Project

Cultural Influences and Women’s Rights in the Application of Shari’ah in Nasarawa and Plateau States

Program

African Humanities Program Postdoctoral Fellowships

Department

Religious Studies

Abstract

This project examines how culture affects Islamic practices among the citizens of Nasarawa and Plateau States of Nigeria. Shari’ah constitutes a platform in which Islamic religion stressed a preliminary transformation in consciousness as the prerequisite for social change. But the sentimental attachment to culture has translated sometimes into the retention of many harmful traditional practices that negate women’s human rights of the women, and also contradicts the tenets of Islam as a complete civilization. Using primary secondary and oral sources, this work examines relevant Shari’ah positions on those un-Islamic practices that cut across ethnic diversities in the two states and their effects on women’s rights in real life situations. The project aims to create possible dialogue on Shari’ah rights of the spouses as well as to ensure proper protection and dispensation of such rights by both genders.