Improving lives: Empowering Sexual Minority Women in Nigeria

Women’s Health & Equal Rights Initiative [WHER] has kicked off the first part of its ‘Pathways to Empowering Sexual Minority Women in Nigeria’ project with two workshops held in Abuja. The project aims to strengthen sexual minority women by psychologically empowering them and enhancing their capacity to become more financially stable.

Photo caption from the training in Abuja.

The workshops tagged ‘Psychological Empowerment and Leadership/Life-Skills Building Workshop’ were held on the 11th – 13th and 15th – 17th of August 2018 respectively with 45 women (aged 18 – 35) in attendance.

The project was focused on building self-esteem, self-confidence, self- acceptance and learning about sexual orientation and gender identity/expression through interactive training sessions.

Participants also learned about life skills such as negotiation, stress management and interpersonal communication.

Currently, similar workshops are being held in Lagos, and details will be provided at its conclusion.

Rights Every Nigerian Woman Should Know

This new book serves as a resource for coping with the human rights-related challenges that straight and lesbian women face: rape, forced marriage, domestic violence, and blackmail.

The 50-page cartoon-filled book presents simple summaries of Nigerian laws, including the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act and laws governing inheritance, families, bail, landlords, and tenants. It also clarifies the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, international treaties, and the African Charter. It describes how those can be used to seek justice when women’s rights are violated.

This book is dedicated to human rights educators and defenders, including women.

Download e-copy. (282 downloads)