Hands off Cain met at the Italian Embassy in Abuja,...

Hands off Cain met at the Italian Embassy in Abuja, Amina Lawal with her dauther Wasila Amina is thirty years old and has two children from her two marriages. Wasila was the offspring of a relationship with a man from her village. "I loved all three in the same way and can't say I preferred one to the other for I'm not God," she says evoking the Koran. "At first I didn't feel well, then my stomach grew and I was reported to the authorities by people in my village whom I know well." Muslim fundamentalists, explained the translator. Amina holds no bitterness either towards them or Islam. "When I was condemned to death I didn't feel anything, and I still don't feel anything now, I'm still a Muslim even though Sharia law has dealt me this punishment." She doesn't believe it is possible for a person to change their destiny."Only God can do that, I have no dreams or aspirations, only God can decide if life will smile at me". Amina as we saw her seems a world away from the clichéd image portrayed by the international press of a victim, unaware of Islamic law, in rebellion against God and prey to the nightmare of a forthcoming stoning. The interpreter was fundamental to our understanding of Amina's opinions as expressed to us. Abdul limited himself to translating her words, whereas a lawyer may have fed us the line of defence. With us, Amina was a woman of few words: "I don't have nightmares." And regarding the stoning? "I ask God to help me. I pray. God's will be done." Newspapers don't make it to her village and there is no television either, so she was unaware of the Miss World contest due to be held in Nigeria. We informed her that some participants, out of solidarity with her, have decided to boycott the event and that others have decided to participate so as to protest her plight. "Let them come," she stated after thinking a while. "I know things will work out because people are coming from all over the world to see me." What does she think of President Olusegun Obasanjo? "I can neither read nor write, but I've heard he's a good man who is doing all he can for me."