The key role women have played in the fight to #EndSARS
On the 4th of October 2020, thousands of young Nigerians left their homes and took to the streets to protest against police brutality orchestrated by the now-defunct unit, the Special Anti-Robbery
Squad (SARS). Hours earlier, SARS in Ugheli Delta State had shot and killed a young man, and then shortly after, they had stolen the car that he drove. This sparked over a week of peaceful demonstrations across various parts of the country as young Nigerians took to the street to air their frustrations and anger against the extrajudicial killings committed by this rogue unit.
Notably at the forefront of the offline and online protests has been young Nigerian women, particularly the involvement of the week-old group, the Feminist Coalition who have sustained protests in over 25 states in the nation. Through the actions of a private group of individuals who are not looking to be leaders of the movement, monetary contributions were crowdfunded and raised to provide a range of services such as legal support to those unlawfully detained, funding for those who had lost families during the protests and food for those who were risking their lives every day in the face of a pandemic to exercise their right to
lawfully protest for better governance and police reform. They have also been deeply accountable to the cause, endlessly providing a transparent breakdown on where the money from donations and sponsors go and accurately giving detailed information about the release of unlawfully detained protesters.
In the days since the protests kicked off, these women have faced harassment, impersonation, and threats of physical violence to their lives because of the active role they have taking in ensuring that no one gets left behind during this social movement. The spaces they occupy are no easy feat, however, their active involvement and that of many other Nigerian women has revealed how women experience police brutality and oppression in gendered ways, such as sexual harassment and sexual assault. When women from all across the country swarmed to the protest grounds to fight for transparent and accountable governance, they were once again reminded that the men that they rallied with could also be their very abusers and they were not wrong. Instances of women on the frontline being harassed and assaulted by male protesters were rife, and yet such cases have failed to mold how we engage with the ongoing protests for a better Nigeria.