the country's population. The Ibo men do most of the business/productivity, since women aren't allowed to participate much, in most of Nigeria. The Yoruba women are some of the few that are pretty much considered equal: they can own land and make money/wealth. The reason that most of the country's women aren't allowed to do much is because about half of the country is Muslim, and another 40% is of the Catholic faith. The northern half of Nigeria is prominently Muslim, the middle section is a mix between Muslims and Christians, and the far south is mostly Christian, except near the West, where the Yoruba have pretty much their own beliefs, mixed with some Protestant. According to Fatima L. Adamu, a well-established activist, "interpretations of Islam have been used to exclude women's access to participate in politics," and to a lesser extent, another activist Molara Ogundipe-Leslie states: "the oppression of a married women takes many forms: first, she loses status by being married" (a mere possession to measure pride), "at the base of society- the women as daughter or sister has greater status and more rights…she becomes a possession, voiceless, and often rightless in her husband's family, except …through her children." Women's rights only go as far as her husband will allow, and even though you are allowed to vote at the age of 18, regardless of gender, if a husband permits his wife/wives to vote, or tells her to vote a certain way, its best that she listens. Other such matters as divorce, child custody, marriage, and even possessions are governed by Islamic rules in most of the North, where the Shari'ah courts, those that practice Islamic law, remain the most widely acceptable and used legal system, by many, over the more fair, and less gender-biased civil courts. In the north (according to Islamic law), a wife cannot divorce her husband, though he can do it to her at any time, leaving her homeless, without posses...
