In the northern Nigerian state of Sokoto, a woman is...

In the northern Nigerian state of Sokoto, a woman is awaiting the outcome of an appeal against a conviction for adultery by an Islamic, or Sharia, court. If the appeal fails, Safiya Hussaini will be stoned to death.
Under a revised Sharia criminal code recently introduced in the mainly Muslim states of northern Nigeria, the punishments of amputation for theft, stoning for adultery and flogging for the drinking of alcohol are all now on the statute books.
Although sentenced to death, Safiya Hussaini is not in custody. She is living with her family in the small village of Tungar Tudu, 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the state capital, Sokoto.
In a small hut, sitting next to her blind father, she tells her story. She holds a little girl in her arms.
Almost a year old now, Adama was conceived as a result of the allegedly adulterous relationship.
This is very much a village dispute. The man, Yakubu Abubakar, already married with two wives, was called in to Safiya's family house to discuss the relationship.
He was asked by Safiya's father whether he was prepared to marry her, or at the very least pay for the upkeep of the child.
According to Safiya, in order to escape his obligations, the man took the matter to the police, and ultimately to the courts.
Safiya now claims that she was raped. It is the basis of her appeal against the death sentence.
The man she names as responsible was also charged with adultery but he was acquitted by the same Sharia court that convicted Safiya. A confession of adultery that he made to her family, in the presence of two policemen, was retracted in court. He even told the judge he had never met Safiya, despite coming from the same village.
Under Islamic law, if a man withdraws his confession, he must be acquitted, unless four men can be made to testify that they witnessed the adulterous act.
For a woman, the burden of proof is simpler. The only evidence required, in the version of Sharia law adopted in Sokoto state, is that the women has become pregnant outside marriage.
If the women was considered a virgin before the relationship, the charge is fornication and the sentence is flogging
But if she is married or even, as in Safiya's case divorced, then this is considered to be adultery and the mandatory sentence is death by stoning.