Sexual/ Gender-Based Violence: Women Are Under Attack, Even Children/ Men Face Extortion /exploitation......Hon Imaan Suleiman Ibrahim

 

Nigeria's Minister of Women Affairs, Hon. Imaan Suleiman Ibrahim has called on Nigerians to come together to push for zero tolerance against sexual and gender Based Violence.

  

Hon Imaan Suleiman who said, "Women Are Under Attack, Even Children/ Men Face Extortion /exploitation, stated this while speaking to the press after prayers at the NASFAT Mosque in Commemoration of the 2025 16 days of Activism Against gender Based Violence under the global team :unite against technology facilitate gender Based Violence( TF-GBV)

Speaking the Minister said, " As you are aware, we are observing the 16 days of activism against gender and sexual-based violence, and today we are marking the Friday prayers. It's a series of activities within the 16 days which started on 25th of November 2025 and will end on the 10th of December 2025. This is one of the activities.

"We' have come here to pray so that we can appeal to our conscience. Sexual and gender-based violence is one of the issues that disturbs us as a  people in Nigeria. 

"On a daily basis in the community, we receive almost 10 cases of violence, and 8 out of the 10 are inflicted on minors. This is a serious issue that we must all come together to push against. Zero Tolerance, this year's theme, is uniting against sexual violence on women, girls, men, and boys because we know that violence is taking a different dimension.

"Now on the cyberspace, women are under attack, and even children and men face extortion and exploitation. That's what this year's team revolves around — creating awareness and advocating against this sort of violence. 

"We are here to offer the Friday prayers. Tomorrow we will have more activities up until the 10th, and on Sunday we are in the church to also offer our prayers and appeal to the conscience of all of us as a people so that we can stand up against violence, not targeting any individual.

"As you are aware, as the lead social protection Ministry for Nigeria, we have put in a lot of mechanisms that revolve around so many things — legal reforms that will strengthen the legal instruments and, most importantly, economic empowerment.

"The President, within his renewal agenda, particularly the renewal of social impact intervention, has activated the family cohesion and family advancement programme. 

"Everything stands on the family environment. We want to be able to raise our kids properly so that when we push them out into society, they are safeguarding agents, not abuse agents. Most of this rape happens by people that we know within the community. They are not foreign people. It's not spirits that come to commit abuse. These are people that we know, human beings we relate to.

"The family agenda, I think, is going to be a game changer. Globally, we recognise that family cohesion strategies are key to social cohesion and social advancement. In Nigeria, for the first time, we are going to have the first generation family agenda protocol and frameworks, which we are working together as stakeholders to put in place.

"We' have sent a letter to the body of religious institutions, and the message is the same: we have to appeal to our conscience. This is not accepted by any religion. Violence should not be inflicted on any individual. The message is for us to stand against any form of violence. That is the message. It's in the scriptures, and we have to ride on that.

Also speaking, the Chief Missioner of Nasrul-Lahi-L-Fatih Society (NASFAT), Onike Morufu Abdul-Azeez, said, "You can see, it's all rampant digitally and humanly. Women are being violated and abused. By who? By men. Why? Because many don't have the knowledge Islamically, or many are misinterpreting the verses or the prophetic hadith on women's affairs. For this reason, a special khutba has been done correcting the misuse and misinterpretation of Islamic texts such as Quranic verses and hadiths of the Prophet Muhammad, clarifying the true position of Islam on protecting women and girls.

 Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) is a severe problem in Nigeria, with forms including physical and sexual assault, forced marriage, and harmful traditional practices like female genital mutilation. 

It is violence committed against a person because of their sex or gender, and while women and girls are disproportionately affected, men, boys, individuals can also be victims. 

SGBV is a global public health problem that can have severe, lifelong consequences for survivors.