On Saturday August 2, 2025, I was invited to say a few words at the launching of a book, “Musulma Ta Gari”. The author, Prof. Hassana Sani Darma, was not only a colleague at the Faculty of Education Bayero University where I was previously domiciled, she also happens to be family. The book was about the virtues of being a Muslim woman. It was a Hausa translation of the English language original, The Ideal Musulmah by the same author. My role was to give a small talk on the author, Prof. Hassana Darma.
I illustrated the brief talk with a recently trending episode of The Glided Circle, a podcast on YouTube moderated by Diamond Zara, an actress in the Hausa film industry. I said a lot of things in my speech, focusing on why the book is timely in these troubling times of what I call “pseudo-feminism” among urbane Muslim women; but somehow, the few seconds I paid attention to the episode became wildly viral. I suddenly find myself becoming a “Shared Star”. One re-posting (culled from BUK TV) had 13,000 views! Let me therefore explain the issue more fully here.
In 1972, the Nigerian Afrobeat performer, Fela Kuti & Africa 70 released their album, Shakara. The most outstanding track, in my opinion, both musically and lyrically in the album, was “Lady” (easily available on YouTube). The song is a deconstruction of the post-colonial, urbane, educated and sophisticated African woman. In a blistering bass-groove infused performance, Fela criticizes the airs and graces of educated African women who due to their education, assume a superior posture in their lives. As the hook of the song stated:
If you call am woman /African woman no go 'gree
She go say / She go say I be Lady o
…
She go say I no be woman / She go say market woman na woman
Fela then proceeded to describe this urbane sophisticated woman and her behavior:
I want tell you about lady /
She go say him equal to man /
She go say him get power like man /
She go say anything man do himself fit do /
She go want take cigar before anybody /
She go want make you open door for am /
She go want make man wash plate for am, for kitchen /
This feminist anthem – woman vs lady – effectively sums up the post-colonial African woman who believes her education makes her free from tradition. Fela's lyrics satirize women who adopt European social habits, such as demanding to be treated as equals and acting independently, which he saw as a departure from traditional African womanhood. At the same time, "Lady" highlights the challenges faced by African women navigating modernity, tradition, and gender roles.
This scenario played itself out in the YouTube podcast, The Glided Circle, featuring four Muslim women in the Hausa film industry which was uploaded on July 17, 2025. It caused a massive uproar in Hausaphone social media about celebrity culture and gender roles. In the first instance, I was not sure of the name, unless it is clever semantics, but still “glided” does not sound right. Glide in its ordinary meaning refers to smooth movement. Are the producers referring to a period, population, sub-group etc. that “glides along?”. Could they mean “gilded” – covered thinly with gold, “GL” – itself a not so nice referent (as it is exonym for fake gold)?
The Glided Circle is more like a TV show really, than a podcast, complete with a host and guests (mostly talking all at once). In this particular episode, the host was Zara Mohammed (aka Diamond Zara), while the guests were Fatima Hussain Abbas, Amina Mohammed Rabi’u and Farida Abdullahi. The topic discussed on 17th July 2025 episode, lasting 18:23 minutes was “Freedom or Tradition”, with a focus on two issues: pressures on Muslim women to get married, and gender roles in a traditional Muslim marriage.
The participant whose comments drew the most ire was Fatima Hussain Abbas, a very popular Hausa cinema actress in a TV show called Labarina (My Story). I have never watched a single episode, only noting it as part of the metrics of Hausa social media. Her character in the Labarina TV show is called Maryam, and so, typical of Hausa film industry, nicknamed “Maryam Labarina” by the fans of the show.
The episode was presented in a fascinating Enghausa dialogue where the participants shift between Hausa and English – although it was clear they were more comfortable with English than Hausa – indicating probably their non-ethnic Hausa origins.
The show starts with Farida Abdullahi (Kebbi State), another film actress (Sha’awa in Dadin Kowa TV show from Arewa24) who read out the topics for discussion, of which, based on audience feedback, were two: pressure to get married, and gender roles in a marriage life. Since none of them is married at the time of the podcast, it is understandable that the two topics should have deep personal meanings for them. The moderator, Diamond Zara is a Nigeriène Tuareg film actress from Tahoua and came to Nigeria in 2018 to join the Hausa film industry, making an impact in the feature, “Zuma da Madaci” (2018).
