The Nigeria Association of Women Journalists, NAWOJ has reiterated the need for every woman and other stakeholders to collectively seek to break gender bias.
The chairperson of NAWOJ in Cross River State, south-south Nigeria, Umo Basi-Edet made the call during activities to mark the 2022 International Women’s Day in Calabar.
Mrs. Basi-Edet, who led other members of NAWOJ to participate alongside a coalition of women groups in a street campaign to the Cross River State House of Assembly, stressed the need for women to “always support each other and join hands to ensure that gender equality is achieved in the country despite challenges faced in the quest for our voices to be heard.”
Basi-Edet described the 2022 theme “Attaining Gender Equality Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow” as apt, said “all hands must be on deck to stop every segregation, discrimination and stereotypes against women as well as put an end to gender biases.
“Women have the right to achieve their dreams and attain greater heights in their chosen fields of endeavours without any limitations. Women have the right to reach out for any political office in this country; we have the right to vote as well and to be appointees,” she emphasized.
Widowhood practices
Meanwhile, widows in Cross River have decried the continued dehumanization of women in parts of the state despite increased awareness on harmful and dehumanizing practices.
Sixty-five year old Philomena Ekpenyong and Seventy-four year old Rita Egwu, who participated in an event to mark this year’s International Women’s Day in Calabar, said that women were dehumanized in parts of central and northern Cross River.
The women hinted that widows were still being denied rights of inheritance and totally excluded from partaking of their deceased husband’s estates irrespective of number of offspring.
Ekpenyong stated, “as we celebrate women today, let us appeal to our peoples in parts of the state, who are still enslaving women and widows and those forcing young girls to marry men their grandfather’s ages, to stop such practices.”
Egwu on the other hand said, “in some areas, widows are made to wear black gowns for one year or dance naked on the grave of late husbands. Some cultures place weapons such as machetes in the hands of the deceased and forcefully make the wife and children to jump over the casket to prove their innocence. These need to stop.”
The women express the hope that state and federal lawmakers would take firm stance and pass bills designed to guarantee the rights of women in Nigeria.
Confidence Okwuchi
