Nigerian Women In Conflict Zones Battle With Maternal Mortality Crisis sent
This week, we start in Nigeria, where students who stutter discuss navigating the education system. Next, we travel to Kenya, where a court recently ruled against homophobic protests by anti-LGBT groups. Finally, we head over to Iran, where the “morality police” are resorting to violence to enforce Islamic dress codes on women.
But first, in Kenya, the Mombasa High Court has barred religious groups, politicians, and other anti-LGBT groups from holding homophobic protests that incite violence.
In September 2023, the Supreme Court allowed the National Gay and Lesbian Rights Commission to register as an NGO. This, however, sparked anti-LGBT demonstrations and protests in Kenya, particularly in Mombasa. These protests were led by religious leaders and a national lobby group calling themselves the “Anti-LGBTQ Movement,” and also targeted the Mvita Clinic for serving queer people.
In response to these attacks, in October 2023, Mr. JM and the Center for Minority Rights and Strategic Litigation sued the national lobby group and Police Inspector General Japhet Koome for allowing homophobic protests.
While awaiting the petition’s hearing and decision on July 24th, Judge Olga Sewe of the Mombasa High Court issued a temporary injunction. This order prevents anti-LGBT groups and religious leaders from inciting violence against queer people and their homes. Additionally, it also prohibits attempts to expel LGBTQ+ individuals from Kenya or close organizations supporting them.
The LGBT community in Kenya has applauded this ruling, saying it will give them a reprieve from homophobic attacks. However, while LGBT rights groups push for legal protection in Kenyan courts and parliament, a petition is currently being reviewed by the parliament. The petition claims that there’s a rise in homosexuality in the country and calls for action against it. MP Ali Mohamed, known for his anti-LGBTQ stance, presented the petition, supported by over 70 Kenyans and anti-LGBTQ religious organizations.
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From our Site
“I was struggling to speak”: Nigerians who stutter on navigating the education system
In February 2024, Abdulqudus Jimoh (27), who had just gained direct entry into the 200-level archaeology department at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, was to give a presentation tied to his grades in data collection and handling in archaeology.
He had to prepare for two things. In addition to what he and the other students learned during the practical, he had to repeatedly practise how he would speak and not stammer when it was his turn to present.
“I was struggling to speak. I understood what I wanted to say but couldn’t get it out. Sincerely, I felt pain, discouraged, disappointed, and embarrassed,” he says, recounting how his presentation went. That was not the first time Jimoh’s speech difficulty would let him down academically; he had been mocked throughout his Higher Diploma programme at the same university. Before getting admitted for an undergraduate degree, he was scared to put his heart back into the ring, he tells Minority Africa.
“Stammering is not only impeding my studies; it is halting my leadership roles as a student because I know I have all the leadership qualities except this,” he says.
Unlike other students who can communicate easily, Jimoh says when he forces a word from his mouth, he feels a sharp and searing pain in his chest. So, he doesn’t talk, ask, or answer questions in class, which he feels strongly affects his academic life.
The need to see Black women’s breasts outside of the white gaze
As one traverses many parts of Africa, especially the rural areas, the sight of bare-chested women going about their business is quite common. Breast-feeding mothers do so at their convenience, and the people around them are unbothered. Here, the shape and size of one’s breasts are not issues that concern many of these women. However, some kilometers into the urban areas, the narrative changes.
Breasts take on a different picture altogether. Push-up bras and any other accessories women can get a hold of to enhance their breasts become part of a woman’s wardrobe. Breasts become public secrets, symbols of sex appeal, and particular sizes and shapes become the standard for beautiful breasts. Breasts are ancient mammalian organs – not unique to human beings. But history has proven that breasts have an abundance of meanings attached to them, often outside of the will of the people who have them.
As regards male desirability, breasts are often defined in relation to the sexual attraction they may generate. There is a widespread sense that breasts symbolize femininity, a visual cue representing womanhood.
However, the symbolic link of breasts to womanhood as a body part has been proven superficial with evidence of cancer survivors who have had their breasts removed and trans and non-binary people.
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HumAngle
Nigerian Women In Conflict Zones Battle With Maternal Mortality Crisis
When it was time for Famata Hassan’s pregnant daughter to deliver her baby, violence struck again in the war-torn Borno state, North East Nigeria. The expectant woman had to flee her community for a more protected area in Maiduguri, the state capital. Exhausted after a long walk, she gave birth to twins but died instantly, according to a report by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Nigeria has a maternal mortality problem and the northeastern region, where Famata’s daughter gave birth, has the largest share. With 1,549 deaths per 100,000 live births, the Northeast has the highest maternal mortality rate compared to other regions of the country, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The report estimated that Nigeria has approximately 58,000 maternal deaths, accounting for 19 per cent globally, with at least 800 women dying in every 100,000 live births.
The situation is even worse at displacement camps in the North East. Women who fall pregnant barely have access to quality healthcare, leading to several childbirth complications.
DW
Iran intensifies violent crackdown on women
Iranian authorities are stepping up street patrols in a renewed push towards suppressing women who refuse to follow strict Islamic dress codes.
Under a new campaign called “nour” or “light,” endorsed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iranian “morality police” are out in force on so-called “guidance patrols” looking for women who refuse to wear the hijab, or headscarf.
One 25-year-old woman, who spoke to DW anonymously, said she was accosted on the streets of Tehran while on her way to university on April 20.
She said she was surrounded by dozens of police officers who demanded that she cover her hair, and when she resisted, they quickly resorted to violence, pulling out some of her hair, and verbally harassing her as they dragged her into the van.
“At that moment, I didn’t fully understand what was happening, I just knew they were beating me. Later, I saw that several parts of my body were bruised,” she said.
As she was being beaten and harassed by police, the woman said she thought of the “Women, Life Freedom” movement, which started in September 2022 when 22-year-old Jina Mahsa Amini died after being taken into custody by the morality police in Tehran for allegedly improperly wearing a hijab.
Washington Blade
Upcoming Ugandan Census will not count intersex people
Uganda’s national Census next month will not count intersex people.
The revelation about the exclusion of intersex Ugandans in the 9-day Census exercise that will begin on May 10 has been confirmed to the Washington Blade by the head of Uganda’s Bureau of Statistics.
UBOS Executive Director Chris Mukiza in response to the Blade’s questions on the issue said the agency has “no business with intersex.”
Their counting could have made Uganda the second African country and the third globally after Australia and Kenya to collect an intersex person’s data in a Census. Kenya’s 2019 Census determined there were more than 1,500 intersex people in the country.
Uganda had a population of 34.8 million, according to the country’s last Census that took place in 2014. Intersex people in Uganda are among marginalized groups, subject to stigma and discrimination. The government has yet to recognize them as the third sex and consider them among other minority groups, such as people with disabilities, who enjoy special treatment.
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From a Heavy Metal Band in Hijabs, a Message of Girl Power
The drummer crashed her cymbals. The bass player clawed at her guitar. The crowd raised index and pinkie fingers in approval. The lead singer and guitarist stepped up to the mic and screamed: “Our body is not public property!” And dozens of fans threw themselves into a frenzy for the hijab-wearing heavy metal trio.
“We have no place for the sexist mind,” the lead singer, Firda Kurnia, shrieked into the mic, singing the chorus of one of the band’s hit songs, “(Not) Public Property,” during a December performance in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital.
Nearly a decade after first emerging, Voice of Baceprot (pronounced bachey-PROT, meaning “noise” in Sundanese, one of the main languages spoken in Indonesia) has earned a large domestic following with songs that focus on progressive themes like female empowerment, pacifism and environmental preservation.