Being Female In Nigeria

A  topic started showing up recently, which I think would be amazing if we looked at it seriously - and helped it gain the recognition it deserves. Many of you may have heard of it, and most of you will actually be affected by it. You may already know it, the trend

#BeingFemaleInNigeria

This hashtag, currently trending on twitter highlights the various socioethical and various other injustices visited on women, mentally, physically or otherwise throughout the country Nigeria, As many of who already live here know, the country is more or less especially patriarchal in nature. Everything mostly seems to revolve around "THE MAN". The man is everything. The man is all that matters,

*Do you have children?  Yes? --->Great

*Are any male?
Yes - Good for you
No - Oh sorry.....don't worry, we will still take care of your inheritance for you.

I'm the fourth child, out of 7 kids, by  my mother(the most beautiful woman in Nigeria). Five (5) of my siblings are girls. As a result of that, I guess, I may be a little more ready, than some or most people, in coming to quickly defending womens' rights. Something which can easily be described as feminism.

You don't actually need to be female to be a feminist. Most dictionaries would describe feminists as people who support women's rights and/or equality. The Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie is a famous feminist. Her TED talk on feminism titled "We should all be feminists" remains one of the most view changing TED talks there is. So much so, that the female US artiste known as Beyoncé used the audio version of her spoken definition of the term "feminist" in her song, and performances of the song, "Flawless".

from CNN
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(CNN)In her famed TEDx talk, Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie tells the story of the first time she was called a feminist, at age 14, by a male friend.

"It was not a compliment. I could tell from his tone. The same tone you would use to say something like: you're a supporter of terrorism," she said, later adding:

"Some people will say a woman is subordinate to men because it's our culture. But culture is constantly changing."

Adichie has used her pen and her platform to talk about the struggles of Nigeria's women and on Tuesday, 30 June, young Nigerians began doing the same... in 140 characters.

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There have been many tweets around the sexism and discrimination suffered by nigerian women as you can see in the pictures below.

Other discriminatory situations, obtained from various sources are seen below as follows;

*It's Only in Nigeria that's it is a crime for a woman to have a car and not have a husband.

*When you are a Nigerian lady and you are still single at 30years, pastors will start casting out the spirit of anti-marriage from you.

*For a Nigeria woman, after school you must have two certificates.
University certificate and your marriage certificate.

*"Don't you know how to drive, see how you are driving like a woman"

*Every pretty light skinned girl is an ogbange

*Every single girl that dresses fine and has money is a runs girl.

*Every lady that wears skirt is a good girl. Every one that wears trouser is a bad girl.

I don't think we should wait to first get daughters or sisters for us to join to fight to reduce, and if and when possible, get rid of this outdated and faulty social ethos. We do NOT ignore poison. Ignoring poison doesn't make it any better..... It's a new world - We are the ones who make it so.

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Thanks for coming here ;)

Love, Stars and Jam