Nigerian Women scared to bring up birth control

pic courtesy of onislam.net

RNW/Lovematters.info - Christian women in Nigeria talk about birth control more than Muslim women do, a new study found.

Women are often nervous of bringing up family planning with their husbands, especially in the mainly Muslim north where polygamy is quite common. God is the provider and women have no right to stop giving birth, people say.

Thirty percent of Muslim women say they’ve talked about family planning with their husband compared to 54 percent of Christian women, Love Matters heard at the International Family Planning Conference in Dakar, Senegal. The figures come from a study by the US-based Bloomberg School of Public Health working with Nigerian family planning organisation NURHI.

Birth control is seen as anti-Islamic in many states of Nigeria's mainly Muslim north. Twelve big northern states are governed by Sharia Law, which recognizes polygamy as long as long as the husband treats his wives equally.

Polygamy
A third of married women in Nigeria – most of them in the north – are in polygamous marriages, according to a 2008 health survey. Around one in six men have more than one wife. Polygamy is more common in rural areas, among older men, and among men with lower levels of education.

By Sheriff Bojang Jnr
Lovematters.info

Many women feel that their husbands might be against using birth control, says Dr Saad Abdulmumin of NURHI. A man might even feel it calls into question his ability to provide for his family.

pic courtesy of newnigerianpolitics.com

Some women fear a row over birth control might make their husband start preferring another wife – or even lead to divorce. So they deliberately choose to have a lot of children in a bid to hold on to their husband’s affections, recent studies found.

Fatherly
In the southern regions of Nigeria, girls tend to be educated and marry relatively late, according to a Nigerian Population Council survey. But in the northwest, more than half the girls aged 15 to 24 are married by the time they are 15, and most are married by 18.

This means it’s common for wives to be ten or more years younger than their husbands in northern Nigeria. Many husbands are actually old enough to be their wife’s father, especially in polygamous marriages.

For a young wife, it can be even more awkward to bring up the thorny matter of birth control with a man who feels like a fatherly figure.

Love Matters is produced by Radio Netherlands Worldwide and influenced by a Dutch view of sexuality and sexual health.