Uprising over the freedom to wear hijab, or not, is ugly enough in a modern society. But having schoolren endlessly embroiled in such inanities to the point of shutting down schools is uglier and disgraceful.
But the portraits of the authors are equally compelling—particularly of Yakubu. She stands beneath an archway in a baby blue hijab speckled with orange and yellow leaves. Her eyes are bright and her smile resplendent, her face flanked by images of herself at a younger age hanging behind her. It's tempting to call her a feminist, but Yakubu chuckles at that term. "They call me a feminist. They call me a womanist. I do not know which one I am,” she says. "All I want is that any woman get her rights."
Women like Yakubu challenged Gordon’s idea of what it meant to be a Muslim woman in northern Nigeria. They may not have all the same freedoms and opportunities of women in the west, but still hold a measure of power. They fall in love, build friendships, and raise families. They are influencing their culture, and speaking out against inequality and injustice. "I loved how wrong I was about northern Nigeria," Gordon says. "There was this big blank spot in my knowledge before I went, and the vague outlines I had were filled in in a way that was totally different than anything I expected."
Hausa/Arewa Ankara designs may either be skirt and blouse or gown, but believe it is filled with beautiful designs.
He said that after the shops were closed, they complained to Malam Rabo who did not listen patiently to them. This is why they went with their complaint to the Emir of Kano. “What is happening with us right now. We went to Director Malam Rabo, but he didn’t listen to us or give us any good answer. He even kicked us out, so we got up and we went to our father, the emir of Kano, and carried our complaint to him. Since there are big men in power, we should let them know what is going on with us—If they don’t know what has been happening, they will now know.”
As they prepared for the evening, applying henna to their hands and feet, cleaning their rooms, getting stoned, Idris explained that his role was to guide the “big fish” to the establishment, and sometimes act as muscle. He gets tipped by the women, maybe gets fed if they feel sorry for him, or he has a girlfriend among them, but the money they make is theirs alone.
We caught up with Maryam and she tells us about the inspiration behind Arewa Scarves, why it was important to create that brand and the impactful ways she hopes to change the way hijab-wearing women perceive themselves.
“I was more surprised than anything,” said her father, Mohamed Ahmed, who lives in Houston with her mother, Mervat Ahmed. He said he raised his daughters with a deep sense of pride about their Muslim background, but nevertheless did not expect them to wear a hijab, a head scarf, let alone a niqab.
As she rummaged through her scarves, Khadijah tied one around her waist and twirled like a ballerina. Muslim women who cover usually wait until puberty to conceal their hair and bodies in public, but Khadijah likes to wear a hijab for dress-up — especially the pink one with sparkles.
Uprising over the freedom to wear hijab, or not, is ugly enough in a modern society. But having schoolren endlessly embroiled in such inanities to the point of shutting down schools is uglier and disgraceful. As it is currently the case in Kwara State, the unsavory development makes a mockery of both education and the core virtue of tolerance that religion preaches. Clearly, stakeholders in Kwara should be clear-headed in their choices and play less politics with ren and their education.
The wards abide by the school protocols and learn the practices of other faiths without qualms. Indeed, the ren of prominent Nigerian Muslims and politicians are being trained in established universities in Europe and America, where religion or adornment of hijab are irrelevant, but the content of their intellect and character. So, where has that tolerance, enlightenment and broadmindedness gone in Kwara? Indoctrinating or dividing the ren along religious lines is a disservice to the ren and hypocritical in nature. The religious organisations and parents need to wake to modernity and stop allowing themselves to be used against one another by self-serving politicians.
