The latest CREID Podcast highlights how violence against women and girls in northern Nigeria is endemic and is fuelled by conflict, poverty and a patriarchal society. In this interview with Fatima Suleiman, Executive Director of the Islamic Counselling Initiative in Northern Nigeria describes gender-based violence against women and girls, which included rape, abductions, sex slavery, sex trafficking, domestic violence and forced involvement in terror activities, and how this increased during Covid-19. She also discusses her recent research which looks in particular at the situation of marginalised women from the Izala religious minority.
Incidents of violence against women and girls in northern Nigeria have received significant international attention such as Boko Haram’s kidnapping of the 276 Chibok school girls (which sparked the Bring Back Our Girls campaign) or the abduction of 110 schoolgirls abducted from their school in Dapchi, including Leah Sharibu who is still in captivity for refusing to renounce her Christian faith. Now, new research supported by the Coalition for Religious Equality and Inclusive Development (CREID) explores the situation of another group of women affected by violence, poverty and a patriarchal ideology, the Izalas.
Listen to the other CREID podcasts in this series.
