Situation of women in Nigeria

Stephen Wright (1998) reports, ôNigeria is AfricaÆs most populous country and, economically, one of the continentÆs strongestö (p. 1). With an estimated population of 110 million, the Federal Republic of Nigeria is the tenth most populous country in the world, and the fifth largest oil supplier to the U.S. market (Maier, 2000, p. xx). In terms of land mass, it is a medium-sized African nation, situated above the Equator along the southwestern bulge of the upper part of the continent, with a substantial coastline, a good share of tropical rainforests, and extending up toward the lower reaches of the Sahara Desert.

The largest city, Lagos, sits on the Gulf of Guinea, close to the border of NigeriaÆs neighbor to the west, Benin. Further down the coast lies Port Harcourt, which Karl Maier (2000) calls ôthe unofficial capital of black AfricaÆs biggest oil industryö (p. xv). The discovery of oil overshadowed an economy that had once been based primarily on agriculture (cocoa, palm oil, bananas, etc.).

The country is surrounded by nations that were all former colonies of

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ender. For instance, wood and metal sculptors were usually male, while potters were usually female. Weaving in certain parts of sub-Saharan Africa was principally a male occupation, except in certain areas, including Nigeria. At the same time, the prevalence of Islam influenced attitudes toward women in pre-colonial society. Anwar Hekmat (1997) argues, ôMillions of Muslim females, under rigid and inexorable Islamic laws, have been deprived of their fundamental inalienable rights and driven into seclusion for many centuriesö (p. 9). Yet such rigidity is the result of certain ways of interpreting Islam, not necessarily accurately, and some evidence suggests that Nigerian Muslims in pre-colonial times did not use their religion to repress women but instead appropriated its view of distinctive gender roles. Islam allows men to marry several wives, a practice that the later European arrivals found distasteful. Polygamy is often condemned as disadvantageous to women. Yet, some argue that this system allowed women more freedom. Yet some argue that, in a society emphasizing childbearing as the womanÆs principal role, this system allowed women to share that task with other wives and therefore to make other contributions to soci
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Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

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