of His Prophet: He revealed Aisha’s innocence and
instituted the stipulation of four witnesses for sexual sins:
‘‘Why did they not produce four witnesses? If they could
not produce any witnesses, then they were surely lying in
the sight of God’’ (Sura 24:13).[55]
Some Muslim authorities continue to insist that four male
witnesses who saw the act itself must testify in any case
involving sexual sin.‘Umdat al Salik, a classic manual of
Islamic law that has been translated into English as Reliance
of the Traveller, dictates that ‘‘if testimony concerns
fornication or sodomy, then it requires four male
witnesses.’’[56] According to AlAzhar University, Reliance
of the Traveller‘‘conforms to the practice and faith of the
orthodox Sunni Community.’’[57] Consequently, it is
almost impossible to prove rape in lands that follow this
understanding of Islamic law, the Sharia. If the required
male witnesses cannot be found, the victim’s charge of rape
becomes an admission of adultery. This accounts for the
grim fact that as many as 75 percent of the women in prison
in Pakistan are behind bars for the ‘‘crime’’of being a rape
victim.[58]
This grim scenario played out recently in Nigeria. Two
Muslim women, Sufiyatu Huseini and Amina Lawal, who
stated but could not prove they were raped, were given the
death sentence for adultery. Fortunately, neither sentence
was carried out after rights groups worldwide brought
tremendous pressure upon Nigeria’s Sharia court. Before
Huseini’s sentence was revoked, however, it threw into
sharp relief the differences between Christianity and Islam.