Housewives bathe each other with hot water over lover

Biliki (L) and Muyibat (R)

Two housewives, identified only as Muyibat and Biliki, have suffered severe burns after a fight over a man.

PUNCH Metro learnt that the two women emptied a kettle of hot water on each other during the brawl which occurred at their residence in the Yaba area of Lagos State.

Biliki, who was living with her husband in the Surulere area of the state, relocated to her parents’ house in Abule Oja, Yaba, in 2015, after separating from the husband.

Muyibat lives with her husband and three children in the house.

Our correspondent was told that 32-year-old Biliki accused Muyibat, 29, of marrying her former boyfriend, which caused bad blood between them.

Matters, however, came to a head after a disagreement on Saturday when the duo poured hot water on each other.

They were both admitted to a general hospital in the state.

Our correspondent gathered that the case was reported at the Sabo Police Division and one of the parties petitioned the Lagos State Office of the Public Defender, which mediated in the matter.

Muyibat told PUNCH Metro that their problem started after Biliki accused her of marrying her (Biliki’s) boyfriend.

She said, “Biliki told neighbours that she once dated my husband and that she aborted for him during their relationship.

“She calls me Iyawo Sara

(free wife).  I have never known peace in that house. She fights me over every minor issue.

“On Saturday, I went to the market with my husband and when we got home, my child started crying.

“Biliki’s younger brother, Ahmed, came out and shouted at him and I cautioned him.

“His sister then picked up a quarrel with me and started raining curses on me. I did not talk because I was observing a fast. While she was abusing me, I sneezed and said, ‘Ausubillahi minashaitani rojeem’ (God, deliver me from the devil).”

Muyibat said Biliki, who is also a Muslim, thought she was referring to her and queried her for calling her a devil.

She alleged that Biliki attacked her in the process.

“I removed the water I was boiling for my vegetables and put it on the table. She (Biliki) held my head from behind and poured the hot water on me.

“Her younger brother slammed a plastic paint on my head, while she drew my hair. Both of them assaulted me,” Muyibat added.

The Kwara State indigene said she was rushed to a private hospital where she was rejected, adding that she later went to the Sabo Police Station to report the case.

Muyibat, who claimed to have passed out on the way to the general hospital, said Biliki had earlier in May threatened to pour acid on her.

However, Biliki, who suffered burns on her breasts, chest and hand, denied the allegations, saying her neighbour was the first to attack her.

She denied ever dating Muyibat’s husband, saying Muyibat was fond of making trouble with her and efforts to reconcile them had always been rebuffed by her.

She said, “I went back to my parents’ house when I had issues with my husband. Because of that, many of the tenants started ridiculing me.

“I was ill that Saturday and was sleeping beside my baby. Her child had come to play with my baby when she called him back. When the child didn’t heed her call, she hit him and the child started crying.

“Another child passing through the passageway was also crying that partcular time. My younger brother asked the other boy to stop crying and Muyibat abused my brother.

“My brother reported her to me and I told him not to reply her. She then started insulting me. We fought and our neighbours came to separate us.

“I was backing her when somebody suddenly shouted, ‘hot water!’ As I turned back with my hands raised, she emptied a kettle of hot water on me. Because my hand was raised when she attacked me, a little of the water splashed on her.”

Biliki said Muyibat also bit her brother while the latter came to separate them, adding that her two phones were smashed by Muyibat.

The Director of the Lagos State Office of the Public Defender, Mrs. Olubukola Salami, described the incident as horrific.

She said, “This horrific incident was totally avoidable as either of the parties could have just walked away and lodge a formal complaint at the nearest police station. But they decided to take the law into their hands and the result was unfortunate.

“Domestic violence has repercussions and it’s totally unacceptable anywhere. The Lagos State Government will deal harshly with those who disturb public peace.”

The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Dolapo Badmos, confirmed the incident.

She added that the victims were both given medical papers for treatment, but they had yet to report back to the station.

PUNCH.

