By Liatu Bamaiyi, Kebbi
As the world celebrates the International Women’s Day, a nongovernmental, Women Rights Initiative, WORI, has called for gender equality between men and women in the society.
This is contained in a statement by the founder and chief executive officer, Ms Laiatu Augustine made available to ASHENEWS on Sunday.
According to her, it is unacceptable for any society in modern times to discriminate against women or relegate the female folk to the background, either at homes, offices or in leadership positions.
In this year’s theme, “Choose to Challenge”, apt as it is, WORI urged women in Nigeria and all over the world, to challenge the negative narratives that have continued to be a hurdle in the achievement of women emancipation in the society.
“In line with the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day, we want to encourage women to challenge the erroneous notion that some jobs can better be done by men.
“We insist that in this modern day when women have distinguished themselves in all fields of human endeavours, no job should be the exclusive preserve of men”, WORI stated.
It added that this year’s celebration of Women’s Day provides yet another opportunity for women to make deliberate choice to challenge every hurdle that hinders their growth and development or obstacles that prevent them from achieving their heart desires.
“We are not encouraging women to challenge the headship or authority of their husbands at home, but we urge women to challenge the obvious disparity that has made their male counterparts look down upon them as inferior or weak.
“Women should choose to challenge the barbaric act of female circumcision that is still prevalent in some societies.
“Women should choose to challenge the erroneous belief by some tribes that the girl-child ought to be married out at a tender age.
“Women should choose to challenge the barbaric act of shaving a widow’s head and even the act of subjecting her to drink the water that was used to bath her deceased husband in order to prove her innocence”, WORI added.
It however noted that the recent downgrading headline of a Swiss bank on Ngozi Okonji Iweala’s profile as: ‘A Grandmother Takes Over WTO, goes a long way to describe what women suffer in a male dominated world.
WORI also condemned all forms of attacks against women, including domestic violence, rape, kidnapping and even hired assassination, describing them as inhuman, callous and shameless.
