Ishaq Al-Hassan Quaranmata, Sociology lecturer at the Kaduna Polytechnic, declares that it is not morally expedient to allow a housewife to work, especially when her husband can afford her needs.
Q: From your study as a sociologist and northerner, what have you identified as the reason(s) for denying educated women the right to work?
A: As a northerner, I find this a difficult question to answer. You are asking me this question because of my academic background as a sociologist and also a northerner and Muslim, so I will approach it from two perspectives. We have a problem in Nigeria, we always want to assimilate a culture that is alien to us. This is where the major problem lies. Religion-wise, Islam does not recognise the free intermingling of women with men. There are situations and areas where women are allowed to work, but such places of work must not bring them into constant contact with the male folk, which is not what we have on the ground today. The Nigerian society is so westernised: wherever your wife works, she will come in contact with men. And secondly, there is moral corruption in the society, so much so that people are not so sure of allowing their wives to intermingle with people. They watch different things on the TV and satellite, and read so much in novels and other publications. There is so much promiscuity in the society now. The religious background and Hausa culture itself does not allow the woman to move freely among men. Now, when you put these things together, you might have a clearer picture of what I’m trying to tell you. So if you have a man who feels he’s comfortable and capable of providing all the needs of the family, no matter the level of education of his wife, he may not allow her to work.
Q: But considering the global trend, where the economic condition compels a woman to work in order to assist the husband and support the family, what happens?
A: It depends on what you mean by global trend. You are going back to what I said that we want to copy other people’s culture. The white man’s culture encourages individualism, so the wife is free to work and she has specific functions to perform financially within the society. It is not the same in our own culture. This idea of shifting a man’s responsibility to a woman is alien to us. You will discover that even when the women work, you hardly can get the contribution that you get in western societies here. She will work, earn her salary, spend it on her jewelries and then she will still come and be asking the man for money. So if you have the money why allow her work?
Q: Are you saying that it is culturally wrong for Hausa-Fulani women to work?
A: Of course, it is cultural and religious. And the moral corruption in the society is making it very difficult for our people to subscribe to the idea of allowing the woman to work even when such women have bagged all kinds of degrees. Except in very essential situations, like nurses or teachers, especially in primary school, where there are a lot of women. As for office work, we still have a long way to go. Our men will not readily allow their wives to work, no matter how highly educated they are.
Q: Don’t you think non-working Hausa women are viewed as liabilities. And it may be a reason their husbands could divorce them with impunity, hence the rampant divorce cases in the North?A: I still say that when you transfer a culture that is alien to you, you are bound to have a problem. The typical Hausa society organises itself in a way that our marriage system is determined by the parents. It is not determined by what people call love. You meet a young lady, you don’t know her background and you say you are falling in love. You refuse to listen to anybody and insist on marrying her. At the end of the day, you have problems coping with her. A man just meets a lady and tomorrow they are married. In the Hausa culture, it is not like that. A man will bring in the lady and she will live in an extended family situation, unlike what obtains in many other societies where a man will just bring in a lady without the blessing of the family. In the North, she is viewed as an impostor. Because our culture has been infiltrated with all these alien cultures, we are having high cases of divorce these days. The issue of moral corruption is also a reason divorce cases are rampant among the Hausa today. There is so much infidelity. The man can go ahead and be as rascally as he could be; it is viewed as the nature of the society. But once the woman is caught in any unfaithful affair, it leads automatically to divorce.
Excessive materialism in our society today is also a problem. A lady lives with her husband comfortably, and suddenly a friend comes to her to paint a picture of affluence that she lives in her matrimonial home. Such things influence the woman to start misbehaving, and her misbehaviour or insatiable demand for material things could force her husband to send her packing.
Q: Would you agree that divorce is common among the Hausa communities?
A: It is wrong to say it is common among the Hausa-Fulani. There are specific areas of the Hausa-Fulani that are fond of doing this. Again, there is misconception about religious teachings; it is just like the problem of begging which people see as religious.
Q: Some psychologists and sociologists mention early marriage as a cause for rising divorce cases witnessed in the north among Hausa people. Do you agree with them?
A: It is not so. There is no place in the Qur’an that encourages it. It is a cultural thing. I knew of a family that married off their daughter at the age of five. And even though the girl and the boy were married, they were still within the family house under the control of the husband’s parents until they were old enough to start living as husband and wife. In some areas of Kano and Sokoto, cases of early marriage where girls of about eight or nine are married out are rampant. In the past, a girl of eight could be married to a man above 40 years but he would not touch her until she matures. Unfortunately nowadays, the reverse is the case. People are still holding tenaciously to that culture of marrying off their daughters at young ages. But what happens to such a young girl when she gets to her husband’s house is her problem. At that age, if the man has sex with her, she might end up with VVF and eventually be divorced. So why do what will force you to divorce a wife you married?
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