Zara Diamond summarizes the issue by stating that people get married blindly without knowing the conditions for the marriage. She also states that she will not do the dishes alone – she and her husband will have to wash the dishes together. Farida suggests that if she marries a poor man whom she ‘sponsors’ (support?), he will have to do the dishes. Fatima wants her husband to clean the house together with her as well serve her breakfast (which he cooks) in bed to demonstrate his love. Their collective prayer is for a husband who will do whatever they want.
Fatima Hussain (Plateau State) is no stranger to controversy. In 2024 she released a video in which she amplified the issue of language acquisition, reflecting an opinion that those who are educated are those who can speak English and conduct international business “from Dubai to America”. She also defended the current (2025) political regime in Nigeria, accusing the previous administration of bad governance.
In the Glided Circle episode, she admits that she is not under any pressure from her parents to get married, as everything has its time, as this is the same ask asking when someone is going to die. Expressing her opinion on gender roles, she explains that “we value tradition more than religion”, since as she stated, “there is nowhere [in Islam] that states that it is a woman’s duty to do the dishes”. She can do the dishes only because she loves the husband, not because, along with cooking, it is her duty. She’s “just a care giver,” “turning a house into a home”. I am your princes, when you marry me, you are the one to take care of me. So, if I do the dishes, clean the house and do your laundry, I do it out of love, not obligation. If you really love me, get a housemaid to do household chores for me. Doing that provides employment. A man needs to provide so that he can lead, and when he leads, he protects. This is my truth and I don’t regret anything I have said.
She also wants any person who marries her to cook and serve her breakfast in bed (presumably to wash the dishes later) to indicate his love for her, as his “Princess”. Further, she is used to eating Pizza and will not marry anyone who will only feed her tuwon dawa (a common food among the Hausa, regardless of status). This, coming from someone who states as a person who “came from the ghetto.”
Farida Abdullahi explains her prowess at cooking Indomie, but will have to go to a catering school to learn how to cook before getting married, agreeing that she will cook and do the dishes, “but I no go do wanki/laundry…because Oga no go wash my own o.” Diamond Zara will also do the dishes, but together at the sink with the husband, not alone. They all concur that such domestic chores are not compulsory even in Islam, but “nowadays they make it look like an obligation. What we are saying is a fact, but trust me, we will be attacked (Fatima). Overall, Farida came out favorably from the 539 comments so on the video, with Fatima taking the end of the stick. I think so much that she eventually
So, what does this incidence say? The massive wall of reactions across all the social media platforms where particularly the Fatima’s segment, in which she dominated the discussions with her aggressiveness, mostly preventing the quietest Amina Mohammed Rabi’u (Katsina) from saying much, but agreeing with some of their opinions expressed.
The reactions reflect perceptions of the society about the Hausa entertainment industry, rather than individuals expressing personal opinions. Condemnation was particularly strong from some practitioners of the film industry who decry the possibility of being labeled with the same tar brush as the Glided Circle participants. Similar incidents have happened in the fast – Maryam Hiyana in 2007 and Rahma Sadau (2020). While these actresses represent Hausa language in the scripts they are given to learn, their personal lives that overlap their cinematic roles does not have the mindset and expectations of the Hausa; perhaps because either they are not ethnic Hausa, or grew up in a more cosmopolitan mixed, perhaps liberal, urban environments. Perhaps they may need a “culture coach” on their off-screen behaviors that are not part of a script to avoid being mispresented – for after such incidences, tearful video apologies always follow about “not being like that.” Before the next time.
In some of the comments, I was accused of “wasting” my time talking about them, and thus giving them prominence. Yet, in scholarship, no time is wasted in advancing knowledge about our society and its future direction.
Here is the full podcast:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0yAcWpVYCM&pp=ygUNR2xpZGVkIGNpcmNsZQ%3D%3D.
