by Ayesha Imam

Ayesha Imam is a founding member of Women in Nigeria (WIN), an organization created in 1982 by Nigerian women who felt the need to develop indigenous forms of feminist understanding and organization, rather than rely on the analyses of non-Nigerians. Over last four years, WIN has produced studies and policy recommendations on the conditions of women in Nigeria, publishes a regular newsletter, and holds a national conference each year.

The following article, in which Ayesha Imam describes living conditions of Nigerian women and explores their relation with Islam, is abridged from a paper presented by the author at a conference of Muslim women in early 1986.

My position is that women's liberation is neither a myth, nor an existing reality in Nigeria today. Rather it is a goal, an objective yet to be achieved and which women and men must work for before it can become a reality.

Let us look at this more closely by presenting some questions often asked about the women's liberation movement.

1. What is women's liberation?

My definition is not based on the stereotypes of western women's liberation movements with which we are familiar (e.g., bra-burning, etc.). It is one that has been formed to fit the conditions and realities of our own society. That is, women's liberation is part of the liberation of our whole society from oppression, exploitation, ignorance and poverty. Its achievement would result in a society where women and men can live in peace with each other, interacting with human dignity and mutual respect, and where a decent standard of living is assured for all, not merely a few.

2. But why is women's liberation necessary?

First we must recognize that, as the founding statement of Women in Nigeria, puts it, " the majority of women, like the majority of men, suffer from the exploitative and oppressive character of Nigerian society, but women suffer additional forms of exploitation and additional oppression." It is obvious that our society is divided into the rich and the poor, that the majority of people — no matter how hard they work — are unable to get enough food, decent education, clean water and environmental conditions, etc., for themselves and their families, while a small group lives in ease and luxury with every benefit at their disposal.

Nonetheless, women are even worse off than men. A United Nations report points out that women worldwide do 60 percent of the work but earn only 10 percent of the wages and own only one percent of the world's property. The situation is not different when we consider Nigeria.

For example, although over 50 percent of the population is female, most girls are not able to benefit from education. In Borno state, only two girls are in school for every five boys. In general, at the primary school level, the proportion of girls is 30 to 40 percent; at the secondary level it drops to 20 to 30 percent and at the tertiary level, it is only 10 to 15 percent. There is much social prejudice against female education and, now that school fees must be paid, girls from poor families stand very little chance of going to school.

According to statistics by the United Nations African Training and Research Center for Women, we find that the average peasant women in Nigeria works 10 to 16 hours a day, while the average man works under 10 hours a day. But still women get only about half the average income of men per year, although they work harder and longer.

Most women also suffer from a double workload. After working all day on the farm, at the market, selling goods, weaving threshing, pounding, or in the school, hospital, office, or factory, they must still look after the children, cook, clean the house and wait on the men. Meanwhile men relax and rest instead of taking up their share of the domestic responsibilities.

It is within the family that women's oppression is most clear. Many girls are married at an early age and against their wills. They may easily be divorced through no fault of their own. When divorced, they often lose custody of their children. Or their husbands take other wives, often without their knowledge, much less their consent. Women are often either not allowed inheritances from their parents, especially land, or are cheated of them by relatives.

These problems and others must be rectified to achieve liberation. It is necessary to eliminate both the exploitation and oppression of the poor by the rich, and the suffering of women together; one cannot be done without the other. In Algeria and in Iran, for example, women found this out when, after fighting the French colonialists or the Shah's oppressive regime alongside their men, they were in an even worse position than before independence, denied the right to choose their husbands, the right to divorce, to education, etc.

Therefore in order to end all these sufferings it is necessary to struggle to end both sex and class oppression. What use is it to end discrimination against women if they and their husbands and brothers remain poor and exploited by the rich? But also, what use is it to claim that a society is liberated when over half the population, women, are still dominated and subordinated by the other half?

3. Who fights for women's liberation?

It is not only women who struggle for their liberation. "Feminists are those who recognize the exploitation of women and its relationship to other forms of oppression and who work actively to change it," in the words of Caribbean feminist Rhoda Reddock. Any women or man who tries to work for the end of sex and class oppression is a feminist. .An illustrious example was Sheikh Usman dan Fodio who condemned the treatment of Hausa women and called for a better situation for women. This leads us to the following question.

