Feminist Digital Watch (FemDigital Watch), a women’s rights advocacy collective, has condemned the arrest and arraignment of three female TikTok creators by the Kano State Hisbah Board over videos of them dancing on social media.
The affected creators are popular TikTok personality Amani Ishaq, alongside Hauwa Khamis and Sa’adatu Muhammad.
The organization, convened by the Centre for Redefining Alternative Civic Engagement for Africa (RACE Centre), described the arrests as a troubling escalation in the surveillance and criminalization of women’s creative expression in digital spaces.
In a statement signed by Evelyn Ugbe on behalf of the FemDigital Watch Collective, the organisation said the three women were apprehended following the publication of dance videos which the Hisbah Board allegedly considered contrary to public morality and religious guidelines.
It said the women were subsequently arraigned before Magistrate Court No. 5, Court Road, Kano, adding that details of the formal charges, bail conditions and their detention status were still being verified.
FemDigital Watch argued that the incident went beyond the enforcement of local ordinances, describing it as part of a broader pattern of gender-based suppression of women’s participation in digital spaces.
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It said female content creators across Nigeria faced disproportionate scrutiny, online attacks, and censorship for forms of expression that were often considered normal when undertaken by men.
According to the organization, the use of morality laws to regulate women’s online activities threatens the digital rights of female creators, micro-entrepreneurs, and communicators who depend on platforms such as TikTok for their livelihoods, social interactions, and creative expression.
It further warned that state-backed sanctions could encourage coordinated online harassment, doxxing and gender-based attacks against young women.
The group also questioned the constitutionality of the arrests, arguing that they could undermine the protections guaranteed under Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, which provides for freedom of expression, as well as Nigeria’s obligations under the Maputo Protocol.
Consequently, the organisation called on the Kano State Government and the judiciary to ensure that the three women had immediate access to legal representation and were granted equitable bail terms.
It also demanded that their constitutionally guaranteed fundamental human rights be respected without prejudice arising from moral considerations.
The group further urged the Kano State Hisbah Board and other regulatory authorities to stop what it described as arbitrary surveillance, arrest and detention of female content creators exercising their rights to freedom of expression and bodily autonomy online.
FemDigital Watch said it was mobilising legal defence partners and civil society networks to monitor the court proceedings in Kano and ensure that the affected women were not silenced.
The collective reaffirmed its commitment to documenting state-enforced and technology-facilitated abuses against women and girls.
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