I am immensely grateful for the wonderful opportunity that the Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations in Nigeria (FOMWAN) has given me to be the Keynote Speaker at the Formal Opening of the 39th Annual National Conference on Friday, 23 August, 2024, in Akure, Ondo State. I congratulate the Association for continuing to be the vintage platform for protecting and promoting the interests of Muslim women, in particular, and those of Nigerian women, in general. FOMWAN is sharply-focused without being insular. This is reflected in the optimally broad theme for this year’s National Conference which is “Women and the challenges of insecurity.”
In addressing this issue, I wish to begin by asking the question, “What is insecurity?” For this presentation, insecurity would be understood as having the feeling that one is unsafe or actually being exposed and subjected to various forms of violence or deprivation and indignity in the domestic or public sphere. Violence may involve psychological or emotional abuse and may result in lack of confidence or low self-esteem. Violence may also be physical and may result in various forms of bodily harm or loss of life.
In some situations in the domestic domain, women may be the agents of insecurity, and in others, they may be the victims. Women are believed to perpetuate insecurity through such actions as nagging, jealousy, neglect or even physical violence. Women are also, more commonly, victims of insecurity arising from, for example, emotional abuse, circumscription of freedom, and blame for lack of male children by spouses who have a preference for sons. These attitudes negate two Qur’anic principles.
First, with respect to the primary purpose of marriage, the Qur’an, Chapter 30, Verse 21 admonishes as follows: “And of His Signs is that He has created mates for you from your own kind that you may find peace in them and He has set between you love and mercy. Surely there are Signs in this for those who reflect.” In other words, from the Islamic perspective, marriage is truly marriage only when it is a source of peace for both spouses. Second, the Qur’an, Chapter 16, Verses 58-59 states with respect to the disbelievers: “Whenever one of them is given the good news of a baby girl, his face grows gloomy, as he suppresses his rage. He hides himself from the people because of the bad news he has received. Should he keep her in disgrace, or bury her alive in the ground? Evil indeed is their judgment!” These two verses are relatable to the Qur’an, Chapter 2, Verse 216 which states: “Perhaps you dislike something which is good for you and like something which is bad for you. Allah knows and you do not know.”
The following story of Maryam in the Qur’an, Chapter 3, Verses 35-38 is also instructive: “Remember when the wife of ‘Imrân said, ‘My Lord! I dedicate what is in my womb entirely to Your service, so accept it from me. You alone are truly the All-Hearing, All-Knowing.’ When she delivered, she said, ‘My Lord! I have given birth to a girl,’ – and Allah fully knew what she had delivered – ‘and the male is not like the female. I have named her Mary, and I seek Your protection for her and her offspring from Satan, the accursed.’ So her Lord accepted her graciously and blessed her with a pleasant upbringing – entrusting her to the care of Zachariah. Whenever Zachariah visited her in the sanctuary, he found her supplied with provisions. He exclaimed, ‘O Mary! Where did this come from?’ She replied, ‘It is from Allah. Surely Allah provides for whoever He wills without limit.’ Then and there Zachariah prayed to his Lord, saying, ‘My Lord! Grant me – by your grace – righteous offspring. You are certainly the Hearer of all prayers.’” Following from this example, we should be praying for righteous and divinely-blessed children, irrespective of their sex.
The high risk or actual occurrence of domestic violence in the form of wife-battering or husband-battering is another form of women-related insecurity. The strange thing about this kind of spousal violence is that it cuts across age, class, educational, gender, ethnic, religious, occupational, national and racial boundaries. So, you can find a poor, illiterate African or European person engaging in spousal abuse just as you can find a rich or middle class highly-educated professional one indulging in it. In the 16 December, 2023 edition of The Cable, one case that circulated widely on social and mainstream media was reported with the caption: “TRENDING VIDEO: Akwa Ibom ‘lawyer’ brutalises wife, locks her out.”
Cases of domestic violence increase in moments of social or economic difficulty. For example, a 2021 research report by Alex R. Piquero and four others, titled “Domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic – Evidence from a systematic review and meta-analysis,” notes as follows: “[T]he evidence is strong that incidents of domestic violence increased in response to stay-at-home/lockdown orders, a finding that is based on several studies from different cities, states, and several countries around the world.”
