Amina Lawal is going to die. She is the 30 year old Nigerian woman who has been sentenced to death by stoning. Her unforgivable “crime” was to have a baby outside of wedlock. Her lawyers hint that the pregnancy may be as a result of rape but the father of the baby faces no charges for either rape or adultery. Sharia (Islamic) law says that either he must confess (unlikely under the circumstances) or four men must testify against him and so far no one has stepped forward to do so.

The Regional Court in Katsina State, Nigeria, where Amina lives has ruled that as soon as her eight month old baby girl, Wasila, is weaned Amina is to be taken out to a public place, buried in the dirt up to her chest and struck with stones until she dies.

The governor of Katsina will not interfere with the court’s decision. Olusegun Obasanjo, the president of Nigeria has said he will “weep for Amina and for Nigeria” if the sentence is carried out but he won’t do anything to stop it. A college professor friend of mine shrugged when I told him this story and said, “It’s disgusting but that is those people’s culture.” My professor friend is wrong.

No Nigerian has ever been stoned before. Amina Lawal lives in the North of Nigeria which is now dominated by Muslims. The Southern half of Nigeria is largely Christian. Sharia law was first introduced in Zamfara and spread to nine other states. Why has the harsh Sharia law been embraced in so many parts of the country? Nigeria is under enormous internal pressure. Although it is blessed with numerous natural resources, decades of national strife has made it impossible for most of the population to benefit from them.

According to the U.S. State Department, the country suffers from frequent outbreaks of inter-ethnic and religious violence. It has a very high rate of crime and it’s common for tourists to be victimized by robbery, extortion, carjackings and kidnappings. Public transportation, driving at night and even taking a cab there is considered dangerous. Sharia promises an end to all that. According to its supporters crime has gone down in the nine states that use it. There are people in her country who feel that Amina Lawal’s life is a small price to pay for peace in the streets.

Amnesty International has launched a world wide campaign to keep Amina’s story in the news and to save her life. So far over 1.3 million people have signed an internet petition asking that she be spared the death penalty. Several contestants in the Miss World beauty pageant have stated that they will not attend the pageant if it is held in Nigeria and the leaders of several countries have made appeals to the Nigerian government on Amina Lawal’s behalf. Until Oprah Winfrey discussed the case on her show a few days ago most Americans knew little about it..

It’s strange that the very people who you would expect to come racing to her defense in the United States have largely ignored the story of Amina Lawal. Where are America’s feminists? This is tailor made cause for them but instead of fighting for this poor, terrified African woman, their main concern right now is to force the Augusta National Golf Club to accept a few rich women as members.

Jesse Jackson has spent a lot of time in Africa and Al Sharpton’s “fact-finding” trip to Sudan was not that long ago, yet they both are silent. Randall Robinson’s group, Trans Africa, along with the NAACP and several other black American organizations were especially active in the crusade to free Nelson Mandela and the struggle to end apartheid in South Africa. Where are these groups now? I guess the hideous torture of a black woman only really matters if the torturer is white.

Unless something is done, as soon as Baby Wasila is weaned her mother’s will be dragged away and cheering spectators will watch as a shower of rocks ends her short, unhappy life. This brutal execution will happen before the horrified eyes of the world. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country is technically a democracy. If Amina Lawal, and who knows how many women after her, are to be stoned to death, then that democratic status will be nothing but a terrible farce.