ISLAM AND WOMEN’S REPRODUCTIVE AND SEXUAL RIGHTS IN SENEGAL
The objective of this presentation is to look at the situation of women’s reproductive and sexual health and rights in Senegal and the way it is impacted by Islam. I intend to develop this issue in a research I am going to carried out back to Senegal in the purpose of writing an article for the Islam and Human Rights Fellowship Project.
The context
Senegal is located in Sub Saharan Africa, more precisely in West Africa.
It was a former French colony that became independent in 1960. Senegal has been in contact with Islam since the 9th or 11th century. As a result of the spread of Islam, today, 94% Senegalese are Muslim, 5% are Christian and 1% still follow the traditional faith. But whether they are Muslim or Christian, the majority of Senegalese remain still faithful to many aspect of the traditional faith. Muslim Senegalese are Sunni and follow the Maliki School
Senegal, that has been the first French colony in Africa (first contacts with Europe date from the 15th century) has been and is still very much influenced by the French State model. This influence is noticeable in the structure of its political structure with three main state powers : the Executive power held by the President of the Republic, the legislative power held by the National Assembly or Parliament and the Judiciary Power that is independent for the executive and legislative powers. Its is composed by the Constitutional Council, the State Council, the Supreme Court and ordinary courts and Tribunals.
The sources of laws that may affect women’s reproductive and sexual health and rights are local and international. At the international level, Senegal signed and ratified almost all international documents on human rights, in particular the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on Elimination of all forms of Discriminations against women and of the Convention on Child Rights. The international laws have precedence over national laws.
The plan of action of international conferences ( for example Rio, the ICPD, Beijing, Rio, and Vienna etc) are translated into national programmes or policies.
The context of women’s reproductive and sexual health [1]
According the Health and Demographic (DHS) survey (1997) women constitute 52% of the population. Early marriage and early pregnancy are very common. According to the DHS the mean age to marriage is 17, 4 ans. But the legal age is lower than that. It’s 16. At 20, the majority of Senegalese women already had their first child, and 9% of all births in the country are attributed to adolescents mother aged 15-19. At 49, the average Senegalese women have 5.7 children.
The budget for the health sector represents 6.5% of the national budget. It should be noted that the budget of Ministries dealing with social actions (where women are located) are the less funded by the government, and expect funding from the international donors. The country counts twelve hospitals located in the largest cities. There is only one medical doctor for every 13.55o persons and only 40% of the population accedes to basic health care. Someone living in the rural area has to walk around 8 miles to accede to a health facility.
Concerning maternal health care, it is estimated that only 47% of births are assisted by traditional birth attendants. In such a context the maternal mortality rate is high: 510 women die for every 100,000 life births.
In the 80’s the maternal mortality rate was around 480 per 100,000 life birth. Many Senegalese believe that the structural adjustment policies imposed by the IMF and World Bank which obliged the state to stop its policy of free access to health care are responsible for the increase of the maternal mortality rate.
Other causes are too early or too late or too frequent pregnancies, poverty, preexisting illness such as high blood pressure, anemia, abortion, unattended deliveries, women’s burden of domestic chores, neglect of women’s health by the families, unhealthy practice during the delivery and some traditional practices (FGM, nutritional taboos etc).
The national reproductive health programme:
Since the colonial period the government concern is too curb the maternal and child mortality rate in implementing programs dealing with maternal and child health. Most programs integrate services oriented to safe pregnancy, delivery, and child health care.
Another very important component of the programme is family planning. As a consequence of these biases, the other components of women’s and men’s reproductive and sexual health problems are neglected. These services concern the counseling, information and provision of contraceptives to adolescent, the services to menopaused women, the cancers of the reproductive system, the prevention and treatment of infertility, of abortion, or of sexually transmitted infections. The services for sexual health such as sexual abuse, MGF, counseling are almost inexistent.
Through the international documents signed at the ICPD and Beijing Senegal committed to adopt a life cycle approach to women’s reproductive health, to be sensitive to adolescence’s needs, and to integrate the human rights approach to its reproductive programme. This commitment is not respected.
