FOMWAN@ 30: Making a difference

There was a light shower as they filed into the auditorium of the University of Ilorin wearing the green wax print which was specially produced to commemorate the event. The women were members of the Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations in Nigeria FOMWAN. They came to Ilorin from all the states of the federation to […]

There was a light shower as they filed into the auditorium of the University of Ilorin wearing the green wax print which was specially produced to commemorate the event. The women were members of the Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations in Nigeria FOMWAN. They came to Ilorin from all the states of the federation to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the association. This year’s conference  which held from August 27-29 2015 attracted dignitaries from different parts of the country. It began with paying courtesy call on the Emir of Ilorin, HRH Ibrahim Sulu Gambari, their Chief Hostess, wife of the Governor, Deaconess Omolewa Ahmed.
 The National Amirah of FOMWAN Hajiya Amina Omoti welcomed participants and dignitaries to the event and express gratitude to the host community for their hospitality. Her deputy, Barrister Farida Sada read the speech on her behalf. The opening ceremony was a colourful affair with the Governor of Kwara State Abdul Fatah Ahmed as Chief host while the father of the day was His Eminence, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto and President of the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs. He identified women’s groups as critical partners in promoting development and urged FOMWAN to continue with their laudable projects nationwide. He assured them of   the support of the Supreme Council.
In his opening remarks, the Chairman of the event, Justice Mustapha Akanbi the former Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission ICPC commended FOMWAN and outlined various activities that would strengthen the federation’s community outreach.
 The theme of the conference was Religious and Ethnic Plurality: Implications for National Development. The presenter of the keynote address Dr Abdur Rauf Wale Babalakin SAN shared his experience of growing up and going to school in an elite college in the UK where he was the only black student and also the only Muslim. 
In his speech while declaring the conference open, the Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed underscored the importance of education in Islam and urged the FOMWAN to strengthen their activities in the promotion of girl child education.
Established in 1985 FOMWAN members are women united under the banner of Islam to demand their religious rights, influence national policy, and condemn state and federal decisions they felt to be detrimental to their well-being and progress. In 1985, two international conferences organised by Muslim Sisters Organisation conference brought Muslim women together. The first, drawing over five hundred delegates from Nigeria and abroad, held in Kano in April. In August, a similar conference was held in llorin. These two meetings provided platforms for the discussion of Muslim women’s concerns, and resulted in the establishment of FOMWAN as an umbrella organization for Nigeria’s Muslim women’s  groups, whose aim was to assist Muslim women in living according to the tenets of Islam, as expressed in the Qur’an and the Sunnah.
At the time of establishment, The federation’s main objectives are threefold: (1) to promote unity, cooperation and common action among the Muslim women’s groups in Nigeria, (2) to encourage and coordinate development of Islamic education and awareness among women, and (3) to enable Muslim women to express their views on national issues. They started organising quarterly meetings and annual National conferences to network and share best practices. It is a mark of the commitment of the founders of FOMWAN that since its establishment thirty years ago, these quarterly meetings and annual conferences have never failed.
FOMWAN’s first International conference, held in Lagos July 24-27, 1986, had as its theme “Family and Society’. In its first communique, the federation made known its views on topical issues by demanding the establishment of Sharia courts in states where they were required, condemning infringement of the rights of Muslim women at work, and calling on the government to reject the IMF loan which was then under negotiation.
The state of the country’s economy was another topic of concern, as participants noted that materialism, mismanagement, and dishonesty were the true sources of Nigeria’s downward economic spiral, rather than a dearth of resources. FOMWAN members advocated that the government tackle such national problems at their root by inculcating moral education in senior secondary schools and establishing interest-free Islamic banks. Participants also urged the government to ensure that the rich were adequately taxed for the benefit of the poor, reflecting the Muslim obligation of zakat and other  contributions  to charity.
Under FOMWAN’s early activities for promoting education and social development programmes; classes and institutions have been established for women’s Islamic education and literacy. It is hoped that such model primary and nursery schools will develop the practice of tarbiyaa, the proper socialization of Muslim children. Thirty years later FOMWAN has built 150 schools, 1200 Islamiyyah schools, 5 hospitals, 3 orphanages, numerous adult literacy classes, skill acquisition centres and income generation projects to sustain its activities nationwide.
FOMWAN members are conscious of the fact that to succeed in their struggle will require good judgment, careful scholarship, and even-handed motivation to provide an articulate response to issues that arise. Some Muslim scholars and some traditionalists have expressed fears that the Muslim woman’s Islamic identity will be eroded and that they will suffer the same moral disintegration and degradation as their counterparts in the West, but the emergence of FOMWAN has allayed these fears. Its members, while working through Islamic principles, appear to have silenced any attempt by saboteurs and opposition groups at tagging them as just another Western-style liberation movement. Thirty years of service to Islam is only a phase of a life long journey for FOMWAN.