4. Are Islam and women's liberation opposed to each other?

There are those who say that women's liberation is opposed to Islam. Some say so because they think of women's liboration as the stereotype of the West (e.g., braburning, or women dominating men) and not as we have defined it: a transformation that enables women and men to live in justice and dignity. This is actually well in accordance with Islam for two reasons.

First, Islam is a religion in which each and every person is directly responsible to God and not to any human being. This is clearly set out in the following passage from the Koran;

Whosoever does right, whether male or female, and is a believer, we shall assuredly give him to live a good life; and we shall pay them a recompense according to the best of what they do. (16:97)

Second, as Nawal el Saadawi has emphasized in her book on Arab women.

It has often been pointed out that Islam in its essence, in its fundamental teachings, in its birth and development, under the leadership of Muhammed was a call to liberate the slave, a call to social equality and public ownership of wealth in its earliest form, that of a "house" or a "bank" in which all surplus wealth was to be used for feeding, clothing and housing the poor.

These points demonstrate that far from ignoring or accepting social injustice, the true Islam is that which fights against them.

It is my belief that if the tenets of Islam were interpreted more seriously and honestly, Muslim women would not be in the tenuous situation that they are today. Instead what we have is that, as stated by I. Khaife-Brown, "men decide to interpret God's will for their own benefit, and neither asked nor cared how it affected women." The majority of those who argue that the emancipation of women is not Islamic are mere hypocrites who enjoy and gain from the suffering of women.

There are many areas in which women's rights have been ignored and neglected allegedly in the name of Islam. I shall deal here with only a few: the right to education, rights within marriage, purdah (seclusion of women), and leadership roles.

Education

So often we hear in Nigeria that education spoils girls and is unnecessary for them. But actually, as Hauwa Mahdi points out, this is just a means of keeping women in ignorance and subjugation, for if women do not know their rights how can they demand them? In fact, the development of knowledge is a religious duty for all Muslims, male and female. Many passages in the Koran enjoin Muslims to think, contemplate and learn. Usman dan Fodio strongly condemned the confinement of knowledge to men alone when he said:

Alas! How can they (men shut their wives, their daughters and their captives in the darkness of ignorance, while daily they impart knowledge to their students?... They seek only of their satisfaction and that is why they impose upon you [women] tasks which the law of God and that of his prophet have never especially assigned to you. Such are the preparation of foodstuffs, the washing of clothes, and other duties which they impose upon you, while they neglect to teach you what God and the Prophet have prescribed for you.

No one should stand in the way of education for boys or girls. However, we hear of men refusing to allow their wives to attend even literacy and religious classes which are held for all-female groups.

Rights in marriage

So many parents do not allow their daughter to choose their marriage partners even though the prophet dissolved many marriages on the grounds that the women had not consented to it freely. The Prophet was very clear on this:

If a man gives his daughter in marriage in spite of her disagreement, such marriage is invalid.

and

A matron should not be given in marriage except after her consent; and a virgin should not be given in marriage except after her consent. (Hadith, vol III)

And yet for selfish interest (usually material gain) parents force their daughters into marriage and then pretend hypocritically to be surprised when girls run away and often end up in prostitution.

Other issues which are misinterpreted d for mans selfish ends are those of men's right to unilateral divorce and to marry more than one woman at a time. Usman dan Fodio condemned men's selfishness when he said. "Men treat these beings [women] like household implements, which are broken after long use and which are thrown out on the dungheap. This is an abominable crime." There are so many cases where after years of living with a man, looking after him, and bearing children with him, a woman is pushed aside to make room for another younger girl and divorced if she protests.

In the course of my research, I have come across many women who have been taught that men's religious duty is to have four wives and women's religious duty is to accept it. This is untrue. Islam permits a man to have more than one wife only under strict conditions which include the wife's barrenness, the need to provide for orphans, and in cases of excess number of women who were victims of war. h is monogamy which is most desirable in Islam, not polygamy, for the Koran specifies that "If you feel you will not deal justly between them, then marry only one." (4;3) and "You cannot keep perfect balance emotionally between your wives, however much you may desire it." (4:129)

Furthermore, in Islam marriage ought to be a contract between the husband and wife before God. Women have the right to specify that they will be the only wife, or will retain the children in the event of a divorce, or that the couple should live in a particular town. etc. But so often a women's marriage guardian (in most cases her father) does not care to fulfill his duty in ensuring that the woman enters marriage on terms acceptable to her. Moreover, Islamic law specifies that custody of children following divorce should be in the hands of the mother, or her mother, or her mothers mother, or her sister until a female child marries or a male child comes of age. Only if none of these is alive and in a position to do so should the children go to the father. But in practice, the ex-husband demands or even forcibly removes the children after they are weaned.

