Members of a Sierra Leone traditional group have besieged a woman's house and stopped her from going home after she launched a legal bid to become a chief.
Elizabeth Simbiwa Sogbo-Tortu was barred from an election to the chiefdom because she was a woman.
She lost an initial appeal against the ban - a ruling condemned by women's rights groups who are vowing to take her case to the Supreme Court.
A BBC correspondent says politicians are afraid of angering traditionalists.
The BBC's Umaru Fofana in Freetown says the politicians also do not want to antagonise women - making them afraid of the whole issue.
Women are barred from becoming chiefs in the Northern Province and most of the east but they are allowed in southern Sierra Leone
