In this exclusive interview with NIGERIAN NEWSDIRECT, Bisola Badejo, author of the book “When God Met a Feminist,” opens up about her journey through faith, womanhood, and feminist tensions. She speaks candidly on how modern feminism clashes with faith, how cultural misreadings distort Scripture, and what a redeemed vision of gender equality could truly look like.
You recently released a new book. What inspired you to write it, and what is the story behind the title?
The book and title “When God Met a Feminist” were born out of a deeply personal journey. Like many reasonable women, I believe in the core values of feminism: equality of the sexes and equal rights for both men and women.
But over time, I noticed the movement being hijacked by extreme voices, people who projected hatred instead of healing. That distortion created a personal tension, especially as I wrestled with how these evolving ideologies clashed with my faith.
At the same time, I was also battling anger toward cultural norms that treat women unfairly. These conflicting emotions collided inside me, and in the midst of that, God met me. I gained clarity, healing, and a deeper understanding of who I am.
The title reflects that transformation, where faith and feminism clashed and something honest, redemptive, and balanced was born.
Your book explores the intersection of faith, feminism, and culture. What misconceptions does it challenge, and what vision does it offer for gender equality?
My book talks about why feminism was necessary. Women have been treated badly across generations. It challenges the misconception that God intended that injustice, especially the narrative that blames the Church for the subjugation of women.
The truth is, it was never God’s idea for women to be silenced or oppressed. What happened was the misinterpretation of certain Bible verses (which are addressed in the book), verses that were removed from their historical and cultural contexts and then used as weapons of oppression in the hands of many flawed human systems. However, that’s not God. That’s culture pretending to be God.
The book also explores God’s original idea for both man and woman. The future isn’t just “female,” it’s whole. God wants both genders healed, complete, and functioning as Imago Dei, as people who have been equipped to represent Him on earth.
How has your personal journey and experiences shaped the themes you explore in your writing?
I was brought up by a single mother who lost her husband when she was 35. I was just over three years old at the time. I didn’t grow up seeing women as weak; I saw my mother, and she was strong. God made her strong. I watched her use faith to break ceilings. I saw miracles happen in our home. She would pray, and somehow our school fees would get paid miraculously amongst other things.
So when I got out into the world and encountered the expectation that I should be weak because I’m a woman, I rejected it vehemently. I turned to feminism and found that it gave language to the feelings and thoughts I already had.
But then I started to notice a conflict: some modern feminist ideologies began to clash with my Christian faith. I struggled. I wrestled. I walked both paths and found balance. The lessons from that personal journey are what I’ve documented in this book.
Do you believe society and faith institutions have been fair to women?
No, I don’t believe society or faith institutions have been fair to women. Women have been treated badly under the banners of religion, culture, and so-called “respect.” That said, I believe people are flawed, and they act based on what they’ve been taught or exposed to.
So even though women have carried an unfair burden, men have also struggled. Both genders have sinned. Both need healing.
Too often, women are expected to carry emotional weight, societal pressure, and still show up without breaking. And instead of offering protection, religion and culture have often been weaponised to suppress women. Unfortunately, even parts of the feminist movement have started to do that, shaming women for not fitting a certain mold.
As Roxane Gay said in Bad Feminist, feminism is flawed because it’s a movement by humans, and humans are inherently flawed. Today, we see that even women who identify as feminists are shamed for their personal choices, simply because they don’t fit a certain ideal. They’re labeled “fake feminists,” which defeats the point of the movement in the first place.
That’s why we need to return to the core: equality, justice, dignity, and mutual respect. Whether in religious institutions or feminist spaces, we must commit to unlearning biases and embracing the full humanity of everyone.
I explore these tensions in the book: how we got here, what went wrong, and what a redeemed vision of womanhood and humanity could look like.
What kind of impact do you hope your book will have on readers who may be new to feminist ideas or those with differing views?
I want this book to reemphasise a simple but often ignored truth: women are people. People who deserve respect. Men are people too. The sins of some should not be used to condemn the whole. Yes, some men have hurt women, and some women have hurt men. But we can’t move forward by punishing everyone. What we need is healing and balance, not revenge.
I also want readers, especially those wrestling with faith and feminism, to know that God loves women. There might be things in the Bible that seem confusing or difficult to understand at first. But if we approach Scripture with the perspective that God is good and that He loves us, we’ll be open to digging deeper to learn not just what’s written, but why it was written, and what was happening at that time.
I often use an African proverb: “What an elderly person sees sitting down, a child cannot see even if they climb a tree.” It speaks to experience, but context determines how we interpret it. In engineering, I might be the “elder”; in trading, my mother is. Without understanding context, we misunderstand and misinterpret it.
If I’m an engineer and my mother is a trader, I might be the “elder” in the context of engineering and she’d be the child. In the context of trading, that’d be swapped. A person hearing that proverb for the first time might assume it means “adults are smarter than children” or “adults have better eyesight,” but that would be a misinterpretation based on a lack of context.
It’s the same with the Bible. When we don’t consider the culture, customs, and historical realities behind certain verses, we risk building doctrine on misinterpretation. That’s something I challenge and unpack in the book.
Do you envision continuing to write on feminist themes in future projects? If so, what topics might you explore next?
I don’t know yet, but I’m listening. To God. To the stories people carry. What I can say is this: wherever the journey leads, I’ll keep writing from a place of truth.