Why Aren't Women Allowed To Build Houses Or Own Property?

@donzman
much ado about hair shaving! even after a hundred year marriage it still isnt warranted and will not help anything. cladding yourself in black mourning gear(which should also be optional) is enough.

Rather uncalled for,puerile,infantile and disappointing!D man you ought to retract that!

Hnm?

@donzman -what  do husbands  when they lose their wives?
@jiggo
which ones do u no?read @lewa post directly after yours.

If a wife dies, the man shaves his head, not a big deal, the head is often shaved anyway.



By that reasoning, I'll say mourning isn't even compulsory. You mourn if you wish and if you don't, apply make-up the next day and start sampling yourself. Who are you to tell anyone to mourn?

Last I checked, to propose to a girl, you need to some fancy ring. Why does anyone have to spend that kind of money on a ring anyway?. . .

@The rest

Law in paternal socities dictates that the man's properties be handed over to the sons or the first son atlest. Western law says the property should he handed over to the wife (which leads in things like Nicole Smith marrying a dead man). Which one is right? Handing it over to your child or your wife? Up for debate!

When the man dies accidentally and isn't there to decide?. . .Ofcourse the man ALWAYS decides if he's alive.

@ Seun
how many Nigerian men bother to write a will? Is this will enforceable in the court of law in the face of tradition?

  She'll have a long time clearing herself of allegations of adultery and planning to kill her husband.

Most times though such cases never make their way to the law courts. Imagine a woman going to the police waving a will at them while her late husband's brothers are waiting to take away the house and cars? Who do you think the police is likely to support?

Nigeria has no laws.
Pay the police and they are on your side.
That is the sad reality.

@ blackmamba
           na true you talk oh! heaven go fall!!!!!!!!!! 

Erm, can we get back to the topic?

In the South-western part of Nigeria, women can build or buy properties in their own name if they have the financial muscle to do so. It is not seen as a big deal. Women take chieftancy titles, or should I say, are conferred with chieftancy titles & recognition, as important people in their own right.

But if a woman is married to an archaic man with a fragile ego who does not own much, by way of material assets or landed property, he might feel threatened by his wife's ability to buy property, or build a house in her own name. This could cause petty quarrels & may even lead to the dissolution of the union. In order to maintain the peace, some women choose to keep quiet about their physical assets, (like land & houses), so that their husbands would not feel jealous.

Women can also inherit property through their fathers, or parents. Among the Yoruba people, two forms of inheritance prevail , in customary law.

They are the idi-igi concept & the "ori o jori" concept (hope I spelt that right!). In the idi-igi concept, a deceased man's property is shared according to the number of wives he has. The children of each wife, then divide the property and/or assets, among themselves. In the ori o jori concept, the property, assets & cash a man leaves behind, are shared equally among the entire number of children he has. It doesn't matter how many they are, or how old  each one of them claims to be, each child gets an equal amount.

In Edo culture however, the 1st son gets everything the man owns, irrespective of how many kids he left behind. If he chooses to be magnanimous, he might decide to share some of those properties with his siblings. If he is a greedy sod, he could decide to take everything.

My advice? if you are a woman, build or buy your own property. You could do so in another part of the country, if you don't want to do so in your own village.

Most of you are misguiding the public about what is obtainable in Naija. Nigeria has about 250 tribes with much differences in culture.
In the south east, majority of the women there have their own cars and houses to their name (most times strongly encouraged by their husbands) if they can afford them.
 
My mum is a typical example. She was even given a chieftancy titlle alongside my dad (though my dad refused to take his own but encouraged my mum to go ahead if she really wanted it). The 2nd car she rode was bought by her.
Most of my aunties own their own houses and cars.

So i really would be glad if spoilt will let us know which part of the country she was refused the right to buy or build a house.

@scrapping of hair
It's not mandatory in my place even though most women prefer to have their hair low on their own will.

As regards to stripping widows of their husband's possessions. One can only try doing it if you want to face the wrath of of my village. I am from Ebonyi state to be precise.

I will not hide the fact that it's still being carried out in some parts of Nigeria.
This as a result of somebody toiling all his life to feed and send his brother to school and after that, he sells almost all he has got to make his stand in world and all of a sudden death came calling and a woman of barely 2 years of marriage will want to take over the whole property.
 
The truth of the matter is that, unlike in the western world where almost everybody can go to school and survive with little or no assistace from his folks, nobody can couragouslly want to contest ownership of his property if he's gone. In Nigeria, you are totally dependant on your family untill you become responsible and they inturn feel you should pay back when its your turn.

Just how i see it.

I wonder@laudette, the guy is just contradicting himself. Maybe in his views, a widow's entitlement to her husband's estate should be dictated by the length of their married life together.

@laudate and ndipe

I said in some parts of Nigeria, not my own area. ok?

I never tried to justify stripping the widow of her late husbands possessions; i was only giving insight on why it's being done.