Nigerian writer Lesley Nneka Arimah has won a prestigious prize for her story about a parallel universe where single women go naked until they are married.
She has been awarded $12,500 (£10,000) for her winning Caine Prize for African Writing story called Skinned.
Arimah told the BBC its underlying message was to show the disparity in the treatment of married and unmarried women in Nigeria.
The judges said it was “unique retake of women’s struggle for inclusion”.
“Lesley Nneka Arimah’s Skinned defamiliarises the familiar to topple social hierarchies, challenge traditions and envision new possibilities for women of the world,” said Kenyan author Peter Kimani, who was the the chair of the judging panel.
“Using a sprightly diction, she invents a dystopian universe inhabited by unforgettable characters where friendship is tested, innocence is lost, and readers gain a new understanding of life,” he said at the awards dinner in London on Monday evening.(BBC)
