Could you tell us a bit about the law, especially Sharia law, in Nigeria?
Imam: Nigeria has three operating legal systems. The first is general law, a combination of British colonial law and acts or decrees that have been passed by federal government or states or military regimes since 1960. Next are customary laws, a variety of different laws of different peoples that are not in their pristine forms but were changed during the colonial process, often becoming less favorable to women’s rights. The third system is Muslim laws, referred to also as Islamic laws, or Sharia laws. Until 1999, customary and Muslim laws had been restricted largely to family and personal status law—marriage, divorce, child custody, inheritance. In principle, Nigerians had the choice of abiding by general, customary, or Muslim laws. So there have always been parallel legal systems, with some confusion about which law takes precedence over what and when. Dialogue: How does this system affect Nigerian women? Imam: Starting in 1999, a number of states in Nigeria began passing a series of
