Extolling Women's Rights in Sharia

The days of 29th and 30th March, 2005 are historic to the women folk in northern
Nigeria. They were the days when a two-day conference was held with the theme:
"Promoting women's right through Sharia in Northern Nigeria," organised by Centre
for Islamic Legal Studies Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, with the support of
Security, Justice and Growth Programme Department for International Development,
U.K (DFID).According to Dr. Usman Bugaje, a member of the House of
Representatives, who delivered the key note address at the occasion, women were
now relegated to the background, and cited examples of great women in Islam like
Sumayya, who contributed tremendously in different ways to the development of
Islam. He underscored the fact that all the scholars of Islamic thoughts studied at the
feet of women, pointing out that prophet Muhammad (SAW) directed people to seek
half of knowledge from Aisha, his wife. He, therefore, emphasised that half of
knowledge possessed by mankind is acquired from the woman.

Also speaking at the occasion, a renown Islamic scholar from Kano, Sheikh Ibrahim
Khalil, noted that in Islam a woman has a right as a wife, a daughter and as a human
being. "Islam gives custody of children to a woman until she remarries what right
could be more than this?", he queried. Sheikh Khalil further explained that in some
aspects women have the same right with men, while some rights affect men only and
others, women only.

He advised people to look broadly at issues in different places, noting that

behaviours and attitudes among mankind are enforced by prevailing circumstances.
Sheikh Khalil cited the example of late Emir Usman Dan Tsoho of Kano, during
whose reign women were denied a house as share in inheritance, but they were
given farms and money instead. This decision, according to him, was because if
women were given houses they would bring men to perpetrate depravities and
criminal activities in the house. So they were denied houses to guard against such
unlawful perpetrations. Furthermore, a divorcee's brothers were told to accommodate
and cater for her should there be any circumstances that compels her to return to her
parents or any relation's home.

The wife of Zamfara state governor, Dr Karima Ahmed Sani, in her own contribution,
urged women to learn Quran and hadith, asserting that men are not depriving women
of their rights but that the women should blame themselves for failure to seek
knowledge to know their rights. She said although men and women were equal in
acts of worship, she cited physiological and anatomical differences as essential
considerations between the two sexes, which determine the role each plays in such
biological duties as child birth.

In a goodwill message, Hajiya Bilkisu Yusuf, National Amirah of Federation of Muslim

Women Association in Nigeria (FOMWAN), emphasised that education was the
important tool for the achievement of women's rights, adding that Islam as an
expansive and flexible religion has explained what and how the education should be
acquired by women to enable them achieve such rights.

She chided the Ulama for failing to tell the truth to the leaders about the position and
rights of women, which she said resulted in poor and unfair leadership.

Giving his fatherly admonishment at the occasion, the Emir of Dutse in Jigawa State
said "I come from a rural area where women fetch firewood and water under the
guise of Islam, but only acting strictly according to un-Islamic traditions." stressing
that marriage is a partnership of equal responsibility. According to him, the low status
of women in the society was as a result of inadequate education, noting that whereas
he was privileged to attend school because he is a man, his sisters were not so
opportune and are now grandmothers and great-grand mothers. The emir therefore
called on those concerned to encourage women to acquire religious and western
forms of education.

The governor of Kaduna state, Alhaji Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, who was the chief
host at the occasion, observed the need to remove the geographical constraint of the
theme of the conference, 'the northern women.' Instead, he advised, it should include
the right of all Muslim women in Nigeria wherever they are. The governor also noted
that the distinction should be emphasised between rights and privileges in order to
avoid confusion.

The governor of Kebbi State, Alhaji Muhammadu Adamu Aliero, who was
represented at the occasion by his adviser on Islamic affairs, Alhaji Umar Isa,
admonished that "If we talk of rights, we should also talk of responsibilities,"
advocating the promotion of Taqwa, the fear of Allah, because it is the foundation
and springboard of all good deeds. The governor of Zamfara State, Alhaji Ahmed
Sani, who also spoke at the conference on promoting women's right through the
Sharia noted that women's right was part of human right.

The co-ordinator, North, of the Department for International Development (DFID), Dr.
Audu Grema, lamented that the issue of women's right was rarely discussed even in
academic pursuits and urged that "it is about time it is discussed, to take it beyond
the conference."

