I am writing this anonymously because I need people to know about this, and speaking openly as a woman from Northern Nigeria comes with consequences.
A movement carrying the slogan “Munbokare”, loosely translated as “we have awakened”, has been rippling across social media. It represents Northern Nigerian women who are refusing to continue to endure abuse, particularly within marriage, a suffering that has been normalized and passed down for generations.
The movement began online in June 2024, sparked by Lubna Saleh Michika, a Northern Nigerian woman who had already spent nearly eight years advocating for women’s rights through spoken poetry and written pieces. From the start, the backlash was brutal. Both men and women from the region attacked her, accusing her of fighting religion rather than oppression. In Northern Nigeria, this is one of the most dangerous accusations a woman can face.
But Lubna persisted. Over time, women began to recognize themselves in her words, the silencing, the violence, the emotional and physical exhaustion. Slowly, they realized she was not attacking faith, but defending dignity. As more women listened, the movement grew, gaining visibility especially on TikTok.
The word Munbokare itself is intentionally confrontational. In everyday use, it is considered rude, an aggressive way of saying “I refuse.” That aggression is deliberate. As Lubna often explained, subtlety does not protect women who are already at breaking point. Rage, she argued, is not the problem, silence is.
In 2025, the advocacy gave birth to an NGO called Arewa Voice of the Ladies (Munbokare). Through it, women have received counselling, online skills training such as importation and small-scale business education, and, perhaps most importantly, hope. Confidence is being rebuilt piece by piece. Mindsets are shifting slowly, but every step forward comes at a cost.
Women involved in this movement are relentlessly targeted. They are bullied, harassed, and threatened online. Some receive explicit death threats. Northern Nigerian men have openly vowed to destroy the movement and silence its members.
Last week, that threat became reality.
An active member of the movement, Rashida Muhammad, was arrested by the very man who had previously threatened her online. She had taken those threats seriously. She reported them to National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), where she is currently serving, and also sought help from Ahmed Isah of the Brekete Family, a well-known human rights platform. None of these interventions protected her.
She was arrested inside the NYSC premises in Abuja, taken without warning, and driven out of town to Kaduna. Her phone was seized, and for hours no one knew where she was. She spent two days in police custody and was only released on bail after being forced to write an apology under duress. She is expected to return on the 24th of February.
Now, Lubna and others are scrambling to secure legal representation for Rashida. They are preparing for court, knowing fully well that the odds are stacked against them. In Northern Nigeria, the justice system is rarely neutral when women challenge male authority.
This is the reality for women in Northern Nigeria.
This is the price of speaking up.
And this is what happens when a woman dares to say ‘Munbokare’.