Rhoda Jatau, a Christian mother of five from Nigeria, received a religious freedom award after she was jailed for more than 19 months as part of a blasphemy prosecution. She was given the First Step Forum’s Shahbaz Bhatti Freedom Award, according to ADF International.
“For over a year I did not see my children. I could only hear about them,” Jatau said at the ceremony.
Bauchi State authorities arrested Jatau on May 20, 2022, after rioting broke out over a WhatsApp message she sent that was viewed as blasphemous, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. She faced charges of inciting public disturbance, exciting contempt of religious creed, and cyber stalking under two Penal Code Law sections and a 2015 cybercrime act. A Bauchi State judge released her on bail in December 2023, and she was acquitted in December 2024.
Her lawyer, Joseph Bata Danboyi, said hers was the first blasphemy case in Bauchi State, which made the legal stakes a major challenge. He said international pressure “is what led to her being freed.”
Giorgio Mazzoli, the group’s head of United Nations advocacy, said global attention to a single case can change how it ends. “Religious persecution thrives when the world looks away,” he said. “When the U.N. and the wider international community turn their attention to a single case, they can change the outcome for the person at its center.”
Sean Nelson, ADF International’s senior lawyer on religious freedom worldwide, said prison had not broken Jatau’s faith and called on Nigeria and other countries to repeal their blasphemy laws.
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