By Fatimatu bint Muktar
The Hijab Rights Advocacy Initiative (HRAI) has issued strong condemnation for recent attacks on two Muslim women wearing the hijab and niqab in both Lagos and Oyo States in Southwest Nigeria.
The rights group said the assault not only targeted their bodies, but also violently stripped away their dignity, faith, and freedom.
“In Ibadan, Oyo State, a pregnant Muslim woman wearing the niqab was verbally abused, physically assaulted, and beaten up in a public marketplace.
“Witnesses confirmed that she was not only attacked but also stripped of her face veil in the presence of a crowd. That’s a cruel act of humiliation and religious discrimination,” HRAI said in a statement signed by it Executive Director, Barr. Mutiat Orolu-Balogun.
“Similarly, in Ijora, Lagos State, a 40-year-old Muslim niqabi woman and asthmatic patient, was accosted on May 17 by a man identified as a naval officer. He ordered her to remove her veil to “prove” she was a woman. Despite her attempt to comply respectfully by offering to unveil for another woman, she was violently attacked by the officer, a woman called in from a nearby beer parlour and several others.
“She was stripped of her niqab and hijab in the scuffle and left badly beaten until a good Samaritan intervened. The matter was reported to the Ijora Police Station, and while one of the suspects has been charged to court and remanded at Kirikiri Prison, the naval officer is currently at large, having been released on bail to a senior official,” the statement added.
Orolu-Balogun described the actions as “discriminatory hate crimes” that must not be ignored.
“Assaulting Muslim hijabi-niqabi women simply for observing their religious dress code is an affront to human dignity, religious liberty, and constitutional rights,” the human rights lawyer noted.
“These are not isolated incidents; they are part of a growing pattern of intolerance that must be stopped before it sparks wider unrest.”
HRAI called on law enforcement agencies and other relevant authorities to ensure that all perpetrators are held accountable and that justice is neither delayed nor denied.
“We urge the public to speak up, share credible information on the fugitive naval officer simply called Akin, and resist the hateful rhetoric and behavior that fuel such attacks,” the group said in its statement.
For her part, Secretary of HRAI, Hajia Shereefat Enessi, said if the Nigerian government allows the assailants go unpunished, it would be an approval for a culture of impunity and discrimination.
“These hijabi-niqabi women did not provoke violence; they were simply walking in modesty and faith.
“To allow their assailants to go unpunished would be to sanction a culture of impunity and discrimination. Nigeria cannot afford the consequences of turning a blind eye to such injustice,” she emphasised.
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