Ask pertinent questions
The protests by Nigerian women of the government's failure to prevent or stop the violence in Jos offers some context to the article (remember, this article is from Kano in the Muslim north) asking why women are politically marginalized in Nigeria. You and your students could just as well ask the same question about any of the countries they're studying.Plateau Women Storm Abuja, Protest Killings
HUNDREDS of Plateau women, yesterday, staged peaceful demonstrations in Jos and Abuja against Sunday's mayhem at Dogon Nahawa where hundreds, mostly women and children, were murdered...
The women who were dressed in black as a sign of mourning also displayed gory pictures of women and children hacked down during the attack. In Jos, they converged on ECWA headquarters from where they marched to the state House of Assembly and the Government House.
They repeated allegations of inaction against security agencies when distress calls were made to them and called for a thorough investigation of the attack…
The women who had come under the aegis of Plateau Women Development Association carried various placards condemning the killings asking that those that were involved be punished...
In the Shadows of Men - Women's Political Marginalisation
Ten years after Nigeria returned to civil rule women still play second fiddle in the male-dominated politics of Africa's most populous nation, women politicians and activists say.
Since this West African country of 140 million people broke from military rule and embraced uninterrupted multi-party democracy in 1999, men have been calling the shots while women, who constitute more than half of voters (54 percent), only hold marginal elective offices…
Between 1999 and 2003 a total of 15 female parliamentarians, were elected. This figure marginally improved from 2003 to 2007 and there are currently 26 women are in parliament...
Social, cultural and religious factors are largely responsible for the marginalisation of women in politics in Nigeria, particularly in the Muslim-dominated part of the country where politics is seen as men's exclusive preserve…
Women in Nigeria are not as economically empowered as men. In most communities women are economically dependent on their husbands who control family income. Even where women are allowed to engage in money-making ventures, their husbands control the purse. Mairo Usman, a politician in northern Nigeria's Kano city, said women's weak economic base contributes to their political domination by men…
Politicking is time-consuming with politicians travelling far and wide and often staying overnight in hotels far from their homes during political rallies. Such political rallies are often rowdy and at times violent with political thugs taking centre-stage, hurling insults and brandishing assortments of locally made weapons. Given such scenarios, women politicians are generally seen as promiscuous in a society that believes women's role should be confined to domestic management.
"We are seen largely as lose women because we are politicians who, by the nature of politics, stay out late at night attending political meetings and rallies and sometimes sleep in hotels far away from our homes," female politician Maryam Jari told IPS.
"Politics involve intermingling between men and women and our culture and religion strongly abhor mixing between the two sexes which is viewed as indication of lewdness," she added...
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Labels: cleavages, gender, Nigeria, political culture, politics, women
posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:58 AM
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