RELIGION, CULTURE, AND WOMEN'S POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT:A STUDY OF WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION IN POLITICSIN NORTHERN NIGERIA

Abstract

Women's political participation in Northern Nigeria remains constrained by the intersecting forces of religious authority and cultural normativity, yet the precise mechanisms through which these forces operate across diverse forms of civic engagement remain inadequately theorized and empirically under-examined. This study investigates how Islamic religious discourse and patriarchal cultural norms shape, restrict, and, in specific contexts, facilitate women's political engagement in Northern Nigeria, with particular attention to participatory pathways beyond formal electoral candidacy. Adopting a qualitative research design, the study draws on sixty in-depth interviews with women political activists, religious leaders, and community elders, as well as twelve focus-group discussions conducted with women's organizations, youth groups, and mixed-gender community associations across urban and rural settings in three purposively selected states. Data were analysed through reflexive thematic analysis, guided by feminist political theory, social norms theory, and constructivist approaches to religion and political behaviour. Findings reveal that religious institutions function not as monolithic barriers but as contingent forces whose enabling or constraining effects depend on doctrinal framing, clerical leadership orientation, and the degree to which women's participation is rhetorically anchored in Islamic values of justice ('adl), communal welfare (maslaha), and public service. Cultural norms similarly operate as dual structures: while they restrict women's candidacy and formal leadership through patriarchal household arrangements and gendered spatial norms, kinship networks, women's associations, and faith-based community organizations provide informal yet consequential platforms for voter education, mobilization, and policy advocacy. The study contributes to theories of gender and democratization in sub-Saharan Africa by demonstrating that women's political agency is contingent, negotiated, and context-specific shaped by the interaction of education, economic autonomy, social networks, and interpretive religious leadership. These findings challenge monolithic framings of religion and culture as static barriers and offer evidence-based recommendations for faith-sensitive, locally adapted governance reforms.