In terms of her madrasa, if it were not for Alhaji it wouldn’t have come this far. Most times we say behind every successful man is a woman, but in our case, behind the successful woman you see who is Hajia Mariam is a strong man, and that man is a feminist in disguise.
He has helped her, if it were not for his help, morally, financially, shielding her from all kinds of jealousy from the community, if it were not for him, her madrasa would not have gone far
Dr Sahada Alolo
Hajia Mariam Alolo has been instrumental in this region especially enabling some form of spiritual reawakening in the women. I am saying this because, about twenty or twenty-five years ago when I was growing up, when I was a teenager, you wouldn’t see a woman in a hijab. It wasn’t part of the tradition; we had lost Islam to the culture.
Through the guidance of her Creator, she decided that she wanted to bring people to realize, and those who wanted to practice their religion, promote their rights to practice the religion, to wear the hijab, without fear of emasculation, and to realize they had the right to do so.
So she started with baby steps essentially, calling people and explaining to them. Over the years I have seen in every corner of the region people expressing their rights to wear the hijab, and these are rights that she’s trying to promote.
Dr Namawu Alolo
