An Ilorin Area Court in Kwara State, has dissolved a two-year-old marriage between Azanat Bashiru and Mumin Bashiru, over the wife’s refusal to cover her entire body while in purdah.
The News Agency of Nigeria reported that purdah requires married Muslim women to totally cover their faces and bodies with black cloth.
The plaintiff asked the court to dissolve her marriage to her estranged husband due to his insistence in her being in purdah.
She said that their marriage was contracted in 2014 and had produced two children.
“My lord, I want an end to this marriage because my husband didn’t tell me this before I married him that I will be putting on in purdah.
“This is not in our agreement. I cannot be covering my body with black cloth, including my eyes, all of the time,” she said.
The defendant, however, did not object to the prayer of his wife.
“If she doesn’t agree to be in purdah, she is free to go,” he said.
Mumuni urged the court to grant the divorce request, as well as award him the custody of the children.
The presiding judge, Mr Abdulqudri Ibrahim, dissolved the marriage and issued a certificate of divorce to the plaintiff.
Ibrahim also awarded custody of the children to the petitioner.