Fall 2004/Winter 2005

Volume 34
Numbers 1-2

Engagement, Resistance
and Student Learning

Human Rights, Education, and Women in Northern Nigeria
By Hauwa Ibrahim

A Fact Pattern
His name is Abubakar, and he is the only male of the five siblings. It is 5:30 a.m. and the Islamic prayers are called. The girls awaken to pray by 6 a.m., after which they walk five miles to the closest creek to get water for the day's chores. When they return home, they heat the water for Abubakar to take a bath. While he is bathing, they prepare the breakfast with the help of their mother. Abubakar finishes his breakfast, and his sisters collect his dish and clean up behind him. If there is any water remaining, they clean up and prepare to join Abubakar who has since left for school. Abubakar, as the only male child, is the one who bears the family name. None of the other children is his equal. Far from it! He cannot wash his clothes. It is the duty of the girls. He rarely helps cultivate food for the family. Again, that is the duty of the girls. He cannot be involved in any household chores, ever, because he is the boy. By the young age of ten, he has been trained to be the father of all and to be in control. By contrast, by the young age of twelve, the girls are being given away in marriage to suitors selected by the family and their consent is totally irrelevant.

If the girls had been allowed to complete their elementary education, at best and with luck, they would be able to read and write in the local language. Yes, lucky, because unlike Abubakar, who was given time to do his homework after school, the girls had to help their Mum cook and clean and then also work to make some money to buy the plates, pots, and other utensils that they will need in their new husbands' homes. Everything the girls will ever know is what the boys or men tell them, for the male is the symbol of authority. It is that man's definition of democracy that she knows, what the man says is freedom that is freedom, what is religion that is religion, what is fundamental that is fundamental, and what is secular that is secular. The man defines what is sentiment, culture, tradition, modern, liberal, justice, equality, dignity, human rights, societal norms, integrity. Indeed, for all practical purposes, the man determines what is right and what is wrong. This is the true story of the scenario in some of our societies in the Northern part of Nigeria.

Women's Rights as Human Rights
There is a cultural belief that, since women are just women, educating a woman is a waste of resources because she is just going to be someone's wife, bear someone else's name, and be part of someone else's family. Girls in some communities at the tender age of twelve years are married off on the belief that early marriage ensures their chastity and the family honor (so as to avoid pregnancy before marriage). The demands of marriage then eliminate any hope of continued schooling.

Terminating a young girl's education at that early age deprives the adult woman of the skills and the confidence to make informed decisions. It leads to a woman being a mere follower and object of obedience. She never develops a political consciousness and most of the time does not know who exactly she is. Indeed, most of her time is spent rearing children, caring for the males, tending to household maintenance, unquestioningly observing customs, traditions, and family honor issues, and experiencing polygamy, abuse, divorce, violence, rape within marriage, genital mutilation, other forms of battery, and a dowry system. Gender apartheid, commercial sexual exploitation, and lack of freedom are the woes of many of our women. When it comes to law, religion, reasoning, inheritance, marriage, divorce, and family, she is not only voiceless but powerless and vulnerable.

It does not have to be like this. In any other context, descriptions like these of the plight of a class of people would give rise to calls to end the abuse of human rights. We can all agree that it is a violation of human rights when babies are denied food, or drowned, or suffocated, simply because they are girls. It is a violation of human rights when women and girls are sold into slavery or prostitution or doused with gasoline because they are female. It violates the most fundamental human rights when individual women are raped in their own communities and when women by the thousands are raped as a tactic or prize of war. It is a violation of human rights when, in most cases under the Sharia legal system in Northern Nigeria, only the women are sentenced to death by stoning and the men found not guilty of adultery. Is it not a violation of human rights when the leading cause of death worldwide among women ages fourteen to forty-four is domestic violence? Is it not a gross violation of fundamental human rights when the rights of women are defined by their reproductive organs, when young girls are brutalized by genital mutilation, when women are forced to have abortions or to be sterilized against their will, and even when women are denied the right to plan their own families?

