Authorities in Mauritania have accused a high school girl of blasphemy because of a mock exam paper that she turned in which was considered insulting against the Prophet Mohammed.
The 19-year-old girl was detained last week on charges of disrespecting Islam’s founder, Prophet Muhammad. According to the officials from the public prosecutor’s office in the country’s capital Nouakchott, “disrespect and mockery of the Prophet” and using social media “to undermine (the) holy values of Islam” were the official charges pressed on the student.
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No specific information about what she is accused of writing in the exam paper was made public. According to reports by local media, the accused belongs to the Haratin ethnic group, which includes people who descended from sub-Saharan Africa as slaves.
In Mauritania, blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad carries a death sentence with no chance of appeal. The country’s religious authorities ruled that those found guilty of insulting the Prophet Muhammad ought to receive the death penalty. Mauritanian Law is strict against blasphemy, a fine and up to two years in incarceration are possible penalties for people found guilty of less serious blasphemy offenses.
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It is reported that in 2019, Cheikh Ould Mohamed Ould Mkheitir, a Mauritanian blogger, was found guilty of blasphemy and handed the death penalty. In the piece he wrote, Mkheitir criticized the use of religion as a justification for discrimination, notably towards black Mauritanians. After serving five years in prison, he was allowed to leave the country.
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The student’s family issued a statement to the Arabic-language daily Al-Quds al-Arabi where they pleaded for forgiveness and claimed she had mental health problems.
