Shattered

Hadijatou Mani's case was different - she was sold by her Berber, Tuareg family to a master from the Hausa community. She says he bought her for the equivalent of about $500 (£315). "My master has four wives. We, the slaves, were doing all the housework like cooking, fetching water and firewood and working on farms," she told the BBC.

I wanted the court to vindicate me, to give my rights
Hadijatou Mani "I was beaten so many times I would run to my family. Then, after a day or two, I would be brought back." But one day she heard that Niger had banned slavery, a decision that was announced in 2003.
"One of the anti-slavery activists from the Timidria association went to see the local chief who summoned my master. "He was told that slavery had now been abolished, that he had to free his seven slaves, but he denied having seven slaves - he said he had only three, including myself. "They told him if he loved us and we agreed, he could marry us. Otherwise he should just let us go. When he came back home he didn't tell us what happened, he just took us to another location so that we could not hear the news.

"After a while we came back, and that was when I heard that slavery no longer exists. I decided not to go back to my master but he kept going to the court saying that I am his wife." According to Anti-Slavery International, which helped Ms Mani bring the case, she was finally freed by her master and given her "liberation certificate" in 2005. A court initially blocked his attempt to prevent her marrying another man, but this was later overruled and Ms Mani was convicted of bigamy and sent to prison for six months.

"I was wrongly jailed, not because of anything I did but because of slavery, and today there is no more slavery so I wanted the court to vindicate me, to give my rights which I was denied some four years ago, to compensate me," she said.

Stories like this serves me as a reminder of why I want to get out there and make a difference in women's lives. I'll make sure of that.