Abaji area council women in the Abuja community have said the only way family planning can be effective and child spacing achieved is when their husbands are educated about its importance.
The women who spoke during a training conducted by the MAWA Foundation to empower rural voices said many of the women cannot keep to the family planning rule because their husband is not well educated to help them achieve child spacing.
They appealed to those conducting family planning training to dedicate the majority of the training to their husband, pointing out that they have major control in the area of family planning while women have little to do.
Some participants who are Muslim women expressed disappointment in the way their husbands treat them, pointing out that they do not have right over their bodies and cannot insist on the use of condoms or any contraceptives without their husband’s consent which they often do not get.
Mrs. Zainab, one of the participants at the meeting said the only way to addressing women’s inequality and discrimination is to empower the rural women by strengthening their capacity for a unified strong voice to speak up.
She, however, said there is no voice that the government listens to like women’s voice, adding that when the voices become coordinated and amplified, it will lead to an unprecedented societal change.