Education
Isioma Daniel studied journalism and politics for three years at the University of Central Lancashire, graduating in summer of 2001.
Isioma Daniel studied journalism and politics for three years at the University of Central Lancashire, graduating in summer of 2001.
Her first job as a journalist was at Thisday, a Lagos-based national daily newspaper. What would Mohammed think? In all honesty, he would probably have chosen a wife from one of them."
According to Daniel, the sentence was added at the last minute. She thought it was "funny, light hearted" and "didn"t see it as anything anybody should take seriously or cause much fuss".
However, that judgment quickly proved wrong, as the publication triggered violent religious riots that left more than 200 dead and 1,000 injured, while 11,000 people were made homeless.
Thisday"s offices in Kaduna were torched, despite the paper"s apology and retraction on the front page. Daniel resigned from the newspaper the day after her article appeared.
Soon after, fearing for her safety and worried about the impending interrogation by the Nigerian state security, she left the country for Benin. On 26 November 2002 an Islamist government of Zamfara, Nigerian northern state, issued a fatwa against Isioma Daniel.
In words of Zamfara deputy governor Mamuda Aliyu Shinkafi, later broadcast on the local radio:
"Like Salman Rushdie, the blood of Isioma Daniel can be shed.
Isioma Daniel eventually went into exile in Europe, her resettlement guided by the Committee to Protect Journalists and Amnesty International.