Hajiya Saudatu Mahdi, the secretary general of Women's Right Advancement and
Protection Alternative (WRAPA), who was also the representative of women groups
at the occasion expressed optimism at the conference and urged women to take an
active part in similar and other initiatives that would facilitate and enhance their full
enjoyment of the right granted them by Allah.

"This by extension will prepare them to discharge their responsibilities as meaningful

members of their families and communities. This will also ensure a sustained
dialogue of respect and complimentarily beginning from the family level to the social
level," she concluded.

Dr. Fatima L. Adamu of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, spoke elaborately on

practices relating to the girl-child such as the education of the girl-child. She
maintained that the right of the girl-child on education has often been violated in the
north through complete refusal by parents to send their daughters to school for
"obnoxious" reasons.

"A study on the situation of the girl-child in Kano notes that mothers support girls to
go out hawking because of the stake they have from the proceeds of their hawking.
The proceeds are used to buy kayan daki (marriage trousseau) for the girls and other
preparation for the girls' marriage. While hawking, the girls fall prey to men and could
be become sexually harassed. This continued despite the recent declaration of
sharia criminal law in some northern states," she explained.

She noted that in Islam, parents have the responsibility of providing education to their
children and that the practice of denying women education is against the sharia
which expects both men and women to be equally educated. She also spoke on
exploitation of the girl-child, noting that though such exploitation could take different
forms, the major one is child labour which she described as injurious to the physical,
social and moral development of the child. Child labour exposes a child to long hours
of work in a dangerous environment and at the expense of schooling, she
maintained, stressing that for the girls this often occurs in relation to hawking of their
mother's products. Dr Fatima said: "Sharia does not accept this practice on the
ground that it exposes the girl child to dangers of sexual exploitation by paedophiles
and other morally bankrupt members of the society." On early and forced marriage,
she stated that girls are often married at an early age when they are not mature
enough to take up the responsibility of being wives and becoming effective mothers.

However she noted that although the practice of early marriage was dying in the
cities because of many factors such as education, economic and environment, it still
endures in the rural areas.

She noted with dismay the practice of forced marriage perpetrated by adult members
of the family as a girl could be forcefully married to a man old enough to be her father
against her wish because of financial or other social benefits to the parents in most
cases. She pointed out that according to Sharia it is recommended and always
necessary to seek the consent of the girl before she is given out in marriage.

"There are authentic reports in the traditions of the prophet where some parents gave
their daughters in marriage without the daughters' consent, but when the women
concerned objected to them before the prophet, the daughters were given the option
to revoke the marriage," she recalled. She further spoke on the abuse and violence
against the girl-child, which she said took place both within and outside the home.

The abuse and violence, she explained, could take several forms such as mental and
psychological abuse, sexual exploitation, excessive beating and favouring the
children of some co-wives more than those of others in polygamous homes, adding
that foster children in general get less affection and care. She maintained that sharia
prohibited any form of injustice, adding that it is unlawful under the sharia to maltreat
and abuse any other's children because all children are not only a gift but also a trust
from Allah.

Lack of provision and care is another important practice affecting the rights of a girl-
child relating to her entitlement to nutritious food and decent clothing, Dr Fatima
observed. She explained that because of the economic situation in the country
parents were increasingly finding it difficult to cater for the basic needs of their
children. She disclosed that national data indicated a higher level of malnutrition
among children of the North West zone than their counterparts in the South.

For instance, according to her, such data in 2003 reported that children living in the
North were disadvantaged in terms of nutritional status with 55% of prevalence of
stunting in the northwest zone and 43% in the northeast zone compared to 18% in
the southeast and 25% in the southwest. She said one of the main factors of poor
feeding is poverty. She noted that the refusal by some parents to make necessary
provision for the decent development of their children is against the teachings of the
sharia.

Dr. Fatima also spoke on the care for the orphans and the children of the poor,
observing that the practice that needed to be sustained in the society was one where
the extended family system provides security for the abandoned girl child from a
broken marriage and orphaned children. However, she lamented that this kind of
support was declining without any alternative. She underscored the fact that one of
the most meritorious acts in Islam is the feeding and taking care of the orphans and
the needy.

Dr. Ali Ahmed of the Bayero University, Kano talked on socio-economic and political
practices relating to women, laying more emphasis on the misuse/abuse of Talaq
form of divorce, which is a unilateral divorce by the husband. It means the husband
can divorce his wife without consulting anybody. He noted that Talaq was a trust
Allah has given men to have power over women, but which, unfortunately, men
abuse. According to him, the manner in which Talaq is practiced adversely affects
the protected rights of the victims, in this case women and their young children.

