This contribution critically examines how African traditional religions and Islam converge as potent axes through which authority, normativity, and social hierarchy perpetuate gendered vulnerabilities and inequalities in fragile, conflict-affected societies. Extending the panel's framework, this work argues both religious systems leverage theological frameworks, ritual practices, and authority claims to legitimize patriarchal structures. This renders women and girls highly susceptible to trafficking, sexual violence, and exploitation, highlighting their striking functional commonalities in institutionalizing profound gendered hierarchies. Drawing on ethnographic research in Ghanaian Ewe communities and interviews with Boko Haram-displaced persons in Nigeria, this study elucidates how religious frameworks subjugate women and girls. Trokosi institution coerces girls into servitude for male transgressions, rooted in theological claims of punishment, fostering sexual bondage and forced labour. Boko Haram's extremist Islam, intertwined with conflict, targets women/girls for abduction, sexual violence, and trafficking in IDP camps. Both cases reveal religious authority repurposed to justify women's subjugation, solidifying religiously sanctioned violence cycles. Fragile conflict contexts amplify these religious systems' vulnerability-producing capacities. Weak state authority allows religious institutions to fill normative voids, subjecting women/girls to intensified gender-based violence sanctioned by tradition and ideology. This research investigates how African religious systems construct and sustain authority underpinning gendered inequalities, thus addressing a critical lacuna in trafficking and gender violence scholarship. By foregrounding religion, this work offers a nuanced understanding of vulnerabilities interwoven into social fabric. Effective interventions require critical engagement with normative systems that render such violence comprehensible and enduring