Women Are Born Free Too
The complex intersection of class, gender, race, religion, age and ethnicity creates social relations that affect the citizenship status of different groups within a nation state. In most of our countries, patriarchal culture and religion place women under the oppressing authority of men. Consequently, women are regarded as second-class citizens, even when their Constitutions guarantee them protection from discrimination on any basis. Although many constitutions are crafted beautifully to give an impression that the States care about all citizens at first glance, a more in-depth study will reveal that women are not considered on the same footing as men. This is evidenced by the limitations and grey areas found within the same document to women’s full citizenship, which calls into question the universality of human rights.
There are citizenship issues in different forms all around us, ranging from women’s inability to pass on their nationality to their spouses and /or their children, participate actively in politics as representatives, lack of protection from violation of bodily integrity and equal rights in the private as well as public domains. The controversial 1999 Constitution of the Federal republic of Nigeria for example, is based on the principles of freedom, equality and justice, but the question is – do women actually benefit from the gains of these principles? S. 26 is very clear about the right of men to pass on citizenship to their spouses but silent on whether or not a woman can. Similarly, S. 29 (4) (a) sets ‘full age’ at 18 years, in conformity with the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), whereas the next line states differently for women (b) ‘married women shall be deemed to be of full age’, thereby acknowledging and legitimising child and /or forced marriages.
Apart from the contradictions and limitations in the Constitutions, there are national laws and traditional practices which violate women’s rights as citizens, in the name of God or tradition and culture. Nigerian women have to struggle to enforce their citizenship rights on a daily basis, whether in trying to convince over zealous immigration officials that they do not require permission from their husbands to exercise their freedom of movement, or by venturing into the waters of politics and sending a signal that Nigeria belongs to us all. Female Police officers still require official approval of spouse and permission to get married, conditions that her male counterparts do not need to fulfil. Though S. 34 (b) states that no one should be held in slavery or servitude, no effort is made to eliminate forced marriages as women continue to be married off without their consent and held in ‘captivity’ against their will by their ‘terrorist’ husbands who usually have the blessing of the family, having paid a huge fee for her in cash, contract or kind. The list is endless.
We need to challenge discriminatory laws and practices that hinder women’s participation as full citizens in the public as well as the private spaces and I am optimistic that women’s lives will change for the better, no matter the level or form of resistance within our communities. This has to happen and it will happen if and when we link our hands across geographical, racial, religious and political divides and face our oppressors. Women are also born free.