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 Alles über Isioma Daniel

Everything about Isioma Daniel

Isioma is an Igbo name and means "Good luck". In Igboland, as in other parts of Nigeria and Africa, naming a baby is a very important event. When in 1981 the Daniel family celebrated the birth of their newly born child who 21 years later became a journalist with the ThisDay in Lagos they were confident their daughter will be their "Good Luck" in life. She in fact did fine, she was good in school and with twenty she went to London to learn the profession of journalism.

After only three months with the ThisDay in Lagos her fate took a sharp turn: Her article about the beauty pagent that was supposed to take place in Nigeria resulted in a fatwa against her. The Islamist rulers in northern Nigeria felt being offended by her remark that Mohammed, the Islamic prophet, probably might  have married one of the contestants. Every Muslim was called upon to take her life.

Isioma Daniel took no further risk and fled the country. Today she lives in Norway. This internet project is dedicated to people like her and their cause, to progressive, rationalistic, pro working people, and feminist topics. May her name provide us all with what we most need: Good Luck and Happiness.

 

Isioma ist ein Name aus der Sprache der Ibos und bedeutet "Viel Glück". Im Land der Ibos, als auch in anderen Teilen Nigerias und Afrikas, ist die Namensgebung eines Babys ein sehr wichtiges Ereignis. Als 1981 die Daniel Familie die Geburt ihres neugeborenen Kindes, das 21 Jahre später Journalistin bei der ThisDay in Lagos wurde, feierte, waren sie voller Zuversicht, ihre Tochter würde viel Glück in ihrem Leben bedeuten. Tatsächlich erreichte sie viel, sie war gut in der Schule und mit zwanzig erlernte sie den Beruf einer Journalistin in London.

Aber nach nur drei Monaten bei der ThisDay in Lagos brachte ihr Schicksal eine scharfe Wende. Ihr Artikel über die in Nigeria vorgesehene Wahl der Miss World brachte ihr eine Fatwa gegen sie ein. Ein islamistischer Gouverneur im nördlichen Nigerien fühlte sich durch ihre Bemerkung beleidigt, dass der islamische Prophet Mohammed vielleicht eine der im Wettbewerb teilnehmenden Schönheiten geheiratet hätte. Jeder Muslim war fortan aufgerufen, sie zu töten.

Isioma Daniel vermied das Risiko und flüchtete ins Ausland. Sie lebt heute in Norwegen. Dieses Internet-Projekt ist Menschen wie ihr und ihrem progressiven und rationalistischen Anliegen gewidmet, der Arbeiterbewegung  und feministischen Themen. Möge ihr Name uns das bringen, was er bedeutet: Viel Glück.

Fatwa for: 
Miss world 2002

The World at their Feet...   
By Isioma Daniel

isioma daniels
all for one
-
high fashion  
  "How do I choose a swimsuit?"

'I lit the match' by  Isioma Daniel, Guardian 17.2.03

Isioma Daniel
Nigerian Women against Chevron
Women's Tactics Stymie Oil Grant

BBC-interview
 with Isioma Daniel  
18 January, 2003, 10:19 GMT

Isioma Daniel, Journalist: 
Chat Transcript (13 Feb. 03)
Isioma gives answers to readers of Ms. Magazine

Isioma's Journal from Exile

in Norway 2004 and 2005

Isioma Daniel: Blessings of a fatwa. By MUSIKILU MOJEED. Punch, 18 Sep 2008

Kommentar av Isioma Daniel: Hvorfor du skal slutte i jobben din. Aftonbladet, 22.04.2009

Isioma's Journal from Exile in Norway Nr. 1, Nr. 21, 1.5.05 Trues av oppsigelser. Dagens Næringsliv, Oslo,
Scroll down for the context of Miss World 2002 Siehe unten für den Miss World 2002 Kontext

Isioma Daniel

Isioma in Aftenbladet
Isioma Daniel in front of her computer in Stavanger Aftenblad. In 2002 religious groups in Nigeria subjected her to a fatwa because of an article about Prophet Mohammed in the newspaper ThisDay. Photo: Lars Idar Waage/Stavanger Aftenblad
See: Fatal Commentary
"- I received e-mails from friends who told me to not take it seriously, but they never said what “it” was. I wondered if there had been any development in the situation, and when I googled my own name, I found out about the fatwa," Daniel tells. When hearing about the fatwa, she found herself truly scared for the first time. "- Up until then I thought about the possibility of going back, and wondered if I could ever continue to work as a journalist in Nigeria. But after the fatwa, I had no idea what to do." She was granted asylum in Norway, and says that she has a normal life. She also claims her life is not affected by the fatwa today. But she still takes precautions. When a documentary about her was set to be shown on Norwegian TV, Isioma had talks with the security department of the Norwegian police. As a journalist in Norwegian regional newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad, she is now in a very different working environment from in Nigeria. "- I didn’t get any support from my colleagues when this happened, and my editor did nothing to back me up either. He asked me why I hadn’t written “properly”, but he hadn’t even read through the whole article before printing it. "I clearly felt that they needed a scapegoat in this situation," she says.  

  Isioma in Oslo 2009
Isioma in Oslo 2009
Isioma Daniel in Stavanger
Svarer deg på torsdag den 14. kl. 10: Isioma Daniel. (Foto: Fredrik Refvem)
 

Vida Samadzai, 25, afghanische Studentin in Kalifornien, 
will ihr von Kriegen geschundenes Land beim Schönheitswettbewerb 
"Miss Earth"
in Manila am 9. November 2003 vertreten.
Beauty queen swaps burka for bikini - Miss Afghanistan, Vida Samadzai

Karzai's minister for women, Habiba Surabi, 
condemns
bikini-clad Miss Afghanistan:
"In the name of women's freedom, what this Afghan girl 
has done is not freedom but is lascivious."
Reuter: Afghans angry at beauty queen's bikini appearance


Vida Samadzai

 

Contestants for 2002's Miss World beauty pageant arrived in Abuja, Nigeria, as the reign of the current Miss World, Nigerian Agbani Darego, draws to a close. Some contestants boycotted the pageant in protest of the Sharia court's decision that Amina Lawal should be stoned to death.  more>>

 Stoning to death like 
Robabeh
in  Iran is a pre-Islamic
practice
condemned 
by the Islamic religion.
 

 

 

 

 


Safya was safed from being stoned to death See: Stoning

 

Fatwa for: 
Miss world 2002

The World at their Feet...   
By Isioma Daniel

 Wlumllogo.gif (9802 bytes)

The Contest

Nigeria's Agbani Darego smiles
after winning the crown
last year in Sun City, South Africa.
The Miss World competition
has run for 52 years

The deputy governor of Zamfara state in northern Nigeria, Mahamoud Shinkafi, has urged Muslims to kill the woman who wrote an article which he claimed insulted the Prophet Mohammed, sparking religious riots, causing more than 200 deaths.

The website for This Day newspaper seems to have removed profiles of all its journalists - including Ms Isioma Daniel - from the pages. Ms Daniel, who is not a Muslim, has now fled Nigeria. She took refuge abroad.
Fashion writer Isioma Daniel resigned after writing in This Day newspaper that the Prophet Mohammed may have approved of the Miss World contest and possibly wished to marry one of the beauty queens. Don't get stoned?
[ bild: ein Hanfblatt ]
Stoning
 

 

Further texts  Mehr Texte    Plusieurs textes   


Miss World 2002
Azra Akin, Turkey


A Miss World contestant (Triin Sommer? from Estonia) in Abuja, Nigeria, Saturday Nov. 23, 2002 as she waits to depart for London.
Would Prophet Mohammed have married her?