The litany of violations against women that I have just recited has deep roots in the cultures and psyches of many societies, despite the fact that women constitute the backbone and, often, the muscle in many societies. They are the unrecognized and uncompensated economic engines in many countries, providing food, healthcare, education, and uncounted and often unappreciated resources. In most of our communities, women constitute about 50% of the population and, therefore, 50% of the potential intellectual capacity of their populations. When left untapped, progress and economic development stagnates. Women's rights and human rights are one in the same. Likewise, the women's issues that I have described are common to all minorities, the poor, and the powerless and voiceless persons in our communities.

A New Vision of Community
Addressing problems and opportunities in a rapidly changing world requires a new paradigm of social policy that transcends identity-politics, race, color, creed, and cultural biases. At the same time, however, pursuing a gender-specific or women-oriented strategy may be both inadequate and unproductively divisive. Instead, let me suggest a new vision of community.

The immediate challenge for national and international women's movements is to mobilize to build a new political order in a world that is being reshaped by globalization. New institutions--if they result from a process in which women are integrally involved--are likely to serve the cause of equality and other fundamental human rights much more effectively than the current institutions of political power. Despite tremendous efforts and steady gains, women still are largely underrepresented in government and other institutions.

An international expression of solidarity for women's rights and gender equity is needed, and globalization creates a unique opportunity in our lifetime to bring about substantive change. Rather than looking upon globalization as the destruction of cultures, why not exploit it for the opportunities that it offers to communicate and disseminate scientific and technical knowledge, to reduce poverty, inequality, and illiteracy, and to offer enlightenment on the potential and unique contribution that women make in this world. Can we not be creative in linking trade and economic progress with a human rights perspective toward women's rights? Coordinated well with world trade regulations and laws, this will reduce poverty, illiteracy, vulnerability, and remove many of the threats to stability and world peace.

Globalization in the Service of Social Justice
International trade laws should be reformed to become effective and enforceable mechanisms for ensuring human rights. The IMF, World Bank, "Northern Governments," and trans-national and multi-national corporations should advocate for trade liberalization, but do so in a way that yields long-term benefits for all the trading partners. Rapid liberalization has, in some countries, exacerbated inequality, poverty, illiteracy, and abuse of human rights, actually slowing the rate of growth.

The current piecemeal approach needs to be addressed. Social and economic progress, let alone a good and mutually beneficial trading relationship, is not guaranteed when a developing country invites direct foreign investment in the nation. Such strategies are flawed and need to be overhauled. They should include development terms, good quality investment, dynamic linkages with local agriculture, direct employment of labor in the countries of operations, proposals to address debt burdens, and, most importantly, investment in universal educational opportunities. The activities of WTO and its trade policies should have greater transparency and be fully disclosed.

Globalization provides an opportunity to establish an international ethos of shared values and principles of social justice. It also provides the economic engine to implement this new ethos. If developing countries increase their world exports by just 5%, it would generate $350 billion--seven times as much as they receive in aid. For Africa, a 1% increase in the share of world exports would generate $70 billion, approximately five times more than all the aid and debt relief granted to the continent. The potential to use this "extreme prosperity" to eradicate Africa's "extreme poverty" is obvious. There are 1.1 billion people in the world who struggle to live on less than $1 a day. The rising tide of wealth generated by trade has the potential to lift many boats--or to swamp many boats. If it swamps more boats than it lifts, who knows whether those without hope will surrender to despair and become the next terrorists or suicide bombers.

Our vision for globalization may be different, our missions far apart, but I believe that we share a common vision that recognizes that inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family are the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world. A conscientious element of a trade policy that addresses education for all, and especially for girls and women, will reduce poverty, improve health care, and yield better trading partners now and in the future. Indeed, a transparent policy and implementation of this strategy would reduce poverty and improve on issues of education, promotion, and respect for human rights. Education is the foundation for empowerment of women in our communities. Done well, education will give them voice and empower them economically so they might address issues equality and eliminate violence against women.