Women Marching In Protest in Nigeria
Dr. Mazhar
Naqvi
Women members
of Islamic Movement of Nigeria are surely proving to be true followers of
Hazrat Zainab-the messenger of Karbala. The way they have been mounting
pressure on Buhari regime to immediately release their leader Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky,
his wife and hundreds of others is just exemplary. They are trying to attract
the world attention towards the persecution of Imamis in Nigeria by holding press
conferences, staging repeatedly demonstration and delivering fiery but logical
speeches to embarrass Nigerian government. There are using the strategy adopted
by Hazrat Zainab after martyrdom of Imam Hussain. The brave daughter of Maula Ali
had disgraced the ruling regime through her sermons based on the verses of Holy
Quran. She also saved the life of Imam Sajjad and also prevented Yazid from
giving little Hazrat Sakina to a shameless creature. By introducing tradition
of Majlis-E-Aza, she kept the mission of his brother alive. Since then, Imami women
have always been in the forefront of conducting Azadari and keeping martyrs of Karbala
and their message afresh in the minds of people.
Drawing
inspiration from the life and deeds of Hazrat Zainab, female members of Islamic
movement of Nigeria is also taking head on the regime vocally but peacefully. They
have pushed behind men being aware of the fact that Buhari regime would
liquidate them in no time on any fabricated charge. Before approaching media or
taking to streets, these women waited patiently for more than two weeks. They became
restless when even whereabouts of Zakzaky could not be ascertained and authorities
issued contradictory statements. The execution of Sheikh Nimr also turned them
more apprehensive. They hosted a press conference on January 5, 2016 to make
shocking revelations. They said “ “It is now over three weeks since the
Nigerian Army launched a brutal attack on members of movement, killed over one thousand people in Zaria after
over 27 hours of indiscriminate shooting and bombing. Nigerian soldiers even raped
women before killing them. The detention of our leader Sheikh Zakzaky is
illegal as charges against him are baseless. Although we are aware that it is a
deliberate attempt to intimidate and instigate us into mob actions, we will
never resort to anything outside the normal legal process of seeking redress.
This is evident from how we acted last year when the same Nigerian Army
attacked our members and killed 34 of them including three biological sons of
our leader”
Victims of Massacre & Ibrahim Zakzaky(Inset)
in InsetThey further
said “Despite this display of inhumanity and gross violation of fundamental
human rights, to which no remorse was shown by the state authorities for what
was undoubtedly a war crime against fellow Nigerians, the homes, Islamic
centers and graves of the victims have been demolished with graves dug up and desecrated.
These demonic acts perpetrated by Nigerian Army has not only raised the Army’s
human rights abuse records but left a
lot of women as widows, children as orphans and lot of families wiped out…We
call on the government to summon courage and live up to its morality and accept
its crime”
A View of Press Conference
In the
demonstrations staged, many of them raised slogans that the truth cannot
be suppressed by gunshots and declared “We would not relent following legal
means, staging peaceful protests and exerting pressure on the government
until they have witnessed the release of their detained leader. One of
their leaders even claimed that "Nigeria is the only country in the world
where women and children are bearing the brunt of targeted assassination by the
army who are solely created to protect them. They tore off their dignity, they
sexually molested our women, and transferred them to Kaduna prison in the
middle of the night, outraged their chastity before shooting them dead. She
however clarified “We therefore wish to send a clear message to the Nigerian
government that shooting and killings will never alter our resolve as the
crime committed by the Nigerian soldiers in Zaria amounts to an engineered
massacre to wipe out Imamis. The assassinations of women in the incident are
the most heinous crime in the history of this nation. The world should not
remain silent”she said.
Ironically, the
world has been a mute spectator to what is happening in Nigeria. This does not
augur well for the country that is finding difficult to tackle Boko Haram and
invited further trouble by cracking down on the members of movement. Only Iran
has issued a strict warning so far and rest of the world is watching violation
of human rights in Nigeria silently”. The indifference is indeed unfortunate
and exposes once again the harsh reality that the powerful nations back the oppressors
and turn blind eyes towards the oppressed.(Photo Courtesy-Google Image).
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