These cultural crimes against women

CULTURE as the totality of the way of life of a people is a very significant aspect of human civilisation that must necessarily be permitted to evolve. It risks being viewed as  anachronistic and abhorrent if it fails to be dynamic, in tandem with the realities of modern societies. Pray, what manner of culture in 21st century Nigeria insists on a widow lying beside her deceased husband, having her head shaved, and drinking the water used to bathe her late husband, as part of the customary  rites of passage that must be observed  for the deceased? What  sort of custom precludes daughters from inheriting the properties of their deceased father or prevents a widow from benefiting from the estate of her late husband on the irrational excuse that she has no male child, even when she bore daughters for the deceased?

Such practices may have served some ‘useful’ purposes in the days of yore, but they are patently of questionable value today, and it has become imperative to let go of them. Recently, some people in Ubahuekem in Ihiala area of Anambra State  were obviously unhappy with their daughter-in-law, Chioma Asomugha, for resisting an attempt to make her drink from the water used in bathing the remains of her late husband. The 34-year-old widow is currently in the eye of the storm for questioning and defying the enforcement of the patently inhuman and sickening cultural practice. Thankfully, the Anambra State government has spoken up in her support. It is difficult to understand the mentality of a people that would force their fellow human beings to drink water used in washing cadavers, or the victims risk denial  of the customary benefits due to them from the estate of the deceased. Physically and  psychologically, forcing a widow to drink such water is  harmful.

Similar discriminatory practices against women had been a subject of judicial interventions in the recent past and they were held to be repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience. In the two landmark cases on discrimination against women decided by the Supreme Court in 2014, the justices involved did not only make lucid pronouncements that ought to have since  freed womenfolk  from age-long bondage, subjugation and slavish treatment by the men under the subterfuge of culture and custom, they  also slammed the enforcement of such obnoxious and insensitive cultural practices in this day and age. It is imperative to state clearly that the apex court’s decisions were, in a sense, a mere restatement or judicial  revalidation of  the provisions in the Nigerian Constitution which forbid discrimination against any citizen on account of place of birth, age, sex and even the circumstances of birth. Section 42(1)(a) and (2) of the 1999 Constitution make express provisions in that regard.

It is, however, rather saddening that the retrogressive elements in communities across the country are still latching onto the ignorance of the people to foist on them cultural and customary practices that are morally reprehensible and illegal. Truth be told, the Nigerian society tends to be needlessly misogynistic and patriarchal in nature, but a senseless stretch of that tendency to include the enforcement of abhorrent and debasing cultural practices against women is inimical to the strong bond of  social cohesion that a society requires to achieve all-inclusive progress, and to be counted among the progressive and civilised cultures of the world. Culture itself is by nature dynamic: a widow who is  contending with the pain of the loss of her husband need not be made to go through a harrowing experience just because she is a woman. That is wicked, uncivilised  and unacceptable.

State and local governments are enjoined to carry out enlightenment campaigns and put the need to jettison all obnoxious cultural practices in intense advocacy. This may include, but should not be limited to, enlisting the support of traditional rulers and opinion leaders in different communities across the land for the important crusade. We salute women standing against such dark practices in different parts of the country, and recommend them for official recognition and support. The persistence of very inimical and discriminatory cultural practices against women in Nigeria shows that the society must do much more to support women to fight cultural crimes. As pointed out earlier, many of these acts are not supported by law, yet there are recalcitrant and uncivilised people who are still indulging in them. The government should, in the circumstances, actively support women, helping them to suppress all the retrogressive practices ranged against them. We also  encourage women not to rest on their oars, but to continue to band  together in groups and shine light and attention on all instances of discrimination, fighting them to a standstill.

Indeed, we urge that significant official and private attention and resources be focused on and committed to putting paid to all manners of objectionable practices that single out women for disdain and ill-treatment under the guise of enforcing outlawed cultural and customary practices. It is time the Nigerian society stopped all forms of cultural crimes against women.

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