The all-inclusive dialogue, dubbed ‘African Women Intercultural Dialogue’, focused on cultural practices such as early and forced marriage, female genital mutilation (FGM), widowhood rites, child marriage, inheritance, gender-based violence, political leadership, among other topics.

It was held on the theme “Negative cultural practices and underdevelopment of the African girl child and women”, in line with efforts to sensitise African women and girls to their rights and make meaningful contributions to influence policy decisions with their voice on women empowerment and protection.

The meeting brought together gender experts from different African countries, including Nigeria, Cameroun, Uganda, South Africa, Sierra Leone, among others to deliberate on sustainable ways to stop harmful cultural practices that hinder the progress of young girls.

The African women intercultural dialogue is a platform for creating an enabling environment for African women to discuss the link between negative cultural practices and under-development confronting the modern-day African girl child and woman, and endeavour to change the situation by influencing policy directions in the participating countries.

Opening ceremony 

In her remarks to officially open the dialogue in Accra yesterday, one of the conveners of the session,  Ms Imahkus Njinga Okofu Ababio,  said it was a fact that gender discrimination in Africa was deeply rooted in the ethnic traditions and cultural practices and supported by archaic laws in ancient religious text that had formed the socio-religious beliefs of many in recent times.

“Regardless of the multi-cultural facets of African communities, a lot of customs and traditional practices endorse economic and social acts that support the under-development of the African woman and girl child,” she lamented.

Ms Ababio said additionally, African women’s compliance was making it difficult for the trend to be changed.

She was of the opinion that in Africa, almost all cultural values perceived women as inferior to men, and in some African communities, women were not allowed to inherit from their parents, while in others they could not own lands though agriculture was the economic base of the community, thus condemning them to be labourers alone.

She submitted that most of the times, girls were forcefully married out at tender ages and denied their rights to education and other human rights.

United force

Making a contribution, a Representative of the Diaspora Africans at the African Union, Dr (Amb) Erieka Bennett, called on African women to be one another’s keeper in the fight against gender-based violence and the promotion of women empowerment.

She said no woman or small group of women could make any meaningful stride alone and, therefore, underscored the need for a united force, supported by men to end the menace of gender-based violence and gender inequality to push the women empowerment agenda forward.

Dr Bennett added that women in several leadership positions were doing extraordinarily well, indicating that women had the potential to be successful and deserved to be given equal opportunities to maximise their potentials.

“We may have issues with our fellow women or woman, but in terms of our campaign for women empowerment and protection, we must put away our individual differences to fight as a unit, for in unity lies our strength,” she noted. 

She added that as a Muslim woman and a wife, she had observed with admiration how hitherto Muslim women who were one of the worst affected groups by ‘bad cultural practice roles’ were changing for the better.

She attributed the changing role of Muslim women to women empowerment initiatives, education and public awareness of the consequences of those cultural practices.