In Nigeria, being a young woman 'is a crime', said a beautician who says she was detained, assaulted and then raped by those meant to protect her.
Abuja, Nigeria - In Nigeria, being a young woman "is a crime", said a 25-year-old beautician, arrested two weeks ago while walking home in the capital Abuja."Around 9:30 pm, or 10:00 pm, I was walking back home," she said. "The police arrested me in the street, accusing me of 'being out late'."
Prostitution, although illegal in Nigeria, is still widespread in the cities and often tolerated in the Christian south, but less so in the Muslim north where sharia law applies in some states. "I was there when the girls got out of the vehicles, screaming, and some of them were bleeding," Obono said, adding the women said they had been attacked in the vehicles as they were brought to the police station.One of the women was a mother with a two-month-old baby.
"They dragged me out, accusing me of being a prostitute," she said, explaining how police suddenly arrived in a fleet of pickup trucks. Many of the women were later released -- after making forced payments. Some were sentenced without access to legal representation, said lawyer Jennifer Ogbogu who represented two organisations at the trial -- the Nigeria Sex Workers Association and Heartland Alliance International.
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