Beauty pageant in doubt

last updated 8 January 2015

Abuja, Nigeria

Several nations have withdrawn their contestants from the Miss World competition to protest a Nigerian court’s death sentence for a woman found guilty of adultery. A state court in the Islamic north of the country, operating under the Koran’s sharia law, sentenced Amina Lawal to be stoned to death. She is to be killed once she weans her illegitimate baby. The Nigerian federal government, which does not follow sharia law, said the sentence is likely to be overturned when the case reaches federal appeals courts. “No woman has ever been punished in such a dastardly manner,” said Foreign Minister Dubem Onyia, “and this will not be an exception.” But some countries are insisting that Lawal be freed before they participate in the pageant. France, Belgium, Norway, Kenya, and Switzerland have already withdrawn their contestants.