INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CRITICAL INQUIRIES (IJOCIN)

Despite the important roles women play in economic, political, religious, cultural, and social spheres and nation-building, they suffer a great deal from harmful socio-cultural and religious practices inherent in society and sustained by patriarchy. Women also suffer a great deal from health problems that are culturally bound. Aspects of Ohafia culture that are inimical to women’s health and well-being have been identified. These include female genital mutilation, child marriage, obnoxious widowhood practices, taboos, preference for the male child, wife battering, and other forms of spousal abuse. The objective of this paper was to examine the impact of harmful socio-cultural and religious practices against women in Ohafia traditional society, which have hindered the positive contributions of women to sustainable development, thereby perpetually projecting Ohafia as a male-dominated society. The paper employed a historical survey method involving primary and secondary sources of data collection. The primary source comprised information obtained from key persons’ interview schedules and questionnaires, while secondary sources of data collection involved information obtained from journals, books, internet materials, and conference papers. The study adopted conflict theory as its theoretical framework. The paper found that women in Ohafia play significant roles by serving as part of the social capital in overall development, but these harmful practices have negatively affected and undermined such contributions, where women submit to patriarchy. The study concludes that these practices still flourish despite the fact that campaigns against them have been taken to many rural communities. It therefore suggests that a high-level, community-based approach based on proactive campaigns and a legal policy framework will be a panacea if sustained and will reduce the harmful socio-cultural and religious practices to a lower level, since they cannot be eradicated completely.

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