Islam and the changing position of women in Sokoto: appearance and reality

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Conference paper

Title:	Islam and the changing position of women in Sokoto: appearance and reality
Author:	Hendrixson, Joyce
Year:	1980
Pages:	26
Language:	English
Notes:	Papers presented at the 23rd annual meeting of the African Studies Association, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 15-18, 1980
City of publisher:	Waltham, MA
Publisher:	African Studies Association
Geographic terms:	Northern Nigeria Nigeria
Subjects:	Islam women gender law education
Abstract:	This paper focuses on the social field of inheritance and the relationship of law to the status of women in Sokoto (Nigeria). As Sokoto is transformed from an estate-based to a class-based society, the form of wealth possessed ceases to be significant in determining an individual's status. With increasing encapsulation into the market economy of the nation-state and with alternative sources of wealth and power becoming increasingly important, land, office and craft specialization are gradually losing their lineage and estate restrictions. The Shari'a is more often applied to women and by women in inheritance. Formal western education and increasing participation in the market economy and the government are, for some women, significant structural changes. Variations exist between strata as well as within a stratum. There are a number of contradictions, ambiguities and discontinuities between, law, custom or tradition, and different social fields. In general, women as a category remain in a liminal state and in a situation of dominated power.