Beauty pageant in Nigeria should have been canceled

The western African nation of Nigeria will be in the international spotlight for the next two weeks as a result of almost 100 beauty queens from around the globe participating in the Miss World pageant. It's a spotlight that will do wonders for Nigeria's reputation and treasury. But people should not be blinded by the reality that currently exists in Africa's largest country -- a reality that has placed Nigerian Muslim women in harm's way.
Indeed, while Miss World contestants are parading on stage in swimsuits and evening gowns, women in many parts of the country risk being condemned by Shariah courts, which adhere to Islamic law, for not dressing or behaving in a manner that the clerics find acceptable. And the condemnation, in some instances, carries the harshest punishment conceivable.
The recent case of 31-year-old Amina Lawal illustrates the extremism of theocratic government. Lawal, a single mother, was convicted in March of having sex outside marriage and was sentenced to death by stoning. She went into hiding in August after a Shariah appeals court upheld the original judgment. And while officials of the civilian government insist that they will not permit any stoning judgments to be carried out, they have refused to intervene directly in the Islamic court system that handed down the punishment. Since 1999, the Shariah system has been adopted by a dozen predominantly Muslim northern states.
Sheer brutality
For this reason, and for the sheer brutality of the sentence that Lawal and several other Nigerians today face, we believe the Miss World pageant should have been moved. It was only after the world press focused attention on the Amina Lawal story that the government of President Olusegun Obasanjo got involved. In addition, there were threats by beauty queens to boycott the Miss World pageant.
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dubem Onyia contends that Nigeria will use "its constitutional powers to thwart any negative ruling, which is deemed injurious to its people." However, the government has stopped short of issuing a cease-and-desist order against the Islamic clerics. While the constitution does not allow stonings, amputations, whippings or other common punishments called for under Islamic law, there is nothing to prevent future sentences along these lines.
And therein lies the problem. Once the Miss World participants and the large international media contingent have left, women like Lawal will be continue to be in danger unless the theocrats are brought into line.
While only a handful of beauty queens decided to boycott the pageant, it would be a wonderful gesture if those who are in Nigeria would publicly condemn the inhumane treatment of Muslim women anywhere in the world.