Nigerians are using the hashtag to share their experiences of being discriminated against, in places ranging from hotel lobbies to inside their own cars.

Within a few hours, and at the time we published this story, it was the top trending topic in the country. While most of the tweets were by women, they were also being shared and retweeted by men.

Twitter

The Abuja book group who started the hashtag comprises only around 15 people, Florence Warmate, one member of the group, told BuzzFeed News.

Twitter / Via Twitter: @FlorenceWarmate

The book club of 10 women and 5–6 men had met on Sunday night to discuss their book of the month, but ended up sharing stories about how the women had been discriminated against, Warmate told BuzzFeed News in a phone interview.

"We all started discussing our experiences, and then we thought, 'This should go to a wider group,'" she said, adding that the group then agreed to start tweeting with the hashtag #BeingFemaleInNigeria at midday on Tuesday. "If no one talks about it, it just escalates, and it becomes a normal thing that happens to everyone. So we wanted to spread this fire."

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