The following is a guest submission by Nigerian student Bakre Fadilah

 Advocacy for the rights of women and the girl child has received a boost with the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Pakistani Malala Yousefzai and Indian child rights campaigner Kailash Satyarthi. While radical feminists in the West pull controversial stunts, gains made in the much of the developing countries are encouraging.

In Africa, and not too long ago, women were treated as  property and not as humans who could make choices. A woman was seen and told by the community that she belonged to her husband  and whatever she suffered was her fate. A woman was not allowed some of the civil liberties that we now take for granted. The rights to own property, the rights of franchise and to education that have been won in some parts of the world may be a sign of progress, more momentum is needed in parts of the world that need these rights the most.

Women now have rights but still suffer from some of the conventional cultural beliefs of a woman’s duty as well as different types of oppression. Many of our mothers were made to believe that a woman’s place is in the kitchen and should not be bothered with education or leadership.

Women are some of the largest and strongest entrepreneurs in the informal sector in developing economies because a range of legal, cultural issues and even sometimes government policy hinder them from being legal business owners. Gender equality still remains a farce in the workplace as women are just discriminated against just for being “high maintenance” – causing man power loss in wasted hours. Women are deprived of overdue promotion because of their sex, and paid less. Only a free society can guarantee a girl’s right to the pursuit of happiness. Economic freedom is better than any radical stunt for the rights of women. Greater economic freedom bridges the gap between the two sexes in terms of literacy, educational attainment and business ownership.

Laws restraining sexual rights of women to abortions, and the recognition of sexual workers as adults deserving of the protection of the law, expose them to the dangers of the black market. Every woman has a right to her own body. Banning abortion denies this freedom of choice. 

There is often a contention between the religious rights of women and the expectations of secular societies. Women who use the burqah have come under fire in some quarters by people who want communal concerns to override religious rights. The happenings in France, where a woman is fined or jailed for using the veil is an infringement on their choice to practice their religion. Private individuals should not be forced to behave in a way that violates their constitutional rights. No individual should be limited on how they express their beliefs no matter how much you disagree with them.

In some part of the world women are struggling for political roles because it clashes with customs and religious traditions. The belief that a woman has a soft and very malleable heart and a disposition not suitable to leadership is continually laid to rest by the records of the late Margaret Thatcher, Dilma Roussef, and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf – the Amazon fighting the Ebola scourge in Liberia.

While democratic rights help women in expressing themselves in ballots, economic rights and freedom embody those rights. Equal rights to all irrespective of gender guarantees the best protection for women. Liberty is the best form of feminism