Abuja — December 4, 2025 | Dalena Reporters
The Nasrul-Lahi-li Fathi Society of Nigeria (NASFAT) has cautioned against what it described as the growing misuse of Qur’anic verses and prophetic traditions to justify violence, discrimination and other abuses against women and girls, calling such practices “dangerous, misleading and un-Islamic.
In a statement released on Wednesday as part of its participation in the global 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, NASFAT condemned widespread distortions of Islamic teachings, particularly those used to rationalise oppression. The organisation pointed out that many prevailing cultural and social norms rather than the teachings of Islam underlie acts of abuse often wrongly attributed to religion.
NASFAT identified several misconceptions commonly cited to legitimise gender-based violence: the notion that Eve (Hawwā’) alone was responsible for humanity’s fall, misconstrued interpretations of verses on polygyny and marital conflict, manipulative readings of inheritance laws and certain hadith particularly those claiming women are deficient or of lesser value and selective usage of religious texts to justify oppression.
The society reiterated that true Islamic teachings emphasise justice, dignity, compassion and equality for all individuals, regardless of gender, and that no verse or authentic tradition supports violence or injustice against women. NASFAT urged religious leaders, communities, and families to reject harmful cultural myths and to educate believers on correct, contextual interpretation of the Qur’an and Hadith.
As part of the call, NASFAT recommended integrating gender-based violence (GBV) awareness and women’s-rights education into mosque programmes, and encouraged survivors of violence to speak out and seek help rather than suffer in silence. The group also implored families and communities to foster respect and equality for women and girls, and to treat abuse as a criminal as opposed to spiritual or privatematter.
This pronouncement comes amid renewed national and global focus on the misuse of religion to justify patriarchal norms and gender-based violence, and marks an assertive stance by a major Islamic organisation in Nigeria to reject those distortions.