Apparently embarrassed by the widespread criticism...

Apparently embarrassed by the widespread criticism of the death sentence passed on a pregnant woman by an Islamic court in Nigeria's northern Sokoto State, the federal government joined in appealing against the ruling.
The federal Ministry of Women Affairs filed an appeal at the state's Shari'ah Appeal Court, challenging the lower court's decision.
The Upper Shari'ah court in Gwadabawa, Sokoto, sentenced Safiya Hussaina Tungar-Tudu, 30, to death by stoning on October 9, for adultery after she confessed to being impregnated by one Yakubu Abubakar, whom she was not married to. Abubakar was set free for lack of evidence.
Judge Muhammadu Bello Sanyinawal said the sentence would be carried out as soon as the woman weans her baby, and that she had 30 days from the day the judgment was passed to appeal. Safiya filed an appeal against the ruling in the last week of October.
The case rekindled the controversy surrounding the operation of the Islamic legal code in secular Nigeria, which is almost equally divided between Christians and Muslims.
The federal government, which has been treading carefully considering the sensitivity of religion in the country, did not file any appeal on behalf of those previously convicted under the Islamic law.
President Olusegun Obasanjo has consistently described the Islamic law being practised in a dozen predominantly Muslim states in the north as "political Shari'ah", which he said would fizzle out with time.