"I challenge systemic oppression and exclusion of women at every level"

8 Mar 2024

• On IWD, UCC highlights Wuraoluwa Ayodele, Nigerian lawyer and women's rights activist, currently pursuing a Masters in Women’s Studies at University College Cork.

Wuraoluwa Ayodele is a Nigerian lawyer and women's rights activist. She is currently pursuing a Masters in Women’s Studies at University College Cork.

On International Women’s Day, Wura shares insights into her pioneering work which seeks to protect, support and rehabilitate women and children who are affected by gender-based violence in Nigeria.

Whilst studying at UCC, Wura continues to work remotely with her Board and team to manage Women Safe House in Nigeria. The impact of their work is profound – they have provided care for more than 750 women and girls, they have provided skill training for more than 300 survivors of violence and they work tirelessly to provide shelter and respond to crisis calls daily.

Wura, can you tell us your career as lawyer and activist and your work that has brought you to study in UCC?

I have worked as a feminist lawyer and women rights activist for the last ten years, particularly focusing on gender-based violence litigation, policy development and providing interventions to women facing violence in rural and marginalized communities in Nigeria. My research areas have been focused on excavating the interventions that existed for women facing sexual violence in pre-colonial Africa, exploring the existence of political violence against women, understanding the inequalities women face in the informal and unpaid employment sector and most recently exploring the dynamics of technology-facilitated abuse against victims of domestic violence and coercive control in a post-relationship context. My research has been both interdisciplinary and intersectional to explore the lived experiences and inequalities that women face in their everyday lives.

What inspired you to pursue this path?

As a girl growing in Nigeria, the inequalities women faced in my community and lack of inclusion in the decision-making process made me question the imbalances that women faced. Moreso, the experiences of violence I witnessed women face and a huge gap in policy development and activism inspired me to be a women’s rights lawyer and advocate not just for the equality but for inclusion and respect of diversity for women in every sector of the society.
I was most inspired by the young women who had been survivors of sexual violence and child-marriage in Northern Nigeria where I began my work and whose lived experiences made me commit myself to fighting the cause of women.

How do you believe your work contributes to advancing gender equality and empowering women in your field and beyond?

In my current work, I lead a non-profit in Nigeria, Women Safe House Sustenance Initiative, where I run a women's shelter, legal clinic, provide psychosocial and legal interventions to women facing gender-based violence in marginalized communities. I am also actively involved in policy advocacy and development through my community engagement programs which are targeted at creating a mind-shift away from patriarchal beliefs to inclusion and gender-equality for women thereby empowering women.
Through my work, I challenge systemic oppression and exclusion of women at every level of leadership in society- from the home, traditional and religious institutions to political offices. I also dare women to be bold and resist exclusion, exploitation, harassment, violence, stigma and abuse by helping to amplify their voices and using the law.

Looking ahead, what are your hopes and aspirations for your work?

I hope for a more inclusive society where women can hold equal decision-making power as men and the diversities of women can be respected and provided for. I also hope that through my work, more women will find safe spaces to exist, have autonomy over their bodies, resist oppression, be protected from violence, get justice for themselves and be in the optimal state to fully participate and contribute to the development of society without fear, stigma or restrictions.