Purdah

Here again, many Muslim women are taught to believe that purdah, or physical seclusion, is a religious duty. But actually the only verses in the Koran which relate to seclusion are addressed specifically to the Prophet's wives and enjoin them to stay at home rather than show off in the manner of the women of the day of ignorance. But even then, the Prophet said ""Oh women! You have been allowed by Allah to go out for your needs."

Many Islamic scholars have pointed out that seclusion was actually a custom of the rich in the Persian Empire, and not an Islamic religious injunction at all. It is obvious that although many men may desire to keep their wives completely locked up only the rich can afford to do so. For example, in peasant families, both past and present, it is a necessity that women work in the fields sowing and harvesting. To restrict women from helping to produce subsistence for their families only renders the poor more vulnerable to exploitation by the rich, for whom they then have to work for a pittance order to gain food and shelter. As Hauwa Mahdi says.

Is it not both religiously and socially immoral to parade the idea of the necessity of purdah when Islam has never sanctioned it, but only insists that women go out in presentable apparel? Is it not obvious that this is propaganda by the ruling classes over the generations to prevent women from participating in certain jobs which they selfishly wish to reserve for themselves in order to perpetuate patriarchy? The use of Islam in this respect merely exposes the subtlety of the oppressing classes and interest groups at the expense of women.

Leadership and consultation

These days we often hear it said especially in newspaper articles that Muslim women are supposed to be restricted to domestic duties and child rearing. But this is said not on Islamic authority but because of mere male chauvinism. In the Medinan society women participated in political discussions, in government and even in war. Muslim women today need to follow the example of the women in Medina fifteen centuries or so ago and work actively in every sphere of society to achieve social justice.

5. How should women work to women's liberation and social justice?

First every Muslim women (or man for that matter) must study Islam. Zainab Kabir points out that:

The general misinterpretation of these Koranic verses brings out the need for women scholars in the duty of interpretation of the Koran. Because that is the only way we can challenge those who quote the Koran to legitimize their humiliation of women in the name of Islam.

This also needs to be done on an international level. All over the wt)rld there are societies which claim to be Islamic but which sanction practices which are at odds with the spirit of justice and dignity that ought to be part of Islam. Recently for example, under the new so-called Islamic constitution in Pakistan, a blind servant girl was raped by her master and his son. and then whipped for the resulting pregnancy because she had conceived out of wedlock. This is rank injustice parading as conformity to Islamic laws. Similarly Muslim women in India are seldom told that they also have the right to divorce The organization Women Living Under Muslim Law exchanges information on what passes for Islamic law in various places and, where necessary, mobilizes international support within the Islamic communities to protest against such injustices and misinterpretations.

Third, there is the need for Muslim women to work with other women who are also fighting for the principles of social justice. There are those who urge that Muslim women particularly should be chauvinists and isolated from all others but this is incorrect. One is only supposed to avoid those who make a mockery of one's religion. Certainly if a Muslim man can marry and have children with a Christian woman, Muslim women may work with Christian women to relieve suffering and injustice in society. The organization Women in Nigeria, for exampte, is composed of both Muslim and Christians who are struggling to build in Nigeria a st)ciety where no one is exploited or discriminated against on the groups of sex or class.

As the Koran states. "The Believers, men and women, are protecting friends one of another, they enjoin the doing of what is right and forbid the doing of what is wrong." Muslim women, as much as Muslim men, must participate in the struggle for what is right and just. Islam does not separate the material and spiritual planes. It is a duty for Muslim women not to be blindly obedient, but to educate herself to understand what is right and work with all those who share the same principles to achieve a decent and fair society.

For more information, write Women in Nigeria at P.O. Box Smaru Zaria, Nigeria