Rome conferred honorary citizenship on a Nigerian woman...

Rome conferred honorary citizenship on a Nigerian woman who was sentenced to death by stoning by an Islamic court but acquitted on appeal after an international outcry.Safiya Hussaini, carrying her infant daughter, received the honour from the mayor, Walter Veltroni.The title of "citizen" is purely honorary and carries no residency or any other legal rights. Hussaini, whose rugged face makes her look twice her 35 years, managed a timid, nearly toothless smile from under her yellow turban, confused by all the attention on her first trip outside Nigeria's remote northwestern Sokoto state."You don't know me and I don't know you but I am most grateful to you for saving my life. God bless you all," she said, speaking in Hausa through an interpreter.Hussaini, whose village has no electricity, running water or paved roads, was literally a world away in Rome, where she was driven in a luxury car to receive honorary citizenship in a building designed by Michelangelo."Now that I am free I will pray to the Almighty God to allow Amina to be free too," she said at a conference in her honour as her year-and-a-half-old daughter Adama cried for attention.In August, a Nigerian court rejected an appeal by 31-year-old Amina Lawal Kurami, who gave birth out of wedlock, and confirmed the sharia court's sentence that she be stoned to death.Mayor Veltroni urged human rights campaigners to focus on the fight to save Amina, expressing confidence that the woman's life would be spared."We firmly respect different cultures but we know that certain values cannot be questioned, such as respect for human life. We hope that Safiya's Rome citizenship can encourage the entire world to abolish the death sentence and respect women's rights," he said.Nigeria's ambassador to Italy, Etim Jack Okpoyo, appealed for the international community to ease up pressure on the Amina case."Let me appeal to the entire community to give a respite on Amina Kurami. We have a process in Nigeria that we have to go through in the interests of peace. So please don't write any letters, don't make calls - as you have been doing - Amina also will be free one of these days, for the grace of God," he said.Participants at a conference on Hussaini's case at Rome's Dionysia Centre for Arts and Culture said the developed world had to look beyond the religious aspects of the Nigerian cases. "The problem is lack of education. If the developed world helps us, by the grace of God this kind of thing won't happen anymore," said Hauwa Kulu Sagir-Kumasi, Hussaini's lawyer. "This is not a problem of religion," said Okpoyo, the Nigerian ambassador."This is a problem of development and education. When Safiya is educated she will know her rights, when she is educated she will know what to do at a given time, when she is educated she will not have an unwanted pregnancy," he said. "The developed countries are in the cabin of the ship. Underdeveloped countries like us are on the deck. When the commotion on the deck becomes so much the ship is bound to capsize," he said."You can see now what happens when events in a tiny village in Afghanistan can cause inconvenience for the whole developed world. So, you can no longer close your eyes and be satisfied with where you are," he added.