In the shadow of being forgotten: Women incarcerated in Nigerian prisons and the health implications

The 21st century holds hopes for a better life for women all over the world, especially in Africa. Africa has also seen a rise in women occupying political office with the expectation that this representation will positively impact on policies that affect women, regardless of their status, class or location in life. While these discourses centre on women, one group of women however seem to be in the shadow of being forgotten and are less visible in these discussions – incarcerated women. Women in prisons today are enmeshed in a web of societal and legal constructs. The very basis of prison today in Nigeria which aims at social isolation and confinement, repentance, punishment and deterrence, protection and reformation becomes the veil that often obscures these women's visibility and conversely social access to them. Although women's health has been on the priority list of international development discourses over the last four decades or more, women prisoners continue to fall through the cracks due to issues of access. This article explores the state of incarcerated women's health in Nigerian prisons, then examines the current policies aimed at improving their health as well as how activists and human rights advocates have addressed this issue in Nigeria. It also explores the social construction of women offenders and how gender-blind approaches to women's health within the Nigerian penal system merely reinforce and deepen the gender paradox 11. The use of the term gender paradox here differs in context from the sociolinguistic ‘gender paradox’ phenomenon proposed by Labov (2001 Labov W (2001) Principles of Linguistic Change, Vol. 2: Social Factors, Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers Inc. [Google Scholar]). of social oppression experienced by women in the wider society.