Allow married women to bear their father’s name, it beats logic for a husband to commandeer a woman’s parental identity by marrying her – MURIC

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has urged the Federal Government to reconsider Nigerian marriage laws to permit women to retain their father’s names after marriage.

Prof Ishaq Akintola, MURIC’s executive director, expressed this view in a statement on Monday, labeling the existing practice of women adopting only their husbands’ surnames as gender discriminatory, outdated, and oppressive.

Akintola argued that it is unjust for a man who wasn’t involved in a woman’s upbringing to dictate a change in her surname after marriage.

He said, “No woman dropped suddenly from the sky and even if some appear out of nowhere, they must have been born, bred, nurtured, and marmaladed by certain parents before they grew up and matured into womanhood.

“Their education was also sponsored by their parents at a time when the future husband probably knew nothing about them and spent no kobo on their upbringing and their education.

“It therefore beats logic, fairness, and natural justice that a husband appears out of nowhere to commandeer a woman’s parental identity simply by marrying her”.