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When is a Body deserving of having Violence visited upon it?
I had a spirited conversation (read: argument) with my driving instructor and another student yesterday. No, it wasn’t about my reverse technique (which is atrocious, by the way. Wish me luck next class). What was it about, then? We were on the road doing a test-run when he suddenly blurted about a mad girl, followed quickly by a tirade of words. I was confused; “did something happen?” “Ahn ahn, didn’t you see that girl we just passed that her whole belly is outside and her short is barely covering anything?” I didn’t. I had been minding my business. So, I said, “Oh, I didn’t.” It would have ended there, but…
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Rape: Heightened Sexual Violence During Month of Love
In 2015, Soladoye Ige (not real name) was reported to have told the Police that he decided to rape his girlfriend as a celebration of Valentine’s Day. Why? Well, because she wouldn’t have sex with him. For him, sex was necessary as a symbol of the day’s significance so of course, why should it matter that she didn’t want any part of it especially since they had an established sexual relationship? Last year, in India, there was the case of a 24 year old man who raped his 18 year old friend on Valentine’s Day. According to the victim, they had only become friends a few months back and so…
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The day after #16daysofActivism
Just in case you are wondering, the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence is an annual campaign that begins on the 25th of November – the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women – and ends on the 10th of December – Human Rights Day. Fitting, isn’t it? The purpose of this annual campaign is to raise awareness of the numerous ways that women are exposed to violence simply by virtue of being women, share information on how we all as the larger society can be better allies to women, and fuel existing conversations around women safety. The theme for this year is Orange the World: Generation…
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That’s the thing; Privilege should come with Responsibility
Two weeks ago, I was at the University of Lagos for the monthly seminar organized for PEIFFUND mentees, whom I happen to be one of. The topic of concern was “Communication Skills” so you can probably imagine how interactive it got. After the session, in the spirit of that interaction, four of us got into a conversation about feminism; I and 3 young men who I have gotten to know over the past few months. Now, this article is not a run-down of our conversation, but I’d like to highlight a few things that I think we all need to pay attention to in the way that we show up…
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Love Yours
It’s hard, isn’t it, to truly love yourself in a world that is so fixated on your body parts, the way you should look, talk, walk, dress. In a world that is bent on defining you. The beauty industry is worth billions of dollars globally, a lot of it built on our insecurities with one or more parts of our body. They set up a standard and say “look, this is what you should aspire to.” You say “what nonsense! I’m not about that life.” But then these messages don’t stop; they creep up on you until one day, you wake up and everything about your body is exactly everything…
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Call a thing by its name
“When you name something, it comes into existence – did you know that? There is strength there, bone-white power injected in a rush, like a trembling drug,” – Akwaeke Emezi, Freshwater. Imagine menstruating and being ostracized singularly for that reason. Imagine being banished to a menstrual hut outside your house made from weak materials and barely able to stand against weather conditions. Imagine being so cold because of that and having to create fires to warm yourself up. Then, imagine dying from asphyxiation because you inhaled too much smoke from the fire you prepared to keep warm. This Chhaupadi huts are real in Nepal, and although they have been legally…
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Silence, and our culpability as a society in the culture of sexual abuse
BY TAWAKALIT KAREEM Silence, That magic wand that we wave in the hope that what has been done can be undone. The inaction we exhibit to somehow dull the deafening crash that a certain action has caused. Silence is the tool that we have by ourselves, made a weapon in the hands of the abuser. Some people are of the opinion that the occurrence of abuse seems to have increased in recent times. I disagree. I think the difference in this day and time is; there is social media and the very real reality that a story can go viral in a matter of minutes. My friend, Adebola Aduwo,…
The Isle of Jade
