Below is an interesting write-up by Olanrewaju Olamide Morenikeji and largely a response to a previous article on Feminism. It's his first time being featured as a guest writer on my blog and I hope it won't be the last because his views are rather captivating.
Olanrewaju Olamide Morenikeji writes from Ibadan, Nigeria.
Read and please do share with every one you know.
Thanks.
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I read Olutayo Lois
Ugbe's article titled 'Feminism, What They Will Not Tell You'. Therein,
explicitly stated were certain views expressed to be hypocritical and
detrimental on Feminism's front. It is of my view however, that most, if not
all of these points are wobbly and unfound.
I wouldn't have
replied this, but misconceptions and misrepresentations of the tenets feminism
uphold and gross misunderstanding of the ideology ran agog too much in the
article to be ignored, and also because members of society who thoroughly
understand feminism are meagre as compared to those who do not. Feminism is
bigger than one person, and any feminist could have easily replied the article.
But feminism has been associated with man-hate for so long. It is of utmost
importance therefore, that a man do this, because if it were a woman, she'd
be unequivocally termed a noisemaker and another angry feminist.
A man and a woman are
two obviously distinct entities. They have different biological composition,
intrinsically and extrinsically. If we were created, and I reckon we were, our
Creator knew what (S)He was doing when (S)He created us differently. It would
be outrightly foolish for one sex to demand to be exactly like the other. It
would also be outrightly unfair for one sex to deprive another full attainment
opportunity of its potential. It would be unfair for one sex to subjugate and
degrade the other. In the most simplest of words; Feminism demands that women
be recognized first as women. Not somebody's mother, somebody's daughter,
somebody's sister, somebody's wife, or somebody's somebody. It demands that
women be truly recognized as human and somebody first before anything else.
Aristotle once called
women deformed men. During the Roman empire, women were only a tad superior to
slaves and the only real powerful women of that era were the vestal Virgins. In
the Bible, Jewish laws forced a rapist to marry the woman he raped. This
directly put the woman in an abusive position (Deuteronomy 22:28-29). By the
13th century, Thomas Aquinas called women defective naturally and misbegotten
men. Aristotle's views on women as imperfect men became the basis of religious
beliefs and praxis. A typical book in point is the Malleus Maleficarium (The
Hammer of Witches), written by Heinrich Kramer and James Spregner. (Towards
Feminist Theatre in Nigeria, by Juliana Okoh, 2012).
But sprinkles of personalities arose to punctuate these
adverse practices against women with a little bit of sanity. Sir Thomas Moore
advocated for the education of women, so did Desidaurus Erasmus. Perhaps
without these people, women would still remain uneducated today. We forget that
our true African mothers were feminists. The Inkpi of Igala, Moremi of Ife,
Queen Daura of Daura, Queen Anima of Zazzau, Queen Kambasa of Bonny, Nana
Asma'u of Sokoto, Iyalode Efunsetan Aniwura of Ibadan, Omu Okwei of Osomari,
Madam Tinubu of Lagos, Madam Ransome Kuti, Aduni Oluwole, The Queen Mothers in
Benin City, Leaders of the Aba Women's Riot, Madam Eniola Soyinka, Okonjo
Iweala, and soonest, Ngozi Adichie. Is it not curious that history perpetually
left more than half of these women out of our textbooks?
Norms are determined by society, and society is a collection
of man. Man who sins, man who is faulted, man who is imperfect, invariably,
society and its normative can also be faulted and partial. There is a
possibility that whichever sex has more power at any point in time will
dominate and foist its will on the weaker sex. I will ignore the first and
second waves of feminism, because as pertinent as history is, and as much as
the present is a definitive porousness of it, we must live and act for the
present, not the past, so lets talk about the inherent flaws cited in this
third wave.
ABORTION
Feminism does not say that abortion is no big deal and it
doesn't cover it up with 'it's their body'. The truth, according to a majority
foundation;
Abortion is a necessity for millions of women worldwide, for
their health, for their wellbeing, for their dreams of a better tomorrow. The
reality is that a woman will seek an abortion—legal
or otherwise—almost instinctively and in
self defense. A woman will do this when an unwanted pregnancy presents an
excessive strain on her or her family’s
physical, emotional or economic resources. When forces beyond control come to
play, should hands be clasped on backs? Should established lives be watched to
wither away for the sake of an unborn foetus?
DRESSING
The Nigerian constitution of 1999, chapter IV states that:
Every individual is entitled to respect for the dignity of her/his person. No
one has the authority to pass judgement on morality, because religion indelibly
reminds us that we were all born sinners. What feminism does is to access the
situation and determine whether a man would have been treated likewise in that
same situation. Feminism is not about wearing a particular type of clothing. It
only demands that nobody be judged on the basis of what they wear, and this
lies in the inherent factor of every individual being her/his principal
choicemaker. Feminism demands that women should wear whatever they're
comfortable in and not what is foisted upon them by the diktat of societal
normatives. Adichie is a staunch feminist and she doesn't wear 'revealing'
clothings. Beyonce is also a feminist and she finds comfortability in
'revealing' clothings. It would be myopic of anyone to gauge another's
character by what they decide to wear or the make up on their face.
