Ayesha Imam

Ayesha Imam is a Nigerian born human rights activist. She is a former Chief of the Culture, Gender and Human Rights department of the United Nations Population Fund and a founding member and pioneer national coordinating secretary of Women in Nigeria. She later became the coordinator of a BAOBAB for Women's Human Rights, a human rights advocacy group. From April 2017 to March 2023, she served as Chair of the Board of Directors of Greenpeace International. Quotes The issue is not what Islam is or isn't. It's the use that some Muslims make of Islam. During a 2002 Fresh Air interview, Imam was asked whether Islam was incompatible with women's rights. She distinguished between the religion itself and the ways in which some Muslims interpret and use it. Women's human rights as a part of a panoply of human rights for everybody. Imam explained why she regarded women's human rights as part of a broader human-rights framework rather than as an isolated field of advocacy. It is not easy to make an automatic assumption that civilian rule means more women's rights. Imam was discussing the return to civilian government in Nigeria and cautioned against assuming that civilian rule automatically produces greater rights for women. It's less about religious identity and more about aspirations for personal security, law and order, anti-corruption and social justice. Imam was explaining why the adoption of Sharia criminal law had proved popular in parts of northern Nigeria. She argued that some of the support reflected concerns about security, governance and social justice rather than religious identity alone. If we only criticize from the outside, it doesn't do anything for the victim of the charge. In an interview about BAOBAB's work in Sharia courts, Imam explained why the organization combined external criticism with direct legal intervention on behalf of women facing charges. We have to critique both externally and internally. Imam was explaining BAOBAB's strategy of challenging abuses both from outside the legal system and through legal proceedings within Sharia courts. We must establish that even when abuses are perpetrated in the name of Islam, they can and must be challenged. Imam was describing BAOBAB's approach to cases involving alleged abuses committed under or in the name of Islamic law. She argued that such practices could be challenged using arguments and legal principles from within the relevant religious and legal frameworks. People must say, "That's our right and we are going to do something to get it." Imam was discussing the importance of developing awareness of rights at the local level and encouraging people to actively claim rights recognized in law. We insist on being able to reclaim and contribute to international human rights discourse rather than allowing it to be seen as only western. Imam was discussing the relationship between international human-rights law and Muslim and Nigerian legal traditions. She argued that people in Muslim societies should participate in shaping human-rights discourse rather than treating it as exclusively Western. Human rights are not the exclusive province of international human rights law or international human rights organizations. Imam argued that human-rights concepts could also be found in Muslim, customary and secular legal traditions, rather than existing only within international human-rights institutions. Category:Living people Category:Human rights activists Category:Feminists from Nigeria Category:Activists from Nigeria Category:Nigerian women