"Now that women are on the same level, they want the control of their bodies - that was the birth of radical feminism in which women decided that they are so independent and they don’t need to marry. It even affected the way they dress, they are wearing trousers now. There was this era in which women decided to have their children without men. They got to the stage of getting married to women and not men. At that stage, feminism became ridiculous and I see it as even more than ridiculous, it’s no longer self-respecting. "
Zaynab Alkali
"Flora Nwakpa denied being a feminist, Buchi Emecheta said she is a feminist with a small eye. Zaynab Alkali too has not said she is not a feminist. I know that there are three categories of feminism, when I studied feminism, I took it from the 16th Century up to date and I know that feminism underwent transformation. It began as an advocacy for female rights and it would educate you about how feminism was practised from the 16th to the 18th Century, in the west.
Women in the south were not allowed to vote. When they work in the mines or anywhere in the factories, they were paid less even though the jobs they did were the same with men. Women were not allowed contraceptives. So a woman who marries at the age of 20 by the time she is 40 or 45 could have about 15 children even at the risk of a failing health. Women were not allowed to study Medicine, Engineering and Law. They were only allowed to study Nursing, Teaching, House keeping, Sewing, among others, so that they can serve the men. Women at this stage have genuine cause, then as the struggle moved to the 18th Century and by the time it moved to the 20th Century, women were able to acquire all those rights. They came on the same path with men. As far as I am concerned, feminism should have stopped at the 20th Century but it did not.
Now that women are on the same level, they want the control of their bodies - that was the birth of radical feminism in which women decided that they are so independent and they don’t need to marry. It even affected the way they dress, they are wearing trousers now. There was this era in which women decided to have their children without men. They got to the stage of getting married to women and not men. At that stage, feminism became ridiculous and I see it as even more than ridiculous, it’s no longer self-respecting. So if you ask me if am a feminist? I would say no. I am not a feminist from the 20 and 21 centuries. I have no objection to human rights and socialist feminism. Here in Nigeria or in Africa, the problems that have been outlined for the 16th to 20th Century feminism are not applicable to us. I have never worked in a place where a man was paid N20,000 and I was paid N10,000 for the same job. I have never been denied my voting rights. I have never been denied studying professional courses.
So what are we talking about? Even religion has given women the rights. The problem we have is just the implementation of these rights. When I talk like this, the feminists would say Zaynab has thrown sand into the feminist garri." The Sun, 14th Jan. 2010
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