Sexual Health and Rights for all women of the world
Women’s maternal health, violence against women and female genital mutilation are just some of the important topics currently being discussed at the Fourth Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights currently being held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Kuena Diaho, World YWCA intern from YWCA of Lesotho is participating in the conference as part of the World YWCA delegation and reports on the dialogue taking place in Addis Ababa.
The cutting tradition is a controversial topic that has dominated discussions on Sexual and Health Rights. The session began with an account by the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics where young girls and women stories on female genital mutilation and early and forced marriages were documented. Young girls are continuously tortured by being forced in to early marriages in most African countries and this has undoubtedly resulted in less enrolment of girls in schools, especially in rural areas.
Trivial reasons such as prevention of promiscuity, embarrassment and or fear of insults by parents are the reasons young women and girls are subjected to this treatment. Girls in rural areas often have to deal with rights violations or subjection to humiliating traditional practices, although many are not aware traditional practices are a violation of their human rights as they have never been educated or informed.
I have heard accounts that women in Nigeria face domestic violence on a daily basis. As if domestic violence is not appalling enough, even more repulsive and inexcusable, is domestic violence on pregnant women. Domestic violence against pregnant women in Nigeria is rampant. Unfortunately, domestic violence does not only come as a form of physical violence, it also manifests itself in different ways, such as psychological, sexual and economic abuse. The reactions to these stories are not those that one observing would think are justification for such violence. Usually, men gave vague reasons for abusing women, some saying their abuse is a result of the disrespect they receive from ‘nagging’ women, ‘unfaithful‘ women and ‘dirty’ women.
I asked myself the question whether these abuses and harmful traditional practices contribute to the rising numbers in maternal deaths? If women subjected to domestic violence deal with their situation by engaging in ‘make-up’ sex, accepting gifts, family mediation or simply choose to forget it ever happened; and if the girls who have had their genitalia tampered with simply accept this is part of their tradition to undergo this horrid process, will it not be true that more needs to be done to address the issue of maternal mortality?
Abortion has also been a burning topic with questions being asked about what governments are doing to ensure women and girls have access to safe abortions and ensuring this is addressed as not only a health issue but as a human rights issue.
All these issues, whether viewed from the perspective of researcher, doctor, academic, women’s advocate or YWCA member are all issues that must be addressed by all to achieve full sexual and reproductive rights for women and young women of the world.
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