was arrested and charged with adultery in January 2002 by a Sharia (Moslem law) court in northern Nigeria. Lawal's conviction was initially upheld on appeal, but overturned Sept. 25, 2003.

Dressed in a bright-colored Nigerian head scarf and robe, Ibrahim spoke forcefully, with conviction and, occasionally, humor as she described how she came to take on the case and the strategies that she and her team used to defend Lawal. She also spoke about her own path from rural poverty to education, a law degree and a senior partnership in a law firm in Abuja, Nigeria, where she has worked for the past 16 years on pro bono cases involving women and children.

Two important precedents in the Lawal case, Ibrahim said, were recognizing the rule of law, guaranteed under the Nigerian constitution, and accepting the argument that the burden of proof needed to be on the accuser, not the accused. "It was a victory for rule of law, a victory for human dignity and a victory for freedom," she asserted. Among the arguments that the Nigerian court eventually accepted were that: Sharia law was not in effect in the region when Lawal became pregnant, she had not been "caught" in the act of adultery, had not fully understood the proceedings and was not represented by a lawyer during her initial trial.

In hindsight, Ibrahim said, there were other arguments that her team might have presented that also would have earned them a victory. She cited several, including calling for the observance of international human rights instruments that demand human dignity be respected, and citing the impossibility of four people simultaneously witnessing something as intimate as a sexual embrace (under Sharia law, four male witnesses are needed to prove or disprove adultery occurred).

Ibrahim also related how she secretly sheltered Lawal in her own home for 16 months before the favorable ruling, and how she feared at times for her own life as well as the lives of family members. An explosion blew the roof off her mother's house, and mullahs preached against her until she paid them a visit with her face veiled, kneeled before them, berated her own lack of knowledge of the Koran and deferred to their wisdom. "It's important to understand the dynamics of the culture and work within it," she said. "I told them 'I'm a foolish girl. I have no knowledge. I need your wisdom.'" In the end they promised not to attack her publicly but not to support her either.

Her law team kept apprised of local public opinion by talking with the lepers and beggars who are regular fixtures in Nigerian courtrooms and who also go from house to house seeking alms -- and listening to what is being said. In addition, Ibrahim used her eight years of experience as a prosecutor for Nigeria's Ministry of Justice to develop the prosecution's case first, then figure out how to argue against it, using trainers from the religious community.

When the final ruling was delivered, one of the region's chief mullahs, whose wife Ibrahim had befriended, came up to congratulate her. But "victory for us was not just winning in court. It was for the defendant to be able to go back to her community and live a normal life," which Lawal has been able to do, said Ibrahim.

She plans to keep taking on pro bono cases, advocating for justice and encouraging more moderate-thinking Moslems to enter jurisdictions where rigid Sharia law is currently being enforced. "Case by case, we make a little difference, and little differences make the world a better place," she said.

Among the crowd still applauding several minutes after Ibrahim's talk ended was Farah Petiwalla, a first-year LL.M. student at the Law School who did her final thesis on the Amina Lawal case in Professor David Powers' Islamic Law course. "She clarified a lot of concepts in the case as well as what she learned from it that she can use in future cases," said Petiwalla. "She was brilliant, a great speaker and a great example."

Ibrahim's visit was sponsored by Cornell's Institute for African Development and the Law School's Berger International Legal Studies Program. Cosponsors were the Comparative Muslim Societies Program, the Program on Gender and Global Change and the Tompkins County Human Rights Commission.