Women in north Nigeria's largest city Kano are abandoning their
traditional religious dress after a spate of suicide bombings by young
girls with explosives under their hijab.
The commercial city was
hit last month by four separate attacks involving teenage girls in the
Muslim dress, leaving at least nine people dead and scores more injured.
Although
no one has claimed responsibility for the bombings, fingers have been
pointed at Boko Haram, the Islamist militants blamed for a string of
attacks on the city.
But the bombings have cast fear and suspicion on young women wearing the loose clothing, prompting many to dress differently.
"I
no longer wear my hijab because people now see any young woman in hijab
as a potential suicide bomber because of the recent incidents", said
17-year old Hajara Musa.
"I now put on my shawl [headscarf] when I
go out pending the time the city gets over the trauma of this
frightening trend", the fashion design apprentice told AFP.
Musa
said she was recently barred from entering a shopping mall while dressed
in a hijab, which covers the hair, neck and upper body, despite
agreeing to be frisked.
"I was turned away because of my hijab, which I found very disturbing", she added.
Increased security
The
hijab is a common sight in conservative Kano, an ancient seat of
Islamic learning where it has become a convention of modesty for women
leaving their homes or meeting men who are not relatives.
Many women wear the hijab with a traditional cloth wrapper that goes past their knees.
Adama
Habibu, aged 21, said she preferred to wear the hijab but the recent
bombings had forced her to stop to avoid attracting unnecessary
attention.
"Wherever a young woman in hijab goes people keep their
distance from her out of fear she could be a suicide bomber", said
Habibu, a student at Kano State Polytechnic, where a suicide blast on
July 30 killed six people and injured 20 others.
The blasts, one
of which targeted an upmarket shopping mall, have prompted increased
security around businesses, with more police visible around public
buildings and frequent patrols.
Shopping malls in the city have
also deployed more security guards at their entrances who sweep shoppers
with hand-held metal detectors and peer through handbags for
explosives.
"I have stopped carrying a handbag around because of
the suspicion it raises. I now carry a small purse wherever I go", said
another Kano resident, Hafsat Yaya, who declined to give her age.
Men afraid
Men in the city also say they are more wary of young women in the hijab, said resident Bala Dawud.
"I shudder with fear when I find myself next to a young woman in hijab because she could be a suicide bomber", he added.
He
recalled how a crowd which queued up at a cash machine melted away when
a hijab-wearing woman joined the queue and asked if it was working.
"As
soon as she was told yes, she pulled out her mobile phone and called
someone, telling him she had found a machine dispensing cash and before
you knew it the whole crowd dispersed, leaving the woman alone", Dawud
said.
Women wearing niqab, which covers the whole face except the eyes, draw even more suspicion, said resident Samaila Abdussalam.
Boko
Haram, which wants to create a hard-line Islamic state in northern
Nigeria, is blamed for killing more than 10 000 people since 2009 and
their extreme tactics have been denounced worldwide.
In April,
they kidnapped 276 girls from a secondary school in northeast Nigeria,
triggering global outrage. A total of 219 are still being held.
And the new tactic of employing young women and girls as bombers has sharpened the concern and outrage.
On 30 July, police in northern Katsina state arrested a 10-year-old girl with explosives strapped to her body.
A security source involved in forensic analysis of the Kano blasts cautioned residents against "hasty generalisation".
"From
our preliminary findings, all the female suicide bombers were between
14 and 16 years which gives an idea of the age group of the bombers",
the source said.
"We believe the explosives were remotely
detonated which means the girls were sent under duress. So, people
should be wary of young women who look nervous or fidgety in a crowd."
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