A U.S. citizen, who
rushed to his native Sudan to save his pregnant wife from the death
sentence, described his horror at seeing her shackled in a prison cell
with their toddler son.
Meriam Yahya Ibrahim Ishag, 27, was charged
with adultery for marrying Christian Daniel Wani, a Sudanese man with U.S. citizenship who lives in New Hampshire.
She
was sentenced to 100 lashes as the Sudanese court refuses to recognize
her 2011 marriage to Mr Wani because they consider Ishag a Muslim.
The
eight-months pregnant woman, who has a 20-month-old son, was
subsequently sentenced to death for the crime of apostasy. Sudanese law
considers her a Muslim while she has declared that she was raised
Christian and refuses to convert to Islam because Christianity is the
only religion she knows.
She told the court: 'I was never a Muslim. I was raised a Christian from the start.'
Ishag is considered Muslim by the
Sudanese court because her father was a Sudanese Muslim. However the
woman was raised by her Ethiopian Christian mother after her father left them.
She has been shackled at the legs since the sentence was handed down and her feet are swollen, her husband said.
Daniel Wani , a
naturalized American citizen, claims his 20-month-old son, Martin, who
is currently sharing a cell with his heavily pregnant mother in a
Sudanese women’s prison, was born in the U.S.
The father is not allowed to care for Martin because he is a Christian and his son is considered a Muslim.
Originally,
he had been told he would not be allowed to see her so this was a
surprise. He was also told he would only be allowed to see his son
Martin once a week.'
The couple's lawyer is working on an appeal to the 27-year-old's sentence amid mounting international pressure.
KEY VOCABULARY
1. shackle--a pair of fetters connected together by a chain, used to fasten a prisoner's wrists or ankles together
2.adultery-- sex between a married man or woman and someone he or she is not married to
3. lash-- to hit with a lot of force
4. apostasy-- the act of giving up your religious or political beliefs and leaving a religion or a political party
5. amid--in the middle of or surrounded by
6.mounting --gradually increasing
CONVERSATION QUESTIONS
| a)What did you think when you read the headline? |
b)What springs to mind when you hear the word ‘prison’?
c)What does religion mean to you?
d)Is religion always a good thing?
e)Should adultery be considered a crime?
f)What countries do you think have religious freedom?
g)Do people choose their religion or do people’s parents choose it?
h)If religion teaches us that all men and women are equal and we must love everyone the same, why is there so much racism?
i)An American politician once said: “I don't want to send them to jail. I want to send them to school.” What do you think of this? |
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