Posted by The Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC, has requested that the Federal Government examine Nigerian marriage rules in order to allow women to bear their father’s names after marriage.
Prof Ishaq Akintola, the executive director of MURIC, made the call in a statement issued on Monday.
Akintola believes that the current tradition of allowing women to bear solely their husbands’ surnames is incorrect, calling it gender biased, outdated, and repressive.
He stated that it is unjust for a man who did not participate in a woman’s upbringing to suddenly appear and alter her surname.
“No woman appears out of nowhere,” he added, “and even if some do, they must have been born, bred, nurtured, and marmaladed by certain parents before they grew up and matured into womanhood.”
“Their education was also supported by their parents at a time when the future husband probably didn’t know anything about them and spent no kobo on their upbringing and education.”
“It therefore beats logic, fairness, and natural justice that a husband appears out of nowhere to commandeer a woman’s parental identity simply by marrying her” .
He bemoaned the fact that most educated women are forced to announce their name change in newspapers in order to keep the validity of their certificates and properties secured before to marriage.