Women’s Rights

For centuries women have enjoyed the same rights as men in Biafraland. Before the coming of the British, Igbo women had developed parallel social hierarchies and competed and collaborated with men in areas of commerce and government.

During the 1920s an attempt by the colonial government to overturn centuries of custom and coerce women into a new tax regime led to a widespread uprising amongst Igbo women in Biafra.

Caught off guard the colonial authorities were forced to address the abuses in local government the women complained of.

Women have also been in the forefront of the struggle for self-determination, joining the Biafran Army during the war of 1967-70 and putting their bodies on the line to protest against Nigerian atrocities since then.

A free Biafran Republic would place women’s rights – political, economic and social – at the very heart of government policy.