Arewa Voices

Stories from the community as told by the community. Arewa Voices documents the voices of Arewa women in the Hausa community of Nigeria.

Arewa Voices Everyday Feminism

When will pop culture catch up with feminism?

“For all the Southside niggas that know me best, I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that b**** famous (goddamn) I made that bitch famous. For all the girls that got d*** from Kanye West, if you see ‘em in the streets, give them Kanye’s best. Why? They mad…

ByKhadija Yusra SanusiJune 24, 20211Comment

Arewa Voices

To Be a Real Man

To the Arewa man I will raise one day, When my younger brother, K, was young – maybe 4 or 5 years old – he had a shirt that said: “Real Men Wear Pink.” It was my favourite shirt of his because it made sense. It was more than just a t-shirt; it was a…

ByKhadija Yusra SanusiJune 20, 20210Comments

Arewa Voices

Female Scholarship in Islam

In 2013, during a conference held by Zaytuna College, Anse Dr Tamara Gray, founder of Rabata organization, delivered a lecture titled “Lean In: Our Feminist Manifesto.” In her talk, she argued that Muslims were “plagued” by the colonial period, as it was detrimental to the status of the Muslim woman. In pre-colonial West Africa, she…

ByKhadija Yusra SanusiJune 13, 20210Comments

Arewa Voices

The Hijab and the Male Gaze

In February 2017, Samina Ali, an American author and activist, was invited to speak at the University of Nevada’s TEDx event. In her speech, she answered the question people have been asking for centuries: "What does the Qur’an say about a Muslim woman’s Hijab?" She explained that during the time of Prophet Muhammad’s (S.A.W), women…

ByKhadija Yusra SanusiJune 9, 20210Comments

Arewa Voices

“Boys will Always be Boys” and Other Excuses

In 2020, Dua Lipa, an English singer and songwriter, released a song titled ‘Boys Will Be boys’. The song opens with one of the most iconic lines: it’s second nature to walk home before the sun goes down and put your keys between your knuckles when there are boys around. She describes moving with keys…

ByKhadija Yusra SanusiJune 8, 20211Comment

Arewa Voices

What Happens to Girls like Us?

A few days ago, I was having a conversation with a coworker. I told her I wake up as early as 5:30, even when I don’t sleep till 3am. She smirked and made a comment about how she would have been done cooking by then. “You cook as early as 5?” I asked, genuinely dazed…

ByKhadija Yusra SanusiJune 7, 202118Comments

Arewa Voices DW Pride

Arewa Voices: What Happened To Queer Literature of Hausa Women

Novel writing in Northern Nigeria is a fair innovation that began in the 20th century; queer relationships, however, have been a part and parcel of society for a much longer period. A queer section of the Hausa society that has dominated the literary field, without any cause for rancour, is the ‘Yan Daudu’ – Feminine…

BySada MalumfashiJune 2, 20213Comments

Arewa Voices

Belonging to the Kitchen and the Other Room

I often speak about my mother and her continuous pursuit of education even after her marriage and my father’s vehement support. They moved to Khartoum, Sudan immediately after their wedding and while he was a student of Islamic studies at the International University of Africa, she was learning Arabic. Many years and six children later,…

ByKhadija Yusra SanusiJune 2, 20212Comments

Arewa Voices

‘Yashafeni’: What Next?

Two weeks ago, we launched a series called “Yashafeni”, which was aimed at educating people about mental illnesses. True to its Hausa definition, the yashafeni series hoped to spread one single message: that mental illnesses aren’t just the huge elephants in our homes; it affects you, it affects me, and it affects the world around us. In…

ByKhadija Yusra SanusiMay 31, 20210Comments

Arewa Voices

Seeking Safety with the Helpio app

In September 2020, I wrote about the then-recent story of Farishina, a 12-year-old girl who was raped by 11 men, one of whom was 57 years old. I discussed the crowdfunding – coordinated by Feyikemi Abudu and Jola Ayeye of I Said What I Said – used to sponsor her education, healthcare services and provide…

ByKhadija Yusra SanusiMay 30, 20210Comments

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