Kano State’s Hisbah Board has detained 17 young women on charges of engaging in alleged immoral activities, a move that includes arrests for creating dance videos for the social media platform TikTok. In a separate enforcement action, authorities also apprehended several tricycle operators for permitting female passengers to sit in the driver’s section of their vehicles.
The Hisbah Board, which operates within the framework of Sharia law in the northern Nigerian state, cited the production of dance content as a primary reason for the women’s detention. The board’s intervention highlights its ongoing efforts to police public behavior and digital conduct in accordance with local religious guidelines.
Alongside the arrests of the women, the board targeted tricycle operators who were found to be violating seating regulations. The specific offense cited was allowing female passengers to occupy the front seat next to the driver, a practice the Hisbah Board considers inconsistent with its standards for modesty and public order.
Kano is one of Nigeria’s most populous states and serves as a major commercial hub in the country’s northwest region. The Hisbah Board has historically been involved in enforcing moral codes, often drawing attention for its strict interpretations of social norms and public conduct.
These recent actions underscore the continued role of the Hisbah Board in regulating both offline public behavior and online digital expression within the state. The arrests have brought renewed focus to the intersection of social media usage and local religious enforcement in Nigeria.
<small>Source: AllAfrica — read the original story there.</small>
