Barely 48 hours to the 2019 General Elections, the Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations in Nigeria (FOMWAN) has urged Muslim husbands not to prevent their wives in purdah from voting.

Mrs Jemina Ololade-Ariori, Zonal Coordinator, Election Activities, Good Governance, Gender and Human Rights Committee of FOMWAN, made the call on Thursday in an interview in Abuja.

She said: “We appeal to our men to allow them (the purdahs) to vote and be allowed to vote for the candidate of their choice.

“Our women in purdah should not allow anyone to influence them; they should vote their conscience.

“They must know that the PVC is their power to elect any candidate they believe will give them the dividends of democracy,” she said.

Ololade-Ariori said because of the challenge women in purdah face during election period, FOMWAN embarked on a pilot project of advocacy to sensitise the women and their husbands with the support of the traditional and religious leaders.

“We, the Muslim women association, feel that when it comes to election, our women in purdah, even the learned purdahs, stay back at home; they don’t exercise their voting right.

“Some of them are eligible voters with Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs); so, we went to nine states for a test run of our advocacy.

“We decided to talk to religious and traditional leaders so that they can appeal to their husbands in order for the purdahs to be part of the election process,” she said.

According to her, FOMWAN was able to built the capacity of 990 women in purdah.

“We travelled to nine states for the advocacy and the states include:Osun, Oyo, Ekiti (South West); Borno, Bauchi (North East); Kaduna, Kano, Sokoto, and Nasarawa.

“We built the capacity of 110 purdahs in each of the nine states; so, in the three states I went to, we have about 330 purdahs that we trained.

“So, if you multiply this by nine, you know the number we trained,’’ she said.

On why the men would not allow their wives in purdah to cast their vote, the zonal coordinator made some explanations:

“Some of the women with PVCs explained that they refrain from voting because when they get to the polling units, the INEC officers, who are usually men, ask them to open their veil to see their faces,’’ she said.

Ololade-Ariori, who urged INEC to ensure that female officers attended to women in purdah at polling units, called on the commission to continue its sensitisation in that regard toward getting the desired result.

She said that members of the FOMWAN, who are accredited by INEC to observe the elections across the country, would partner with the electoral officers toward encouraging the women in purdah to cast their votes.

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