Borno State Coordinator, BAOBAB for Women's Human Rights, Mrs Hauwa Abdu Biu, has said one of the major causes of Nigeria's underdevelopment was the societal encouraged discrimination and violence against women.

Biu said this at a one-day seminar in Maiduguri, titled "impunity of violence against women and girls," adding that the nation will continue to remain underdeveloped as long as the innate potentials of its women are not encouraged to flourish.

According to her, violation of the inherent rights of women takes the forms of physical, mental and psychological abuses, that enjoy the support and protection of cultural and traditional practices which do nothing, but continue to drag us backward in the quest for societal and national development."

"How does a society which encourages battery, rape, maiming of wives and other forms of inhuman acts expected to progress? How much contribution to national development can a depressed or physically handicapped make?" she said and advocated that "solutions or plans to eliminate gender-based violence must embrace a holistic approach, regarding the whole spectrum of women's rights; within the economic sphere, where women have been excluded from accessing proper reproductive, sexual and mental health care, education, credit or opportunities so they can improve their living standards."

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