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Nigerian Fatwa Journalist.
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Listen to the full length Zubeida Malik interview with Isioma Daniel, who wrote the article that sparked Nigeria's Miss World riots.
21-year-old Nigerian journalist Isioma Daniel is still coming to terms with the fact that she's going to have to live the rest of her life in hiding.
Since November last year, she's been a wanted woman after the government of Zamfara state in Nigeria issued a fatwa against her, a religious edict calling for her death.
It followed an article she wrote in the newspaper ThisDay, claiming that the Prophet Mohammed would not have complained about the Miss World competition, and may have even chosen to marry one of the contestants.
She wrote: "The Muslims thought it was immoral to bring 92 women to Nigeria to ask them to revel in vanity. What would Mohammed think? In all honesty, he would probably have chosen a wife from one of them."
The comments eventually led to mass rioting and the deaths of over 200 people.
In her first interview since the riots, she's told Today's Zubeida Malik, that whilst she acknowledges her comments sparked the unrest, those who participated used it as an excuse to "unleash their anger, their frustration with other aspects of their life".
"At first I did feel very guilty, but eventually I thought to myself, this is ridiculous, they're taking this thing overboard," she said. "There's no reason why someone should write something and you immediately think it gives you the right to go out and kill innocent people."
"They used it as an excuse to unleash their anger, their frustration with other aspects of their life. And unfortunately, I gave them that excuse. It was not a normal reaction."
Now living in hiding, she's coming to grips with not having any personal security, whilst being one of the most sought after people in the world.
"It's quite difficult, because I'm not with my family, I'm not with any friends, in a place I've never been to before", she conceded.
"I haven't got a body-guard, or anything like that. I'm not being given the same kind of priority that Salman Rushdie probably got, because the fatwa was issued by ... a secular country."
When asked about what's next, she says: "I have to have plans for the future. I'm only 21.
"I hope I'll be able to write a book ... I've got a long long road ahead of me."
You can listen to Zubeida Malik's full interview with Isioma Daniel, by clicking on the link on the right-hand side of this page.
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Listen - Zubeida Malik's FULL LENGTH exclusive interview with the woman who wrote the article, sparking November's Miss World riots. (18/01/2003)
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A Muslim woman walks past a church destroyed during riots in Kaduna, Nigeria. |
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"No matter what I wrote, they can't say they have the moral upper-ground if they go out and start killing innocent people." |
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Security surrounds an unidentified Miss World contestant. |
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"I felt very bad, I felt very guilty, because something I'd written was causing all this havoc. But my guilt sort of went away. I felt angry" |
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Miss World contestants in London, the new location of the contest after rioting broke out in Nigeria. |
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