Amina Lawal is to be stoned to death in Nigeria, for being a single mother. In protest, some Miss World entrants are boycotting the contest there - but not Miss Ireland. Roísín Ingle reports
When the Miss World contestants sashay across the stage in Nigeria's capital Abuja on December 7th, the predictable protests trotted out about this hugely popular beauty pageant will seem trivial in light of the controversy that has engulfed the competition.
In the north of the country, where the Muslim Sharia laws take precedence over federal law, a 31-year-old woman has been sentenced to death by stoning for the "crime" of having a baby out of wedlock.
If the authorities have their way, Amina Lawal will be buried up to her neck in sand and pelted with heavy rocks until she dies. This, say the courts in her home of Katsina, will not happen until 2004, when her eight-month-old baby daughter, Wasila, has been weaned. Swimsuits and sexism have never seemed less important.
Despite assurances by the Nigerian president that after the case goes to the supreme court the stoning will not go ahead, a small number of the participants have boycotted the contest. One of these, Miss Denmark, a hairdressing student told The Irish Times she felt so strongly about the treatment of women in the country that "I wanted to protest and staying away is the strongest way to do that". In the words of Miss France, another of the entrants who refused to attend the competition, "when a woman faces the most agonising death, there are more important things than winning a crown for being beautiful".
Countries such as Italy, South Africa and Spain have joined the boycott but most of the representatives of participating countries, including Ireland - represented by Lynda Duffy - are already in Nigeria.
For their part, the competition organisers say being in Nigeria and highlighting their objections to the barbaric Sharia laws is a more effective form of protest. Cancelling the pageant, they maintain, would only further isolate the fledgling democracy in Nigeria.
"We are here to put Nigeria on the map of international beauty," said Julia Morley, Miss World Organiser, on arrival in the country this week.
At home, a spokeswoman for the Miss Ireland organisation said they had been guided by the Miss World organisers. "Amina Lawal herself has urged contestants to come to the country," she said. "We believe the issue will be highlighted much more strongly by the contestants being in the country."
Already, the contest date has been changed to accommodate the Muslim festival Ramadan. Four majority Muslim states have ruled that the contest will not be shown on television or radio and issued "plagues of curses and bad luck" on a competition they have dubbed a "parade of shame".
The Nigerian government is adamant that Sharia law will not take precedence over federal law.
"No Nigerian has ever been stoned to death and the government will never allow any Nigerian to be stoned to death," said the junior foreign minister, Dubem Onyia.
In January last year, however, a 17-year-old mother was publicly flogged for the "crime" of having a baby after she was raped by three men. Two years ago, an 18-year-old woman was given 100 lashes for having pre-marital sex.
Tom Kitt, Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, has condemned the death sentence but a spokesman for the department said: "We are not going to make any statement on Miss World," he said. "It is a private competition".
Other governments have been more forthcoming about what has become a divisive political issue. Miss New Zealand's decision to travel to Nigeria was criticised by the prime minister of that country, Helen Clark, who said it was "incongruous for there to be a beauty pageant celebrating women when in other parts of the country a beautiful young woman has been sentenced to death".
Labour TD Jan O'Sullivan is unequivocal: "I would call for the Irish entrant to return from Nigeria and join the boycott. It would make a very strong statement against the practices in that country that have enormous humanitarian consequence particularly for women". Progressive Democrat TD Fiona O'Malley agrees: "Surely the way to make the strongest statement possible is to boycott the whole thing".
Fianna Fáil TD Eoin Ryan believes that the women, including Miss Ireland, should ask to meet Amina Lawal. "This would hopefully cause embarrassment to the government and heighten the awareness of contestants about the way women are treated in Nigeria," he said.
Despite the very vocal objections by a Nigerian government desperate to expand its tourism market in Africa's largest country, President Olesegun Obasanjo, is a little more ambiguous about Sharia law.
"We have Sharia law in our constitution. Sharia has always been part of our life in Nigeria," he said in a recent interview, defending the right of northern states to set their own laws.
Commentators suggest a political battle with Sharia officials is the last thing he wants six months before he goes to the polls seeking re-election.
A Save Amina petition on the Internet (www.saveamina.com) has already garnered thousands of signatures and Miss World participants are expected to make a protest during the competition. But some observers feel such a protest will have little or no impact and fear the issue will fade into the background when the Miss World circus, under its official banner of Beauty With Purpose, trundles gracefully away.