LAGOS (Reuters) – (This May 4 story has been corrected to change the name of Muslim face veil in the headline and paragraph 1, reword paragraph 1 to clarify that not all Muslim women wear niqabs, and add explanation of hijab in paragraph 5)
Sherifah Yunus Olokodana, an entrepreneur who has carved out a niche as a chef in Lagos, says she is seeking to break stereotypes about Muslim women in Nigeria as she demonstrates cooking on Instagram wearing a niqab face veil.
Nigeria is almost evenly divided between the largely Christian south and mainly Muslim north, where cultural norms often discourage women to get into business.
Olokodana, a Yoruba Muslim from the southwest, has been a pastry chef for nearly two decades and sells food spices, but she said she still faced prejudice.
“Being a woman who dresses this way, I have to do 10 times the work of the average woman,” she said while preparing for an Instagram cooking show in her studio.
“Women in hijab (headscarves) continue to get negative vibes from people. People who dress the way I’m dressed are looked down upon in Nigeria.”
(Reporting by Seun Sanni; writing by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Leslie Adler)
