Killing Them Softly

In an age when the rights of women are under constant and close scrutiny in the Western world, it is timely to remind ourselves of the appalling conditions in which women still spend their lives in many parts of the African continent. Killing them softly is the story of Martha Clifford, who in her infancy witnessed the trauma of female genital mutilation, attempted rape as well as the brazen discrimination and shoddy treatment of feminine issues in her patriarchal native land of Nigeria. This is made worse by the huge prejudice against women, the marginalization and women sidelined as the weaker sex and conditioned to be perpetually subservient to their male counterparts in the chauvinistic society. Believing that men are their oppressors and women should fight their own battles, young Martha teams up with like-minded feminists and with their pressure Woe-man Incorporated, they challenge their country s discriminatory laws, statutes as well as the dicta of culture, religion, tradition and customs all of which debase womanhood. Bruised, battered and imprisoned, these courageous women strive on until they are set free by the intervention of human rights groups abroad, a respite which only made them more resolute in their struggle for gender justice and egalitarianism.