Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II has disclosed plan to reactive review of family laws to check the rising cases of violence against female gender in the state.
The first class monarch who worried over the high rate of broken home as a result of violence against female gender said the review will essentially focus on reformation of marriages, divorce, child custody among others.
The emir had advocated a stiffer punishment against perpetrators of GBV in the state to serve as a detriment to others.
The former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) made the submission when he received on courtesy visit a delegation from the development Research and Project Center (dRPC) and Center for Islamic Civilization and Interfaith Dialogue (CICID), Bayero University Kano, BUK, with support from Ford Foundation.
Sanusi who expressed worry over the rampant cases of Gender Based Violence, said a larger percentage of cases pending before the Shariah courts were related to GBV.
He said, “I never believe in beating women, and those who do, are not beating their wives with the intention of reforming them. What we see today is even serious beating and injuring of women in name of reforming them.
”Islam has respected and dignified women more than any other religion and all those seeking cover under it to abuse women do not even underrated the religion. Whosoever beats and injures his wife is not a good person. I did not say this, it is the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) who said it. It is those who do not read that don’t know.
“Beating your wife or beating your daughter or beating a woman is prohibited. It is a crime. Let’s not even talk about using of handkerchief or chewing stick. It is just haram. It is prohibited. Allah says, All harm must be removed. And beating, gender-based violence is harm. And it must be removed.
“I have my own rules that any of his district head who lay their hands on their wife will be strip of his traditional title. I therefore recommend that perpetrators be punished based on level of atrocities committed.
“During my PhD, thesis, which is on codification of Islamic family law, I studied nine Kano Shari’a courts over the period of five years, and the findings show that the trend of GBV is rampant in our society.”
Earlier, the CICID Director, Dr Taofeek Abubakar Hussain called on the Emir to advocate for the implementation of the family law in the state.
He seeked permission of the Emir to allow them to train traditional title holders under his emirate on roles they could play in addressing the issue.
He noted that the centre has trained Shari’a court judges and Islamic clerics on ways of adjudicating on GBV related issues and help them deliver judgement with ease.
