There is a saying that you shouldn’t pry into a woman’s handbag, lest something bites you.  Handbags used to be purses and small posh bags to hold items such as wallet, keys, tissues, makeup, a hairbrush, and of recent cellular devices or personal digital assistant, feminine hygiene products bigger sized bags and some almost travel bag sizes; it’s had to tell them apart.

For some women looking into their handbags is a taboo. “Look in my bag?” exclaimed Maureen Ejegi, “No way! I would not even let a fellow woman look inside it. I would be so embarrassed that someone else sees the chaos and the contents. Sometimes my sanitary towels are inside it and private stuff like that. Not everybody should see it.”

“My bag is the only part of me nobody else has access to,” Amina Magaji said. “Not even my husband.” “We are all entitled to some level of privacy as wives and mothers. My bag is what I have chosen to be my private spot.”

Even when there are such ‘insignificant’ items, how many women would want somebody else to look in their handbag?

“Even if the bag is empty, I can never allow anybody to look into my handbag,” said Oluchi Akume. “It is about the only private thing I have and I want everybody to see and respect it as such.”

Some guys have seen the intensity of a woman’s fury when they pry into the privacy of women handbags though it’s with no ulterior motive.

Mr. Emmy Akume, Oluchi’s husband said: “The day I made the mistake to look into her handbag in the course of trying to get the car key, a dragon almost came out of my wife. I heard the different versions of my life and birth process. Since then I don’t touch even my mother’s bag.”

Abdulmunir Abdulakdir narrated his encounter when he saw a woman empty her bag on her car bonnet. “I happened to park next to this woman’s car in the market on a Friday. The other driver had parked terribly so, I had to squeeze out of my car. It could have taken me less than 20 seconds to go out but for the car parked on the other side of my door. It was a woman who had emptied her bag. Apparently she was looking for a lipstick. So I pretended to be struggling with something. I was really shocked to see what had come out of the bag. I’ve heard stories about what’s in women’s bags and this incidence confirmed some of those stories.

“Asides lipstick,” he said, “a stone, cutex, , screwdriver, paperclip, pair of scissors, comb, a packet of chewing gum, powder, a cosmetic bag, there were many other things I saw but couldn’t recognise. My first question was, did all these come out of this one bag, and why did she need to carry all these items about for? I still wonder what more was likely in there?”

For Gbolahan Ajibade, “the contents of a woman’s bag are mysterious. There is a whole market inside it sometimes. I was taught from a young age never to ask that question; so a woman’s bag always contains some mystery for me, but I’ll never actually take a look. I will be too scared by what I may find inside it.”

Laughing, Oyi Inalegwu said, “coincidentally, my bag fell off my work table one and most of the contents spilled onto the floor. I found a piece of paper with an old boyfriend’s number on it and I last saw him about five years ago! I prefer this bag to the others I have because it holds a lot and is most convenient. And there is so much nonsense in there from years ago that I could probably get a good price if I opened an antique shop.”

Surprisingly some women like Kemi Abednego, who visited Abuja recently, go without handbags. “I usually go without a bag, so it is difficult for me to take a bag with me. I stuff my pockets with a tissue, house keys, and purse. When I go shopping I have to take a bag to carry my purchases in, and when I drive somewhere, then I also have my licence, car papers and cell phone in a bag. After leaving in Lagos all these years and being victim of bag snatchers, I prefer to go without except I am driving or attending an occasion.”

“I think we should learn to respect the privacy of a woman’s handbag. At least give them something to hold back to themselves,” Mukhtar Iliasu said.