By MIKKY ATTAH
The above story brought Nigeria to continental notice, with several other African nations sending the news across to their citizens.
The caption on the website GhanaCelebrities.com reads: Nigerian Woman Arrested for being married to 2 men even though men can marry 4 wives (the story was written by a man, Nii Smiley Byte!). Looking at Face Of Malawi, the caption is – Nigerian woman arrested for marrying 2 husbands.
Well, the short story is that the elderly husband of a young woman in Kano state fell gravely ill and he was taken away to a village for treatment.
After a long time and presuming the man dead, the woman (who today is below 40) went ahead and married another suitor whom she now has children for.
Her ‘first’ husband, upon his return, and upon discovering that his ‘wife’ had gotten another husband, promptly got her arrested and detained.
The big question now is WHY? It is simply one outcome of zoning in on ‘male privilege’, allowing men 2 or more wives- but allowing just one husband as the portion of women! However, that’s not the focus of this piece; the Kano woman’s degrading, unlawful detention is.
In the first instance the woman only ‘accidentally’ married a second husband. She didn’t intentionally set out to have 2 husbands! And now that it has happened, why is it not being treated as ‘unintentional polygamy’? Or, okay then, as deliberate polygamy?
Why is hers being handled as a case of a heinous crime, worthy of arrest and detention? Even if she were to be accused of bigamy; that will still have to be proven, as every Nigerian is presumed innocent until otherwise proven guilty.
GhanaCelebrities further wrote: ‘the troubling thing is if it was a man who married 2 women- there would be no case.’ (The story is also in GhanaWeb).
Clearly, this woman is being persecuted not because she has an extra spouse; no, it’s simply BECAUSE SHE IS A WOMAN! And that is totally unjust.
There is a further painful part to all this is- that the woman is now languishing in detention WITHOUT EVEN BEING CHARGED FOR ANY OFFENCE!
The law enforcement agents, the Kano Hisbah Corps (Shariah Police) have not established any case against the woman in question. While they take their time to look for evidence against her, the hapless woman remains in detention.
Now, FIDA needs to move urgently for this woman, Hauwa Ali of Kumbotso LGA, Kano State. And in fact even after her case, they need to look at the possibility of enforcing the suggestion of the beautiful, Benue- born Nollywood star Susan Patrick. She is saying categorically that women should be allowed to marry 2 husbands! (The Nation)
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