HOMOSEXUALITY
Homosexuality is agreeably a tentative topic. I would like
to bring you back to my earlier stated stance on adulthood and liberal choices.
Feminism demands the respect of individualistic opinions. I am straight, and I
believe union between man and woman is the normal practice, and because one
feminist believes homosexuality is okay, doesn't mean all feminists share this
view and vice versa. It is not feminism's fault that there has been a perceived
decline in morality, this should be blamed on the religious bodies. This
context is as a result of clash between ideology and evolution of societal
normatives. It is not the fault of the ideology. We must understand, that
before anybody is gay, or a liar, or a fraud, or a bastard, or a Christian, or
a Muslim, or a feminist, or a 'non feminist', or a man, or a woman, we're all
first human. Humanity and opinion, must first before all, be respected-and I
daresay no matter how adverse. The Nigerian law has stated homosexuality as a crime
punishable with 14 years. The law demands immediate report of such crimes.
In your article, you selectively turned a blind eye to
certain issues and blew others out of proportion. Herewith, I'll bring true
life accounts of ignored conditions. Marriage should be a classless union of two souls who have
agreed to come together and be. Violence needn't be physical, my dear. I don't
see selfishness in the demand for equality amongst the sexes. Equality is a
rather stoic and sometimes narrow representation of feminism's demand as
exemplified throughout this piece. Equality not in biological composition or
physical capabilities, but in opportunities given in the same situation.
According to the Egyptian feminist Nawal
El Saadawi; it is no longer possible to escape the fact that the
underprivileged status of women, their relative backwardness, lead to an
essential backwardness in society as a whole.
FORCED MARRIAGE
Have you ever heard of an underaged boy forced into marriage
with an overaged woman?
Forced marriage is still widely practiced in many rural
communities in Nigeria, Africa, and the world at large. In a study carried out
in Lagos in 2001, by Project Alert On Violence against women: 64.4 percent of
the interviewed women in workplace said they'd been beaten by a partner,
boyfriend or husband. 56.2 percent of 48 interviewed marketwomen had
experienced the same type of violence. Countless others have been sent to
graves in vicious acid attacks and horrific scenarios. Although men can be
affected by domestic violence, women suffer disproportionately. (Julianna Okoh,
2012).
NON-FICTION [FORCED MARRIAGE]
Hauwa Abubakar died at age twelve in 2001. Her father had
married her to an old man to whom he owed some money. She kept running away but
because of the debt, her parents were obliged to return her to the husband.
Finally to prevent her from absconding again, the husband chopped off her legs
with an axe. She died from starvation, shock, and loss of blood. No legal
actions were taken. It was regarded as a family affair.
NON-FICTION[FORCED MARRIAGE]
In 2000, Bariya Ibrahim Magazu, a thirteen year old girl,
became a victim of blatant gender discrimination in Zamfara state. She was
found pregnant and brought to a Sharia court. She was declared guilty of premarital
sex and was sentenced to be flogged publicly, 110 strokes of the cane. Nothing
was done to the three men whom she said raped her on three different occasions.
Apparently Magazu, the girl's father was owing the men some money, so he
arranged for them to have sex with the girl to liquidate the debt. Bariya was
flogged after having her baby.
Would a boy child have found himself in this situation to
start with? If yes, how many compared to the girl child?
RAPE
Of the thousands and thousands of rape videos released
everyday. Of rape stories, how many do we see or have heard of that men are the
victims in them? Let us count and let a fair answer be given if rape is truly
injustice against men.
In India, women are raped in broad daylight, sometimes on
disguised public buses, and culprits remain unfound. Some are raped to death.
In Congo, during the war, statistics show that 40 women were raped hourly. Here
in Nigeria, and Africa at large, the most absurd questions are forwarded after
a rape crime has been reported.
'Did you insult him?' 'Is he your boyfriend?' 'What were you
wearing?' Why should the one who dressed in a certain manner be blamed, and not
the one who couldn't control his urge?! And the last, and not the
most stupefying, 'Was it in his house?'
When men are raped,
it is considered an achievement, and not a loss of identity to most victims (or
are they?).
What about the Chibok girls? Do we think they willingly
mated with terrorists? What about the women and girls that are being raped as
you read this who will not report the crime for fear of absurd claims and
perversion of Justice under the guise of beguiled morality?
I could write on and on, but I reckon this is long enough,
perhaps so long a response. It is now, more than ever, that the world needs
feminism. It is through the respect and acknowledgement of womanity that true
respect and acknowledgement of humanity will emanate. I impel you, dear LOIS
OLUTAYO UGBE, that if you are to write, or state your views on feminism in
subsequent times, to read far more extensively than a gaudy wikipedia page set
up anonymously. I believe that if you truly understand what feminism entails,
you'd vociferously be one of us. One of them. Herein explicitly laid, LOIS, is
'What They Did Tell Us'.
Article Written By: Olanrewaju Olamide Morenikeji.
Location: University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
References:
TOWARDS FEMINIST THEATRE
IN NIGERIA An Inaugural Lecture By PROFESSOR JULIANA OMONUKPON OMOIFO
OKOH
October 30,2012.
FEMINIST MAJORITY FOUNDATION
