By ABEL JOHNGOLD ORHERUATA
The Hispaniola X Deck of the National Association of Seadogs (NAS) aka Pyrates Confraternity, discourse has maintained that the negative impact of religion and culture are the key instruments that makes the woman look inferior to its male counterpart.
The Pyrates Confraternity discourse disclosed this on Monday, 8th March, 2021, in a lecture titled “Challenges of the 21st Century Woman”, one of the Group’s activities for the Celebration of this year’s International Women’s Day in Lekki, Lagos.
The highly respected humanity Association added that these two factors also use fellow women to enforce these discriminatory practices against their fellow women in certain places in the society. And that the major challenges of modern women are the kind of choices they make which affects their wellbeing and other things.
The Moderator, Chief Mrs. Andromeda Oragui, Esq, pointed out that inequality between boys’ and girls’ access to education was a global problem and not just a Nigerian problem and therefore should be confronted with a global approach to close the gap and make education accessible to the girl child as it was to their boys counterpart.
In her lecture, Oluwatosin Adewale, Founder of TOSCON Consultancy Services, Nigeria, who thanked the Pyrates Confraternity for putting up programs to celebrate women, centered her contributions on health challenges of women. According to her, most women a
were not aware of what is called cervical cancer and not less than 24 women die each day from this health challenge.
Adewale also stated that exploitation of women to secure jobs or other social and economic opportunities like their male counterpart were also part of the challenges that women face every day and therefore, women should be sensitized to build confidence to confront these challenges and overcome them when faced with it.
While admonishing every woman to go for cervical cancer screening and get treated and that it is contracted through sexual intercourse and does not give symptoms and that there is vaccine to curtail it, the founder of TOSCON Consultancy Services called for public awareness in Nigeria, especially in rural areas.
Taking her turns, a social events manager for top private individuals and Corporate Organizations in Nigeria, Mrs. Gbemisola Ope, shared her experience of coming out from abusive home and the challenges faced as a single woman and societal stigma and how she thought about the challenges of quitting abusive home and raising her daughter as a single mother.
Ope re-emphasized on the statement of Mrs. Adewale that the choices women make determines their life experiences and how the society treat and respect them. The need for all women to build up the confidence to challenge these social anomalies should be made a focal campaign to liberate more woman from this discrimination and intimidation.
“Stopping this cultural practices should be consciously and intentionally put to consideration”. Gbemisola Ope stated.
Also speaking, the UK Care Manager of Teenage Life and Parenting Coach, Rosemary Iyade Usman, stated that some of the challenges faced by women in their home includes but not limited to domestic violence, emotional neglect, Societal abuses and traditional impediments against women.
According to Usman “Women should take responsibility and build up confidence to confront the challenges facing them in their respective areas either at home in marriages, work place and other places where their right is impeded. No girl/woman should die in silence anymore because people, organizations are out there and are willing to help”.
Mrs. Usman also noted that security gadget like camera in the work place are necessary to check abuses in work place.
For the Director of Hi Rising At Vineyard Home Healthcare Rancho Cucamonga, California, Rhoda Imoni, the negative impact of religion and culture as the key instruments that makes the woman look inferior to its male counterpart and how these two factors also use same women to enforce these discriminatory practices against their fellow women in certain places in the society should be highlighted in awareness Campaigns.
Imoni noted that women are also the agents used to demotes their fellow’s progress in many occasions, they are used to promote discrimination against women. Adding that women should come together to conquer this religious and cultural barriers that tends to make them concede their instilled inferiority to their male counterparts in almost all areas of life.
On environmental challenges facing women, Rhoda Imoni maintained that good friends can be a good way to have a balanced relationship at home and it is those friends that can help when you have problem in your life. Therefore, women should make sure that they keep good friends.
The Moderator of the Hispaniola X Deck of the Pyrates Confraternity International Women’s Day Celebration Lecture, Chief. (Mrs.) Andromeda Oragui, also noted that shame was a serious factor against women. That families capitalize on not bringing shame to the family and instead force their daughters to remain in an abusive home, work place etc.
She said the world has changed and women are now part of humanity and are stand up to take up that challenges, advised that women at home should begin to instill into their male and female children at home that they are equal in everything so as not to grow with the mentality that some are more equal than the other in anything at home and in other life responsibilities.
Oragui charged that no particular task at home should be reserved for a certain sex in grooming children at home to erase the mentality that some works are better done by either girls or boys.