The most common abuse of Talaq process, he highlighted are (a) pronouncing the
Talaq at prohibited times (b) threatening her with Talaq on frivolous reasons, such as
wife's insistence on her right of maintenance (c) pronouncement of 1st, 2nd and 3rd
Talaqs in one sitting. The evaluation according to sharia, observed Dr. Ali, was that
pronouncing 3 Talaq at the same time in one sitting or pronouncing the Talaq while
the wife was observing her menses or when the woman was not in a state of fresh
purity was contrary to sharia.

On the issue of denial of wives' post-talaq entitlements, Dr Ali explained that sharia
requires that husbands continue to make automatic provision for the maintenance of
their devoiced wives. He, however lamented that this was followed more in breach
than in observance. According to him, sharia places most, but not all, of the post-
talaq entitlements on the good conscience and sense of justice of the husband,
adding that however, because talaq is accompanied by bitter separation, almost all
divorcing men have their sense of justice compromised and beclouded. Explaining
further, he said that apart from these unspecified entitlements, the sharia-guaranteed
entitlements, which are also denied almost always, are: (a) preventing the wife from
staying in matrimonial home for the 3-month period. (b) denying her, after forcing her
out of the home, any provision for maintenance (c) denying her maintenance for her
infant or young children (which include feeding, clothing and schooling expenses);
this extends beyond the 3-month period. (d) Denying her custody of her young
children or denying her their maintenance allowance.

Dr. Ali Ahmad pointed out that evaluation according to the sharia required that
following divorce, the husband must continue to maintain the wife in all respects as if
no divorce had take place for a certain number of months in which she is serving the
iddah (waiting period), stressing that it is unlawful to ask her to leave the matrimonial
home during that period.

He however, stipulated that ways should be found to prevent the frequency and ease
of divorce. He said, "the fact that divorce can be secured by either of the couple
relatively easily may have been one of the several factors responsible for the high
rate of divorce in the Northern part of the country." While this phenomenon could be
advantageous to the cause of women empowerment where necessary, according to
him, it could also harm them.

He emphasised that women were divorced with ease, leaving them to fend for
themselves without any preparation, adding that this practice however is matched by
comparative ease of remarriage by divorcees. Evaluation according to sharia on this
issue, he noted, that there were various grounds and mechanism to dissolve a
marriage and at the some time there were various alternative for redeeming it.
On the issue of custody of children after divorce, he stated that whatever form of
divorce occasioned separation and dissolution of marriage, the sharia entitled the
wife the custody of young children of the marriage, the female child until she married
off and the male until he reaches puberty. He observed that in practice however,
wives were denied custody of their children by threat or actual use of force. "A
woman only gets the custody of her children if the husband doesn't want them",
emphasised Dr. Ali Ahmad.

On inheritance, he explained that interference with any specific share of inheritance

was not common except in landed property for subdivision. According to him, for the
simple reason that female inheritors are almost always married and living outside the
family house, co-inheritors, who are male, often take various decisions that are
injurious to the interest of the female on jointly inherited landed property. Evaluation
according to sharia regarding this, he observed, was completely against the
teachings of the sharia, which emphasises that Muslims must not devour each
other's property, except based on mutual consent and for beneficial reasons.

Dr. Ali also spoke on property ownership, where he elaborated on denying women
direct access to acquisition of land. He stated that women were not favoured in any
land deals, because it was considered inappropriate for a woman to aspire to own
land. Accordingly, he explained further that concern for specific women issues in land
matters were overlooked or deliberate obstacles were placed in their ways to
discourage them from directly aspiring to hold title to land. Evaluation according to
sharia, he maintained, entitles both men and women to own property, including land.

The second day of the conference, Hajiya Saudatu Sani, chairperson, committee on
women and youth development of the House of Representatives, urged the Muslim
Umma to look at current issues going on in Nigeria such as NYSC, which though
intended to unite the country, but have adverse effect on Muslim's culture. Such
adverse effects, according to her, was where a married woman was posted to
another state, where many husbands refused to allow the wives to go, and they lose
a year or two while seeking for redeployment. She advocated for a decree that would
make a married woman to serve at her husband's state.

She called on Muslims to condemn in a strong united voice such practices that
infringe on the rights of Muslim women, just as she called for the encouragement of
the Muslim women to participate in all developmental programmes.

Islam gives women sufficient rights, societies deny them.