Somalia – Another Woman Stoned To Death For Adultery

The al–Shabaab rebel group has done it again!  It has condemned another woman in Somalia to death by stoning for committing adultery. Judge Sheikh Ibrahim Sheikh Abdirahman of the al-Shabaab group said that the 20-year old Halima Ibrahim Abdirahman, a divorcee, was stoned to death before 200 people after admitting to having an affair with an unmarried 29-year old man.

Sheikh Ibrahim Sheikh Abdirahman who presided at a Sharia court set up by the al-Shabaab group (believed by the US to be proxy for al-Qaeda) considered Halima Ibrahim Abdirahman to have committed an act of adultery notwithstanding the fact that she was divorced. This, under Sharia law, calls for the death punishment through stoning. Proof of adultery was the fact that she gave birth to a stillborn child. 

How was the stoning done?  First Halima Ibrahim Abdirahman was buried up to her waist.  Then she was stoned till she died.

But what happened to her unnamed boyfriend?  He escaped death, but was given 100 lashes of the cane as punishment. This case is different from another recent case of adultery.  Then, a 33-year old man was executed by being stoned to death for adultery.  His girl friend, who is pregnant with child, has been told that she too will be stoned to death after the birth of her child.

The rebel al-Shabaab group controls extensive parts of Somalia while the UN-backed government of President Sheikh Sharif Sheik Ahmed controls only parts of the capital. Somalia does not have a functioning government for the past 18 years. So what do people think of the Sharia courts set up by the al-Shabaab group?

In an interview with Al Jazeera, East Africa analyst Mohamed Abdullahi said that Islamic law cannot be conducted in a lawless failed state like Somalia.  He said: ”You must have a legal system, a witness system, peace and this is the view of the Somali ulema, the muftis, that no such verdicts can be conducted in Somalia at the moment.”

Referring to the action of the al-Shabaab group, Mohamed Abdullahi said: “What they are doing is atrocious and un-Islamic, as they don’t have at the moment the right investigative judicial setup necessary for such a verdict, in which capital punishment can be brought forward”.

Mohamed Abdullahi summed up the current situation with these words: “The position of the majority of Somalis is that these courts should not be held at all.”

Think about it.  How can any legal system be so contradictory.  In one case of adultery, both parties are sentenced to death by stoning, while in another case, only the woman is sentenced to death by stoning?  Last year, a 13-year old girl reported she was gang-raped, and she was sentenced to death by stoning because her report was interpreted as admission of adultery. Do women in Somalia get any legal protection at all in areas under al-Shabaab rule?

Previous posts

Somalia – Death By Stoning For Adultery
Somalia – Muslim Women Caned For Wearing Bras
Somalia – 3 Men Amputated Under Sharia Law
Somalia – Ringtone Of Muslim Cleric Reading Koran Or Hadith Verse