A Nigerian girl from the Northern part of the country, Hauwa Sam Mohammed has taken to Twitter to give a sneak peek into the pain and realities of an average woman married to Hausa men; a post that has caused some outrage on social media.
In a long thread, Hauwa started out by positing that:
“Hausa Men think they are doing us a favour by marrying us. LOL. A thread.”
“As early as 7 years, some of us were already praying for rightful husbands. Almost every Aunt was not happy, your sister who just got married is crying herself to sleep every single night. At night, before you go to bed, your mom recounts the events of the day to you and always…”
“always, ends with, âAllah ze saka min â. And there comes the question, what about me? The odds were already against us, even before we were born. You were more likely to end up with an abusive husband than you were to end up with a decent one. If your mom wasnât the victim, your…”
“Grandma was, if it wasnât your grandma someone in your family was. There had to be. Then came the Modern Hausa woman. She refused to be trampled upon, she said if my husband can cheat and get away with it, why canât I? And this, in turn provoked the Modern Hausa man. He simply…”
“Couldnât understand why she wouldnât do as he wanted. After all her mother had done it. To sit here and read derogatory comments about the Hausa woman who was and is still is the embodiment of âyi nayi, bari na bariâ , boils my blood.”
“I am pained 4 my mother, I am pained 4 my sisters and I am pained 4 all the women in my family . Marriage, I have cm to realize is seen as a gift a man gives to a woman. Hence the statement âdanma zaa auri âyarsuâ. Whatever the Hausa woman has done does not warrant such backlash”
“Ladies, any man who says to you kinsan tunanin mata or something in that line run for your dear life. He is a misogynist in training. He will never look at you like a full human being whose opinion is jst as relevant as his. Isnât it dsame Jannah we are all striving for?”
“And Iâd be lying if I said I donât look forward to marriage but every day I wake up less excited than the previous. Iâm sure if some Hausa men owned Jannah they wouldnât give most of us admission, but guess what, we can enter Jannah without being married , so, jokes on you.”
“Almost all the things you want to be praised for are what Allah has ordained you to do. Despite everything Iâve seen here, I have hope. Wallahi, and InshaAllah, i will not mother a misogynist.”
“But I believe we all have a lot of unlearning to do; the stereotypes and all. It all comes down to the fact that we see it as us against them whereas weâre all in this together. If the average Hausa man thinks like the average twttr handl, akwai babban matsala.”
“Before you come here to talk, think, would you mother be proud? All those years of trying to shape you to be the best of ppl all gone to waste? Today I get to tweet this, because my mother sat down at home, cooked, ate and watched tv and waited for me to come back from school.”
“Today I get to pursue a degree while my mother has none and today I am the person I am because when it was time for my mother to choose between me or her, she chose me. Every. Goddamned. Time.”
“As a man, who you decide to be now or ten years from now is who your daughter is going to end up with as a life partner. Choose wisely. I am not your daughter.”
“All this energy and time, I could have finished Sefi Attaâs everything good will come. But because we keep quiet, some of you think we must be very stupid.”
“Someone said this is my familyâs story . You see exactly what Iâm saying?”
“I see a lot of oppressors turning it into a mother-father thing. By mentioning by mom, I was simply trying to validate her story. She was the typical Hausa woman, d one whose story you like 2 invalidate, who sat at home nd cookd and watched tv because she chose my siblings and I.”
“All these sacrifices and this is what they get? I want to engage most of you but I canât, my notifications are all over the place, some mentions I see, some I donât. I hope you understand. I appreciate you all.”
“Below are a couple of loose translations: â˘âAllah ze saka minâ – Allah will avenge me â˘âyi nayi, bari na bari â- do as your husband orders you to â˘âkinsan tunanin mata â- you know how women think â˘Jannah- Paradise â˘âAkwai babban matsala â- there is a very big problem â˘â”
“danma zaa auri âyarsu â- because we want to marry their daughter.”
“When did the Hausa woman start revolting? Is it not in recent years? Except in the case of a selected few, which there always is, the Hausa woman is not known as a woman to say no. Now she is revolting and itâs affecting even the innocent ones among you.”
“When you were told it would come back to haunt you you thought it was a joke? LOL”
. You see exactly what Iâm saying?”
