Noma: A neglected disease defacing Nigeria’s children
At the end of November, an international conference on the role of women in society was hosted by the Kaduna-based Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), umbrella body of Northern Islamic organisations, in association with NUSRET, a cultural and educational foundation affiliated to Hizmet, the international organisation that founded Abuja’s Nile University and Nizamiye Hospital, as well as the Nigerian Tulip group of schools. The Kaduna Conference, themed “Women Between Future Aspirations and Contemporary Challenges”, interrogated the position of women in Muslim societies, with focus on Nigeria.
The Hizmet Movement, under whose banner NUSRET co-organised the conference, is a civil society initiative founded in Turkey in the 1960s based on the thoughts Fethullah Gulen, a scholar, intellectual, writer and thinker who has authored more than 70 books which have been translated in more than 40 languages. Gulen’s focus has been on education; the purpose of Hizmet therefore includes raising people well equipped in terms of knowledge and morality; who can make contributions to the development of the societies and the countries they live in; who can help everybody irrespective of creed or opinion; who can uphold their own national values but are also able to integrate with the world; etc.
The Kaduna Conference on Women was attended by delegates from Egypt, Turkey and Algeria, as well as from many Nigerian universities. Social issues concerning women were the main thrust of the discussion, as the sub-themes of the bilingual English and Arabic conference included, among others, “The Psychological and Moral Effects of Divorce on Children”; “Effects of Drug Abuse on the Personality of Women”; “Impact of Social Media on Women Today”; and “Role of Women Towards Good Upbringing of Future Generations.”
In her contribution titled “Status of Women in Islam and Future Challenges”, Prof. Sa’adatu Hassan Liman of Nasarawa State University punctured the notion in Western discourse that Muslim women are helpless prisoners in their homes, asserting instead that in Islam the woman is an independent entity and thus a fully responsible human being. Islam, she asserted, addresses the woman directly and through the agency of Muslim males. As in other areas of life, Muslim women have proven to be resourceful, creative and dedicated to claiming ownership of and responsibility for their lives, both individually and communally. This is in spite of the challenges they have often faced in gaining access to the appropriate religious training facilities and establishing credibility with the male religious establishment.
In his address read at the meeting, foremost Nigerian international Islamic scholar and Chairman of the Nigerian Fatwa Committee, Shaikh Sharif Ibrahim Saleh al Hussaini, reiterated the universal fact that Islam, since its beginning more than 1,400 years ago, brought a better deal for women, considering the negative social situation the woman was in previously. Islam promoted the cause of the woman and recognised her competence as a human being by allowing her to express her opinion and become anything possible. Islam, he contended, was very revolutionary in this aspect as the preceding Egyptian, Greek, Persian and Roman civilisations actually placed women at a much lower level.
On the social media and the promises and challenges they pose to women like her, Asma al Husseini, Deputy Chief Editor of Al Ahram newspaper of Cairo, Egypt, asserted that they are useful tools in the hands of women to make positive changes in their families and societies, and to remove injustices in their countries at a time when many restrictions are imposed on the mainstream and traditional media. Going down memory lane, she re-narrated the role women, using social media, have played in the Arab Spring. Social media, according to her, could be liberating tools for women in generally conservative societies such as Egypt and Nigeria.
Co-Host of the conference, Dr. Khalid Ali Abubakar, Secretary General of the JNI, restated the fact that unlike past civilisations that deprived women of basic human rights, Islam came to reinstate and protect those rights. These rights are divinely protected as Islam possesses the capabilities to ensure that protection. Therefore, if by any chance such rights are seen not to be implemented in many societies as dictated by the religion and as is apparent today, it is not Islam that is at fault but rather the implementors.
After exhaustive presentations and discussions on all aspects of the Role of Women in Society, delegates agreed that Islam indeed provides basic fundamental rules towards sustaining and maintaining the status of women sanctioned in the Shari’a; that the phenomenon of women’s rights is not a new issue in Muslim nations as, in fact, it was Islam that returned and reinforced the dignity of women; and that women used to be the first defences for the family and the society because they raised Muslim children in the best possible ways (which Western pressure is now trying to divest them of).
Other observations included the fact that drugs are currently ravaging many societies including Muslim communities, and are leading into social chaos by disenfranchising youths from acquiring an education and thus a better life; that BACK-HAND divorce, leading to the breakage of family life, and which used to be rare in Muslim societies and plentiful in others, has now become a dark blotch with monumental negative social impacts; that good upbringing of children, which was a given in past Muslim societies, has now become the exception rather than the rule; and that advancement in technology, which has given birth to social media, is now proving to be a double-edged sword for Muslim communities.
The conference therefore recommended that, in order for Muslim societies to retrace their steps back to the pristine conditions prevalent in the golden days of Islam, communities must have to come together to do what is necessary, including, for the local Nigerian society, address the social issues discussed - one good step is establishing proper Islamic counselling centres to deal with these persistent social problems bedevilling us.
And, in the words of Dr. Babangida Muhammad of the Centre for Qur’anic Studies at Bayero University, Kano “Muslim women of today should replay the role played by women of the Islamic Golden Era by raising future generations spiritually, scientifically, mentally and physically…and that they should uphold, transmit and spread sincerity, honesty, generosity and compassion - as only women can do all these at the same time.”