Nigeria’s Hijab Wearers Face Scrutiny On Female Bombers
When Safiya Isa, a 27-year-old teacher wearing a black hijab, approached a cash machine in Nigeria’s northern city of Kano recently, people ...
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When Safiya Isa, a 27-year-old teacher wearing a black hijab, approached a cash machine in Nigeria’s northern city of Kano recently, people around quickly dispersed fearing she was a suicide bomber.
“It is understandable because women dressed in hijab have been involved in suicide attacks,” Isa said. “But I am not feeling good about the way we are now treated.”
Women wearing the flowing religious garment that covers the body from head to feet, known as the hijab, are facing heightened security scrutiny across northern Nigeria after a spate of Boko Haram suicide bombings attributed to similarly clad attackers.
This has given rise to allegations of religious profiling, adding to growing sectarian tensions in Africa’s most populous country, whose 170 million people are roughly split between a mainly Muslim north and a predominantly Christian south.
While the police and other security forces are more vigilant about potential attacks by people disguised in the Islamic dress, they’re also aware that it’s not every “woman with a hijab that is a suicide bomber,” Kano Police Commissioner Aderele Shinaba said in a phone interview yesterday. “We’re very cautious in dealing with this issue. It doesn’t mean that people should be victimized.”
Man Disguised
Three female suicide bombers detonated explosives that killed at least 11 people from July 27 to July 30 in Kano, while a man disguised as a woman in a hijab was arrested as a suspect at the scene of a bombing in the city of Kaduna targeting opposition leader and former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari on July 23 that killed 42 people. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said in a video last month that a female suicide bomber was responsible for a blast at a fuel depot in the commercial capital, Lagos on June 25, though the government said it was an accident.
President Goodluck Jonathan is struggling to contain a five-year-old insurgency by Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which has carried out attacks in the capital, Abuja, and the north in its campaign to impose Islamic law.
Boko Haram killed at least 2,053 civilians in 95 attacks in the first half of this year, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch. The group drew global outrage with the abduction of more than 200 girls in April from a school in the northeastern town of Chibok. Most of the girls are still missing.
Since the last suicide bombing by a female in Kano, many women who favor the Islamic wear have reported increased suspicion or being denied access to banks and public places in Kano. Zainab Shuaibu, a 19-year-old student, was barred by guards from entering the city’s Kwari Market days after because she wore a hijab, forcing her to abort the day’s shopping, she said in an interview.
Militants using women in hijabs to carry out attacks are undermining Islam and encouraging women to dress indecently, according to Sheikh Aminu Daurawa, a Kano-based cleric. Excessive security attention on women in the clothing could also increase sectarian tensions, he said.
“I think the most important thing is for the authorities to continue screening people at the entrance to public places without intimidation or harassment,” said Daurawa.
Source: Bloomberg
“It is understandable because women dressed in hijab have been involved in suicide attacks,” Isa said. “But I am not feeling good about the way we are now treated.”
Women wearing the flowing religious garment that covers the body from head to feet, known as the hijab, are facing heightened security scrutiny across northern Nigeria after a spate of Boko Haram suicide bombings attributed to similarly clad attackers.
This has given rise to allegations of religious profiling, adding to growing sectarian tensions in Africa’s most populous country, whose 170 million people are roughly split between a mainly Muslim north and a predominantly Christian south.
While the police and other security forces are more vigilant about potential attacks by people disguised in the Islamic dress, they’re also aware that it’s not every “woman with a hijab that is a suicide bomber,” Kano Police Commissioner Aderele Shinaba said in a phone interview yesterday. “We’re very cautious in dealing with this issue. It doesn’t mean that people should be victimized.”
Man Disguised
Three female suicide bombers detonated explosives that killed at least 11 people from July 27 to July 30 in Kano, while a man disguised as a woman in a hijab was arrested as a suspect at the scene of a bombing in the city of Kaduna targeting opposition leader and former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari on July 23 that killed 42 people. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said in a video last month that a female suicide bomber was responsible for a blast at a fuel depot in the commercial capital, Lagos on June 25, though the government said it was an accident.
President Goodluck Jonathan is struggling to contain a five-year-old insurgency by Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which has carried out attacks in the capital, Abuja, and the north in its campaign to impose Islamic law.
Boko Haram killed at least 2,053 civilians in 95 attacks in the first half of this year, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch. The group drew global outrage with the abduction of more than 200 girls in April from a school in the northeastern town of Chibok. Most of the girls are still missing.
Since the last suicide bombing by a female in Kano, many women who favor the Islamic wear have reported increased suspicion or being denied access to banks and public places in Kano. Zainab Shuaibu, a 19-year-old student, was barred by guards from entering the city’s Kwari Market days after because she wore a hijab, forcing her to abort the day’s shopping, she said in an interview.
Militants using women in hijabs to carry out attacks are undermining Islam and encouraging women to dress indecently, according to Sheikh Aminu Daurawa, a Kano-based cleric. Excessive security attention on women in the clothing could also increase sectarian tensions, he said.
“I think the most important thing is for the authorities to continue screening people at the entrance to public places without intimidation or harassment,” said Daurawa.
Source: Bloomberg
