A
woman’s right to her body
by Ruby Johnson and Marisa Viana
 From Kyrgyzstan to Brazil and Sri
Lanka, young feminists are trying to shift the debate over sexual and
reproductive rights away from a focus on population control and the
family unit, to the right of women to have bodily autonomy.
As young women, we are sexualised in the media, harassed on the
street as sexual objects, and married as girls before we may even know
what sex is. Our life experiences are defined by sexuality, and yet the
right to make decisions about our own bodies, to experience pleasure, to
discover our sexual preferences remains taboo and even criminal. Sexual
and reproductive health and rights policies that affect us have long
been developed and defined by others, with minimal involvement of young
women and girls. To change this, young feminist activists are forging
solutions at the local, national, regional and international levels,
reclaiming their sexuality, demanding control over their own bodies and
their rights.
Over the last twenty years we have seen progress in women’s sexual
and reproductive rights through agreements around the International
Conference on Population and Development and its review conferences, the
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and important regional
agreements in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. More governments from the
global south are speaking out in favour of our rights to decide if, when
and with whom we have children. This is a direct result of the hard work
of feminists and the women’s movement from all ages and countries
pushing for a policy shift, from population control to recognising
women’s bodily autonomy.
Despite these advances sexual and reproductive rights continue to be
the deal breaker in national, regional and global policy spaces. This is
in part due to challenges posed by ultra-conservative and
fundamentalists groups which use the discourse of culture and tradition
to scapegoat the fulfilment of human rights, in particular of sexual and
reproductive health and rights. This is true when reproductive rights
are reduced only to mean abortion and sexual rights only to mean
homosexuality, when in reality they encompass a wide range of integrated
rights and issues. The reductionist approach is a tactic that
conservative governments and organized groups have taken to undermine
advances in women’s human rights.
Accessing sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHRs) is still
not a reality for many young women. From limited access to
contraception, comprehensive sexuality education, to unsafe abortion and
criminalization, the challenges are immense. 800 women a day died from
causes related to pregnancy and childbirth in 2010, and more than 8
million young women aged 15-24 in developing countries experienced
unsafe abortions in 2008.
Responses of young feminists
Kyrgyzstan
In Kyrgyzstan there are currently no
standards or national policy for sexuality education for
adolescents and youth. Recently, a Bill “Reproductive Rights
and Guarantees of their Implementation” was proposed. In the
first reading the new Bill was supported by the majority of
MPs, but during the second reading some MPs criticised the
proposed changes and argued that the legislation would
destroy the family and traditional values. The Bill was not
passed. The discourse on the sanctity of the family is often
used by conservative groups and policy makers to negate that
diverse form of family exists.
Young feminists have taken a leading role
in advocacy around legislative changes. Sadat, a member of
the Bishkek Feminist Collective SQ, explains; “Kyrgyzstani
young feminist activists are pushing for the passage of new
legislation on sexual and reproductive health rights and are
at the forefront of organizing and mobilizing youth
activists and allies throughout the country for direct
actions in its defense. Due to age discrimination against
youth, we are often silenced in decision-making processes
and not taken seriously. We urge everyone to acknowledge
that we are experts on our own lives and build an open and
equal inter-generational dialogue.”
Brazil
Brazil is officially a secular state, but
fundamentalisms by the Catholic and evangelical churches
exert significant cultural and political influence in all
spheres of political and social life. These groups, which
are becoming highly organized and influential, have blocked
legislative efforts to expand abortion access, and expand
and implement sexuality education.
As young feminist activist Leticia Alves
Maione from Brazil explains, “Religious groups in Congress
are organized politically and economically, with
collaboration between churches and businesses. Their
tentacles also reach the media, occupying a large space in
television and radio programming, and with their own
religious channels. Among the 34 proposed bills currently
being processed, 31 are serious legislative setbacks for
women’s rights. These include: the “abortion hotline” and
the “support houses” seeking to coerce women in their
decisions when they are victims of rape and could access
legal abortion; the end of the morning after pill; the
transformation of abortion into a heinous crime and as a
crime against life.”
Two recent cases further demonstrate the
context in which young feminists in Brazil are working. The
suspension by the government of a program against homophobia
in schools after religious groups protested in 2011. The
School Without Homophobia Kit included publications and
videos developed by human rights institutions and LGBT
activists with the support of the Ministry of Education and
UN agencies in response to the discrimination and violence
LGBT youth face. In 2013, the Ministry of Health also
censored a collection of comics (HQ) produced in 2010, which
contained information on sexual orientation, discrimination,
adolescent pregnancy, and gender equality. Without these
supplemental programs which would expand the Prevention and
Education in School Program the country has little left by
way of sexuality education that is grounded in human rights
and gender justice.
Ivens Reyner Co-Founder of Coletivo
Mangueiras, a young feminist collective, sees this new wave
of fundamentalisms as an opportunity, “this has forced us to
do something, to go to the streets, to organize ourselves in
more strategic ways. We believe that the conservative wave
that has risen in Brazil has made us want to respond in a
stronger and more reactive way.”
Sri Lanka
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Pic; Sarah SRHR Selfie.
Photo: Sarah Soysa |
Young women in Sri Lanka do not have the
power to make decisions concerning their own bodies -
especially in relation to abortion, marital rape and
contraceptive usage. Sarah Soysa, a sexual and reproductive
rights activist, says, “There are more than 40,000 reported
teenage pregnancies every year in Sri Lanka and a reported
number of 700 abortions every day. Sri Lanka has adopted the
Beijing Platform for Action, ratified CEDAW and adopted a
comprehensive Women’s Charter in 1993 framed on the
principles of enshrined in CEDAW. Yet, real change still
need to happen at the national level. Young people hardly
participate in these reviews as a result of low resources,
and also because young people are not recognized as
important stakeholders.”
Sarah received a grant from International
Women’s Health Coalition to conduct local level Beijing +20
advocacy work. In February 2015 she and a group of other
young people held the first ever youth review on SRHR and
gender equality in Sri Lanka, ahead of the UN Commission on
the Status of Women 59 in New York. They trained 27 young
leaders from 18 different organisations and networks, and
produced recommendations to the government urging them to
strengthen and implement existing adolescent health strategy
and national youth policy, and approve the Health of Young
Persons’ Policy. The establishment of the Youth Advocacy
Network Sri Lanka was formed following the review.
Women’s human rights groups, young
feminists activists and governments alike must take this
opportunity to repoliticise the debate and call for greater
accountability and full implementation of past and future
agreements on SRHRs. This requires commitment and political
will to ensure young women and girls can exercise autonomy
over their own bodies, and adequate financing so that they
access the SRHR services they need and want. Young feminists
can help re-conceptualize how we understand sexual and
reproductive health and rights, moving from reproduction to
sexuality, away from reductionist approaches, from a focus
on population control and the family unit, to liberty of
women and girls to claim their bodily autonomy.
(Ruby Johnson, is the Co-Director of FRIDA
| The Young Feminist Fund, a youth led fund that strengthens
the participation and leadership of young feminist activists
globally. She is based in Mexico. Marisa Viana is a
secretariat member of the Realizing Sexual and Reproductive
Health and Rights (RESURJ), an alliance of feminists under
40 years of age, working for sexual and reproductive
justice. Originally from Brazil, Marisa is based in New
York. They collaborated on this article for 50-50)
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