There are a lot of ahistorical accounts of how Islam condones violence against women out there in the public space without of course the benefit of a single incontrovertible textual evidence by some writers globally.
Given, there are numerous cases even in Muslim dominated countries, where Muslim women have witnessed crass abridgement of their rights and privileges by their spouses, parents and guardians. This is unfortunate and condemnable. But this is a global silent pandemic that affects people of all race and religion. It is not peculiar to Muslim families alone. It is therefore wrong to criminalise Islam for the actions of Muslims in their public and private lives.
Violence against women is defined as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life.”
Violence against women manifests in the form of physical, sexual and psychological. These include intimate partner violence such as psychological abuse, marital rape, battering, rape, forced sexual acts, forced marriages and genital mutilation.
Sadly, these acts of violence against our mothers, sisters and daughters have gone on for too long owing in parts to the fact that the silent pandemic is largely unreported or at most under reported due to impunity, silence, stigma and shame surrounding this scourge.
Islam is the only religion that elevated the status of women from the abyss of historical anonymity to the glorious and highly elevated height of global prominence. Islam gave women voting rights, right to own property and right to inheritance among others, at a time when European and American women were deprived of such rights and luxuries.
I must proceed without fail to appreciate the effort of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in the area of advocacy and counselling for victims of gender-base violence.
I call on governments at all levels to synergise with the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs to increase the awareness campaign and escalate it to the remotest paths of the country.
As we luxuriate in this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, I would love to remind us that the promise of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) not to leave anyone behind will be severely and savagely compromised if we do not put an end to violence against women.
