Actress Arrested for Alleged ‘Obscene’ Social Media Posts

Nigerian actress Sadiya Haruna was reportedly arrested for posting sexual comments on social media and dancing seductively in videos she shared. Haruna stars in films made in Kannywood, the name for the Hausa-language film industry based in Kano, Nigeria. A Sharia court ordered Haruna to attend classes at an Islamic school for six months.

Haruna was arrested on Aug. 20 by the Nigerian government’s Surveillance Department, reports Pulse.ng. She pleaded guilty to a charge of obscenity and indecent acts in violation of Section 355 of Penal Code Law 2000. The judge ordered her to attend a Darul Hadith Islamiyya session at Tudun Yola Quarters for six months. The judge also ruled that the school’s headteacher would monitor Haruna’s attendance. Kano State Hisbah Corps officers, who enforce Sharia law, will also monitor her attendance, reports Nigeria’s The Guardian.

The actress was accused of posting “sexual contents on her social media handles.” She allegedly published videos of herself dancing seductively on her social media pages and YouTube channel. She also allegedly posted sexual comments. Haruna has over 43,000 followers on Instagram and over 1,000 followers on TikTok.

This is not the first time a Kannywood star has faced punishments for not adhering to strict rules. In 2016, industry leaders accused actress Rahama Sadau of repeatedly violating rules, The Independent reported at the time. When she appeared in a music video with singer ClassiQ, the Motion Pictures Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MOPPAN) banned her from making Kannywood films because she held the singer’s hands in the video.

“This is not the first time that she has been doing these wayward things. We have been warning her, but she still went ahead to dent our image,” then-MOPPAN chairman Muhammadu Kabiru Maikaba told BBC Hausa at the time. Muslim clerics pressured Kannywood to take a stronger stance against stars who flaunted conservative rules because they believed the actors were negative influences.

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