Abstract
This paper examines some violent cultural practices such as widowhood discrimination, female genital mutilation, wife battery, and early girl child marriage perpetrated against Igbo women in the three senatorial districts of Ebonyi State, South-east Nigeria. To achieve the purpose of this study, four hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The questionnaire was one the instruments used for data collection. The second instrument: Focus Group Discussion (FGD) was also employed to compliment the questionnaire method. The multi-stage sampling technique was employed to select samples in stages in the three senatorial districts of the state. One hundred respondents were selected as sample from each district, and in all, three hundred (300) respondents were selected as sample for the study. Chi square (X2) was adopted to test the hypotheses at .05 level of significance. The results rejected the null hypotheses, and accepted the alternate hypotheses. The rejection revealed that these cultural practices were inimical to the development of women. Sequel to this, the paper suggests that the Ebonyi State House of Assembly should make laws to protect women from these violent and obnoxious cultural practices. Government at all levels, particularly in Ebonyi State should empower women through education (free tuition) and also through free micro-credit facilities to enable them embark on small-scale businesses to improve their poor economic status, and also their persons without any inhibitions from cultural practices. Key words: Widowhood discrimination, female genital cutting, wife battery, early child marriage, patriarchy.  
Highlights
One of the remarkable features of the present day traditional setting in Igboland, in Ebonyi State, South-East Nigeria, has been the growing interest in perpetuating violent cultural practices against women, and excluding them from the socio-economic development of their immediate milieu
Corroborating, Darrah and Froude (1975) averred that 40% of the patients attending Zaria hospital (Nigeria) with vesico-vaginal fistula (VVF) were victims of gishiri cuts
The multi-stage sampling technique which involved to a large extent a combination of two or more sampling methods was employed to select the sample from the three senatorial districts, being the study area and one hundred respondents were selected as sample from each of the local government areas
Summary
One of the remarkable features of the present day traditional setting in Igboland, in Ebonyi State, South-East Nigeria, has been the growing interest in perpetuating violent cultural practices against women, and excluding them from the socio-economic development of their immediate milieu. The Igbos are culturally endowed, and a good grasp of their cultural anthropology and cosmology show the pride with which they uphold their distinctive way of life Some of these cultural practices have been observed, according to Chukwu (2006), to be very archaic, dangerous, and damaging to the psyche of women. In a similar strand Ritzer (1996) averred
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