Fourteen Year Old Sentenced To Death For Murdering Husband

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Kano, Nigeria- Wasilat Tasi'u,  a 14-year-old child bride was accused of killing her
  35-year-old husband, Umar Sani who died after devouring food that Tasi'u reportedly
laced with rat poison.

  Tasi'u is currently on trial for the murder of her husband. Last Thursday, Tasi'u's father was trying to appeal to Nigerian Court to spare the life of his daughter from the death sentence.
 
 "We are appealing to the judge to consider Wasilat's plea," her father, Isyaku  Tasi'u, told the Associated Press Thursday.

  On Wednesday witnesses told the High Court in Gezawa, a town 60 miles outside Nigeria's second largest city of Kano, that Tasi'u killed her husband two weeks after the wedding in April. Three others allegedly died after eating the poisoned food.

"She was married to a man that she didn't love. She protested but her parents forced her to marry him," Zubeida Nagee, a women's rights activist in Kano, told the Associated Press. Nagee and other activists have written a letter of protest to Kano state deputy governor.

Nagee said Tasi'u was a victim of systematic abuse endured by millions of girls in the region. Activists say the blend of traditional customs, Islamic law and Nigeria's constitutional law poses a challenge when advocating for the rights of young girls in Nigeria.

Justice Mohammed Yahya adjourned the court until December 22nd. Tasi'u is in state juvenile custody.

   In addition to this, many countries in Africa practice such custom. As soon as girls reach the age of poverty, they are expected or even forced to marry. Typically, they don't marry willingly. They are often married off to men who they have no romantic attraction to and most of the time men who are older than them. Much like Wasilat's case she was married to a man that could be her father. All this is done in the name of Islam or Islamic law.

  On the other hand, nothing in Islam says that you have to forced any child to marry or marry a child or a person to someone they don't love. Generally, its more of a cultural practice. Most African families do this because they think that they are being good parents and that they're gaining a good deed from such undesirable action.

    Personally, I have an aunt who was put in the same situation. She wasn't forced to marry but was advised to marry. My aunt as respectful and well-behaved she was didn't want to disappoint her parents because she would always do what they asked for her to do. She went ahead and ended up marrying the man who was about the same age as her. Unfortunately, their marriage didn't last long.
   It wasn't surprising to us when we heard about their divorce because she never was in love with him.

  Me on the other hand can't imagine myself in the same situation because as the rebel I am. The first thing I would've thought about was running away. While its a bad thing to run away from your problems, for me it would be a life and death situation because you don't know the man you're being married off to. He could be an abuser or even worse a murderer. In the end, this is what many young African girls have to go through every year.












Associated Press

 Nigerian child bride could get death sentence

  CBS News

 2014/11/27
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nigerian-child-bride-could-get-death-sentence/

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