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Most Unnecessary Religious Laws Are Meant For Poor Women – Nigerian Catholic Priest Reacts To Hijab Crisis

“If we are to be sincere to ourselves, most of these unnecessary laws created in the name of religion are basically meant for the poor and for poor women," he wrote.

A Nigerian Catholic priest, Father Kelvin Ugwu, has said that most laws created in the name of religion are meant for the poor and poor women. 

The Malawi-based priest stated this on Saturday, March 27, following the ongoing Hijab controversy in Kwara State. 

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“If we are to be sincere to ourselves, most of these unnecessary laws created in the name of religion are basically meant for the poor and for poor women," he wrote.

 “You will not find the super-rich kids in schools where there will be foolish arguments like, whether it is mandatory to wear or not to wear Hijab. What most of these rich folks will do, ordinary poor Muslims can’t do it and go free.

“Even in parishes, the day one super rich man will come to church with his female kids all wearing trousers, even the church warden oppressing the young poor girls in the village because of trousers will be the first to greet the super-rich children and compliment them with words like; you people are looking beautiful.

“This is how some women between 1990 and year 2000 were condemned to hell because they wore trousers. Then between 2010 and 2021, women no longer go to hell because of trousers. Almost every woman now has trousers. Is it not a miracle?

“The way some of you make God to look like one jobless old man sitting down with broken glasses and looking and taking records of who will wear trousers and who will not, who will wear hijab and who will not, deserve to be in the Guinness book of records. I am not yet sure which category it will fall under.”

Christians and Muslims in Kwara State have been at loggerheads over hijab wearing for female students in 10 government grant-aided missionary schools in the state.

Last Friday, the state government threatened to sanction teachers and workers of 10 mission schools earlier shut down in Ilorin with sanctions if they failed to resume.

The directive was in reaction to the resolve of the Christian community leaders to defy the government’s directive and sustain their resistance against the use of the hijab and the demand to return mission schools to their original owners.

However, the state government is contesting the stance of the Christian community saying, there will be no compromise on the demands as the government had taken over the schools since 1974, with the backing of the Nigerian constitution and Kwara State laws.

Although the matter of the hijab use is still in court, the government went ahead few weeks ago to state that hijab should be allowed in all schools in the state.

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