The woman, 22, who is going by the pseudonym Sarah, lived under Islamic rule in Kano State. That territory is roughly the same size as Massachusetts, with a population of 17 million, that is 95 percent Muslim.
Despite the dominance of Islam in Northern Nigeria, a federal court has ruled the Islamic religious police, known as Hisbah, had no authority to arrest and beat Sarah after she refused to marry a Muslim man, which violated Sharia law.
ADF International, which is following Sarah’s case closely, reports the young woman was arrested by the Hisbah after her own Muslim siblings turned her in. After her arrest, she was beaten by police and ordered to accept the marriage, but she refused. After being released, she fled her own home to live with a Christian family, the Abaras, where she learned about the gospel and became a Christian.
The federal court ruling came after Sarah, with help from ADF International, filed a rights enforcement petition in a neighboring state in February.
Sarah’s legal demand for individual rights, and now the federal court’s ruling, come after tens of thousands of Christians have been slaughtered by Muslims in Nigeria.
Describing the legal fight on “Washington Watch,” ADF senior counsel Sean Nelson said the federal court ruled the forced marriage and arrest violate the Nigerian constitution.
“The court ruled that she deserved to be protected, that she specifically had the right to become a Christian, and that anybody else would have the right to become a Christian,” he said.
ADF is now representing the Abaras family, which is accused of kidnapping Sarah.
“This is a family,” Nelson said, “that got her to safety, but the Kano State police have accused the family of kidnapping this young woman, which is totally false. It's outrageous.”
The family’s criminal case is helped by this court ruling for Sarah and by her own testimony that she was helped – not kidnapped – when her life was threatened, Nelson advised.