Women are also subjected to widowhood-related emotional violence. In some cultures, the belief that women are inherently evil makes the wife the principal suspect when a man dies, even where the cause of death is obvious. These women are therefore made to go through different humiliating and unsafe cultural practices to prove their innocence. Related to this is the disinheriting of widows. The more common demographic pattern in many places is for younger, less economically secure women to marry older, more financially stable men. When such women are then widowed and concomitantly fully or appreciably disinherited, economic difficulties arise which contribute to what has come to be known as the feminisation of poverty.
In the public domain, insecurity is manifested in kidnapping, arson, vandalism, suicide bombing and other violent attacks on agents of government and other citizens. Though these forms of violence have been associated with men, women are starting to be identified as suicide bombers and collaborators with kidnappers. For example, a month ago, an editorial of Leadership.ng, titled “Resurgence of suicide bombing,” stated: “Residents of Borno State, North East Nigeria, were on June 29, 2024 reminded that despite efforts by the security agencies, the dark days of suicide bombing are still with them. This reminder came in the guise of three female suicide bombers who detonated Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in strategic locations, killing 32 persons, while 52 others were injured. They targeted a wedding, a funeral and a hospital in coordinated attacks, disguising … as wedding and funeral guests to gain access to the venues. More shocking is the report that one of them had a child strapped on her back who was killed after the bomb went off.”
This notwithstanding, women are more commonly victims of violent crimes. One case that is gaining immense national attention now is the abduction, on 27 December, 2023, of Dr. Ganiyat Popoola, an Ophthalmologist with the National Eye Care Centre, Kaduna, who is a mother of five young children. While her husband along with whom she was abducted was released in March 2024, she and her young nephew remain in captivity. Medical practitioners across the country have been agitating robustly for her freedom. Besides the risk of rape, forced marriage and holding women as sex slaves, women are also vulnerable in situations of insecurity simply for being mothers. For instance, when violence occurs or is about to occur, apart from considering their own safety, mothers have the safety of their children to contend with, and this may compromise their escape response time. Lactating mothers also have to contend with breastfeeding their infant children in situations of inadequacy or even total absence of food.
These are apart from the risks of sexual and other forms of violence and exploitation that women face in the vulnerable environment of internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. Moreover, in some parts of the country, females are targets of ritual murder, due to the strange belief that the use of female body parts, especially female genitals, in rituals, confers spiritual power and wealth.
The different problematic situations could be prevented or remedied in various ways. Personal initiatives in this regard include the acquisition of optimum education, both Islamic and Western. This would increase women’s chances of getting paid appointments that can facilitate economic security. Alternatively, women could acquire robust artisanal or trading skills to enhance economic self-reliance. Establishing or joining positive social support groups could also ensure women’s psychological and emotional health. Moreover, it would not be out of place, wherever possible, for women to acquire martial arts or self-defence skills. Women who have the means and the need for them could also procure licensed arms.
Some government initiatives could also provide women with opportunities for economic security. The hope for increased access to such opportunities comes, in particular, from the recent enhancement of Local Government autonomy. In the past, some governments at that level established small scale or cottage industries which employed a significant number of women. At that time, information centres were also established to make access to information easy and facilitate the officials’ access to citizens’ feedback. Since it has been observed that women constitute the most active party members and the predominant voters in many parts of the country, FOMWAN could leverage on this trend to enhance female political education and participation, and increase female access to funding for investment and other facilities for economic well-being.
This can be made effective through working with the Supervisory Councilors for women affairs and related officials. There are also corresponding officials at the state and federal Ministries of Women Affairs/Special Duties with whom FOMWAN could collaborate. Collaborative enlightenment or consciousness-raising programmes could also be run with security agencies such as the Nigeria Police Force, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, and the Nigerian Armed Forces.
I have outlined above different forms of violence that result from insecurity and some of the ways in which they could be addressed. Furthermore, I wish to recommend that FOMWAN collaborate more extensively with other women associations to implement joint programmes towards enhancing the personal, domestic, social, economic and communal security of women in Nigeria. It is also desirable for FOMWAN to engage more young females more robustly to be able to pass down effectively the noble values of the association. Given the nationwide presence and systematic structure of FOMWAN and the need to ease coordination and facilitate the achievement of its enlightenment mission, it would be immensely helpful for the association to establish a FOMWAN Radio, to start with.
I commend FOMWAN for the impressive initiative of bringing the very critical and quite topical issue of women and insecurity to the fore, and thank the association for the opportunity to be part of this immensely invaluable programme.
