Nigerian court protects Christian woman from Islamic police

A northern Nigerian federal high court recently ruled that Islamic religious police could not arrest a 22-year-old woman over her conversion from Islam to Christianity, Alliance Defending Freedom International said Tuesday. The woman in 2025 left her family and began living with a Christian family in order to escape forced marriage and abuse from her siblings, according to the legal group. She converted to Christianity while living with the family.

The woman’s siblings had her arrested by local Islamic police, who detained and beat her for four days, according to ADF International. After her release, the Christian family helped her flee to another town in early 2026. She filed a lawsuit asking for protection from the Islamic police. Religious conversions are allowed under Nigerian federal law. The court’s ruling blocked the police, along with officials in her home state, from arresting her over either her conversion or her refusal to marry. The court also ordered that she receive financial compensation for the harms she suffered, though it was unclear whether the money would come from the government or the religious police.

What happened to the Christians who helped the woman escape? Members of the Abara family were arrested and arraigned without legal counsel in February and charged with kidnapping the woman, according to ADF International. They were released on bail, but the criminal case against them is still active, according to the legal group, which is helping in their defense. ADF lawyers hoped that the ruling in the woman’s favor would lead to the dismissal of the charges against the Abara family, according to senior counsel Sean Nelson.

Dig deeper: Read my recent report on the U.S. response to the killings of a pastor’s family members in Nigeria.