Women’s potential fallow under culture, religion

The Voices 4 Change says great potential of women in Nigeria lie fallow under cultural and religious norms because they are deprived opportunity to exploit their potential and talent. Team leader of V4C, Caroline Enye, said the country could not be left behind as the world has acknowledged quantum leap in making women critical stakeholders […]

The Voices 4 Change says great potential of women in Nigeria lie fallow under cultural and religious norms because they are deprived opportunity to exploit their potential and talent.

Team leader of V4C, Caroline Enye, said the country could not be left behind as the world has acknowledged quantum leap in making women critical stakeholders in decision making.

It comes as V4C assesses PURPLE—a five-year-programme to bridge gaps among young people and drive gender equity, gender justice, women empowerment and participation.

Explaining the concept of Purple, Enye stated that purple is a combination of blue (men) and pink (women) who are vibrant, ambitious and goal driven who are being exposed to new set of ideas and knowledge to increase their competitiveness in the global arena.

Also speaking on the sideline of the event, the Transitional support Officer V4C in Lagos, Osayande Persol said PURPLE was chosen because of its appealing nature to both sexes which made the youth to generously embrace the concept of equity.

He said Nigeria had been shortchanged in global economy and politics as almost half of its potentials are locked down because contributions of women are undermined or never used.

Persol noted Nigeria needed gender parity. He dispelled insinuations that religion could pose a barrier in driving the project to gain wider acceptance  since efforts are being made to clear all the misconceptions surrounding this injustice of subjecting women to abuses and impositions.

A university don, Prof Mustapha Useni, who teaches Arabic studies at Bayero University averred that religion was been used to promote and sustain injustices against women.

Quoting relevant passages from both the Koran and the Bible, Useni pointed out the scriptures acknowledged the role of women and the need for women to have equal rights and opportunities as men.

He said neither the Koran nor the bible supported imposition or any kind of infringement on women rights especially as regards to marital and career choices.

Another speaker, Chinedu Gbulie, said Nigeria could do better if women are allowed equal rights and opportunities.

He said the government should encourage equal participation of women in governance which he believe will bring about tremendous improvement in quality of governance.

He also acknowledged certain behaviours engrained in cultural practices which purple campaign has been doing a lot to address using traditional institutions and religious leaders to drive the campaign.

Gbulie appealed to all Nigerians to discard what according to him is a regimented belief that men are superior to women and embrace the civil approach of seeing women as partners and critical stakeholders in the society.