Promoting women rights through the Shari’a in northern Nigeria

Explaining further, Professor Tabi’u of the Faculty of Law, Bayero University, Kano, said the Group felt the urgent need to act because, with the widespread conviction of many states in Northern Nigeria to reform society based on shari’a, an opportunity had presented itself to improve the position of women, and improve their means to face […]

Explaining further, Professor Tabi’u of the Faculty of Law, Bayero University, Kano, said the Group felt the urgent need to act because, with the widespread conviction of many states in Northern Nigeria to reform society based on shari’a, an opportunity had presented itself to improve the position of women, and improve their means to face the challenges confronting them in this global age and ever-changing Muslim society.

“Another reason is that in our society there were good and positive practices relating to women, which, however, were either not publicised or were in the decline, hence the need to identify, encourage and promote such practices,” he said.

attack on islam over women’s rights

According to him there was an obvious, biased attack on Islam concerning the position of women, both within and outside Nigeria, which was heightened with the expansion of shari’a in Nigeria, and so there was a need to respond to that in a constructive way.

“Muslim women in Northern Nigeria, like women in other societies across the world, have been subjected to practices that violate their rights. Some of these violations are carried out in the name of Islam in spite of the fact that such practices are against the teachings of Islam and that the Islamic prescriptions in respect of women, if practised, can serve as a model to other societies,” observed professor Tabi’u.

In the journey so far, he elaborated that they had achieved the successful collaborative implementation of the Action Plan, the publication and formal launch of the book: Promotion of Women’s Right through Shari’a in Northern Nigeria in Kaduna (national), Jigawa, Kwara, Borno and Zamfara States. This, he said made the book available to a wide class of readers.  “Other aspects of the plan implemented include rights awareness campaigns, production of Hausa video to promote rights of women through shari’a, radio drama, Islamic Juma’a sermons, and reform of child rights legislation to conform with shari’a and so on,” he noted.

Other achievements, he said were, popularisation of women’s rights issues, gradual change of attitude toward women’s rights, mainstreaming women issues in the justice sector and empowerment of women organisations among others.

The idea was packaged under Access to Justice programme, he said, which has transformed into Security, Justice and Growth (SJG) programme and which was eventually funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID).

The Funding ,he added would come to an end early  next year, explaining  further, he said that the SII was a  local effort by stakeholders to continue with the project of women’s right through the shari’a.

Earlier in his welcome address, Professor Ibrahim Na’iya Sada, one of the founders of the Group, from the Faculty of Law, ABU Zaria, who used to be at the  Centre for Islamic and Legal Studies, expressed appreciation to the participants for their attendance for the cause of promoting women’s rights through the shari’a.

equality between men and women in islam

In his remarks at the occasion the Emir of Dutse, Dr Muhammadu Sanusi and Chairman, Board of Trustees SII emphasised that God created both male and female equally, and that famales should not be treated as the property of males.

“Islam enjoins justice and equality, so people should not derogate women and hold Islam responsible for that,” he pointed out.

The Emir gave examples of the plight of women worldwide, where he quoted a 2000 UN report where is said 60 million girls were missing in Asia and Africa, adding that another report estimated that 100 million girls went into sex trade annually.

“We have a responsibility as Muslims to help our women to get out of this bondage,” he stressed.

The Mother of the Day, wife of the Kaduna State Governor, Hajiya Amina Namadi Sambo, who was represented by the Amirah of the Federation of Muslim  Women Associations of Nigeria (FOMWAN), Hajiya Farida Sani, called on fathers, husbands, brothers and sons to work in seeing the success of promoting the rights of Muslim women, accorded them by Islam.

In his goodwill message, Attorney General, Kano State, Barrister Aliyu Umar, noted that a lot of the problems faced by women were due to ignorance, rather than men being deliberate in suppressing women, saying, “The rights are given by God and the Prophet, so for anybody to go against those rights is like he is going against Islam, which is like committing ridda (denonuncing Islam).”

However, he pointed out that there were two different types of women’s rights: The rights of the ordinary women that suffer from the problems of divorce and child custody cases among others and the right of the elite women that advocated for rights such as leadership position, which he said made people to view the rights of women as Western driven.

According to Audu Grema, Head of DFID Northern Office, Kano, when the project started people were surprised that the British would be concerned about shari’a, but this, he said ,was due ignorance, maintaining  that the British sponsored shari’a documents in Nigeria 50 years ago and  that it was a human rights issue to get right to justice.

He also commended the SJG for going into research that many were afraid to do, adding that he was glad that the programme was going to continue with the approval from National Planning Commission (Justice for all) designed for five years, therefore it was not as if the programme would stop with the ending of the funding from DFID for four and a half years.

education as a solution

The Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, Jigawa State, Barrister Tijjani Inuwa Dutse, who is also the Madakin Dutse, stressed the need to educate the people, saying, “Let us educate the people, then their problems or half of it will be solved.” This he said, was because most of the problems bedevilling women were due to ignorance, especially on the part of them, since they were not educated enough to know their rights, let alone seek it.

One of the participants, Mrs Abdulraheem Nimah Modupe, a lecturer from the Department of Jurisprudence and International Law, Faculty of Law, University of Ilorin said she found the conference highly intellectual and educative.

However, she called on women not to overstep their boundary, saying agitating for their rights should not be a channel to neglect their primary roles in the home.

Malam Muhammad Sani Isa, Chief Imam of Warf road Mosque Forum, Kaduna, said the programme was a future to Islam on the aspect on women’s right, because Islam had a lot to show to the world on the rights of women.  “No religion, people, system or organisation has as beautiful women rights as Islam has,” he reiterated.

According to him, it was because Muslims neglected the God-given rights of women that the West found a room to talk about women and children’s right in Muslims communities, therefore he called on men to, “Fear God and ask Ulama (Islamic scholars) about the rights of women. And they should follow the deeds of our Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), where he used to sweep the house and ask the members of his household what they wanted to eat and he agreed to it, not suppressing them to do what he only wanted.”

The formal presentation of the Society Impact Initiative (SII) by the Special Guest of Honour, Governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Sule Lamido, was done by his Special Assistant on Non Governmental Organisations, Alhaji Dahiru Da’u who represented him at the occasion.