By: Caroline Kiarie and Muco Aurore
To protect women and girls against the draconian law in Akwaihedi community where women are forced to pay a fine of 50,000 naira ($318) if they wear trousers, UAF-Africa has provided a rapid response grant to WEP organisation to o avert full implementation of that law.
The beginning of this year has been tough for women in some African countries. In mid of February, Uganda signed the anti-pornography law that shook and shock the world because it forbids women to wear miniskirt[i], later on in March, two counties of Kenya prohibited mini skirt, in Kiliffi County a motion banning miniskirt and sagging trousers has been tabled[ii] and in Mombasa, leaflets hit the streets telling to women not wearing trousers[iii]. But before these two laws, the Akwaihedi community in Anambra state, Nigeria; promulgated a law that forbid women to wear trousers and to appear in public without covering their heads.
In Anambra state women are not only forbidden to wear trousers but also to pay a fine of fifty thousand naira($318) if they dare violate this law and will also be banished from the community. those who thought it’s a joke had to get convinced by first a young female member of national Youth Service Corps has (NYSC) that got stripped naked because she wore her uniform which happened to be a trouser, a uniform she doesn’t have anything to do with since they are given by NYSC, and by more than 10 women who paid the fine because they wore trousers[iv].