Feminism in Amma Darko’s ‘Faceless’

Feminism is the ideology and belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. Reading Amma Darko’s ‘Faceless,’ we are presented with the malaises in the African society and the problem an African woman faces, of which abuse and negligence are primary focal points. We cannot deny the fact that African culture gives little value to women regardless that they contribute more in building a home. Darko addresses this problem from a rather tragic perspective – perhaps in a message that there is nothing more tragic than treating a woman like she’s not actively important.

Living in a society where women are used as pawns and little regard given to, Dina divorces her husband and starts an NGO organization, MUTE, where she addresses society’s troubling issues more critically. Darko presents a situation where only women work in this organization which supports the claim that women can do as well as men in any position.

On the other hand, Kabria shares the same independent view as her friend and boss, Dina. She is married with three children, but often, she disagrees with her husband’s point of view. Darko shows that both educated and uneducated African men are not different in issues of marriage. Her husband still holds the view that he is not supposed to do any other work in the house so long as he has a job and provides for the family. Kabria, however, does not agree with this. She too has a job which she combines with house chores, taking care of the children and always running off from work to pick them from school. Meanwhile, her husband, who expects his meal to be ready as soon as he comes back, doesn’t see her as a busy woman. Let’s react to this:

“Adede’s car horn sounded at the gate about an hour after Kabria and the children had all eaten and bathed and were settled behind the television. She managed a smile for him at the door after Abena had opened the gate for him. But inside, she fumed as she reflected upon all that long and easy talk about how if a woman wanted to keep her marriage always fresh and her husband all to herself, she had better make him feel good at home. ‘Welcome him home with a smile,’ they say, ‘look good for him. Wear a mini skirt for him if he loves seeing you in one. Pamper him. Do him this. Do him that. Gosh! Who pampered her when she returned home tired from work, only to go and continue in the kitchen… who met her with a smile? Who wore Levi’s jeans and an open neck polo shirt, which she loved so much on, for?” (57)

The problem we have in this except is that women are taught how to keep their men at all cost, whereas men are not taught the same. Here, Adede represents the majority of African men who see women just as housewives and a man’s tool for sexual satisfaction. These men don’t bother themselves with other things that make a woman happy so long as they have a job that puts food on her table. We can also argue that such men know a lot about the engine of their cars than they know about their wife’s feelings, what they really need, and what makes them tick. Kabria knows what she must do to make her husband happy and keep her family together, but Adede believes every other thing is settled on his path providing he pays the family bills. Most of the efforts that are needed to keep the family together are expected from the women while the men only give orders and when they are bored with events at home, they go out to spend time with friends, but it becomes a problem if the reverse serves the case.

On another instance, unlike Kabria, Maa Tsuru is an uneducated character that represents a timid and illiterate African woman who has no knowledge of what she is doing or what she’s supposed to do. Though her plight is nobody’s fault but Darko presents a sad situation of how a woman without standard; a women of total conformity is treated in the society. Maa Tsuru, like most African women, holds the view that her only role as a woman is to have children and so she does not see herself as more valuable in other things. Her ignorance and vulnerability makes her become a sex tool to men. In her time, she has met a lot of men who take advantage of her and walk away. Darko shows a circumstance where things always go wrong for most women as soon as a man comes into their lives. Maa Tsuru has five children without a husband. Her first four children are with a man who comes back severally as her husband and runs away at the birth of each child. The children all fend for themselves on the street and the first two girls, at fifteen and fourteen, are already sexually exposed. In fact, a neighbour who has two children with two separated women takes advantage of this and rapes one of the underage girls.

 We are introduced to a kind of Sodom-and-Gomorrah Street life where both boys and girls are living in but it is the boys who are in control. The boys are comfortable because they live like kings in the street and use the girls’ plights to their own advantage. This act demonstrates that the society has no pity for defenseless women.

The image of feminine gender in Faceless depicts the evil in treating women as second-rates. We are exposed to the situation where the woman tries harder than the man to keep the family together; a society where vulnerable and susceptible women become tools of sport for men, even when they are still underage and need protection.

More so, ‘Faceless’ reminds us of a society in which there is no joy for a mother who has no male child.