The legal context of women’s reproductive health:
Because laws pertaining to reproduction reflect the social believes, attitudes, norms about women’s status, a brief outline of the context within which sexuality and reproduction take place in Africa may be helpful. African women get a full social status when they are married and are mother. This explains women’s desire to have many children. It should be added that children are also important to male’s status and opportunities to accede to high social and religious functions.
Another important feature of African societies is the weakness of the social power given to women. As girls, they are expected to be submissive to their parents and elders, until married to their husbands. Most African women enjoy little individual control over their sexual and reproductive lives.
In 1972, the parliament passed the Family Laws that are a mix of modern principles, cultural norms and elements of the Islamic family laws. Its regulates engagement, marriage, divorce and inheritance. Below are the articles important for reproduction and sexuality :
- Engagement: sex before marriage is neither allowed nor forbidden. The laws states that the fiancés may visit each other provided that they conform themselves to the customs. They may exchange gifts. If for any reason the knot is not tied, and gift exchanged were valuable, they may be returned.
- The legal age of marriage is fixed at 16. The consent of two concerned is a condition of validly of the marriage. Marriage must be celebrated by an officer the City Hall, or consecrated at the mosque.
- Polygamy is the common law,
- Husband is the head of the family, and provide for its members. He decides about the residence, where the wife is obliged to stay. But if the wife think that her safety is not assured she can be allowed by the judge not to reside with her husband
- Any spouse can divorce the other. Repudiation is forbidden. Ten causes of divorce are admitted by law ( confirmed unfaithfulness of one of the spouses, condemnation of one spouse under dishonoring charges, a husband non maintaining the family, refusal by one spouse to respect elements of the contract of marriage, abandon of the family, violence, absence of one the spouses for 4 years without the remaining spouse not receiving news from the departed one, severe and untreatable illness hidden before the marriage took, definitive sterility, and mood incompatibility). In this last case the spouse who files for divorce is not obliged to explain he or she wants to divorce.
As of yet, the large majority of the population, women in particular do not know what the family law is really about. Thus the practices are very varied according to the customs and to whether the concerned intends to follow strictly the Islamic law.
Other law impacting reproductive health;
- Access to contraception (information and services). It is free and it is considered as an individual right.
- Sterilization is allowed
- Abortion is not allowed unless the pregnancy constitutes a threat to the mother’s life or that the baby will be borne with severe mental illnesses.
- Domestic violence, pedophilia, incest, female genital mutilations, trafficking in women, sexual harassment and rape are banned. The perpetrator may face up to 10 years in jail.
- Marital rape is not recognized
-Sexual orientation is not defined, but the Penal Code states that « sexual acts against nature between individual of the same sex » is sentenced 2 to 5 years.
Senegalese Islamists and Women’s reproductive and sexual rights
In this chapter I do not attempt to analyze what the position of Islam about women’s reproductive and sexual rights. I want to present the vision on women in general and on reproductive and sexual rights the examples I give below come from a book by one of the most prominent intellectual Islamists whose name is Khadim Mbacke. The title of the book is “Women in Islam”.
The first tenet is the notions of women’s human reproductive and sexual rights are Western in origin and are in conflict with Islam. The second is women are not autonomous persons and cannot be equal partners to men. Giving them “control over their sexuality, free decision, and bodily integrity” as stated in the ICPD or Beijing Plans of Action, and providing adolescent information and services on contraception lead to disruption of family, to depravation and to ruin of moral and Islamic values.
Concerning women’s consent to marriage they affirm that a guardian is allowed to marry his daughter if she is not pubere. If she dislikes the man she is allowed to divorce him when she reaches majority (puberty).
In their views, women’s sexuality should be aimed principally towards reproduction and pleasuring the husband. She is recognized only two roles, which are to be wife and to be a mother. According to them the right to divorce and repudiation should be a man’s right and they think that a man should have the right to punish his wife and children.
Sex should happen only between married persons (at least for women) and they agree with the punition of Zina. They promote women‘s modesty with a dress code with a very long dress, with long sleeves, head should be covered. In all occasions they should remove themselves from the company of other men
The opinion is not homogenous about family planning, but they believe that in this area it’s the husband who makes the decision. They are against abortion unless the mother’s life is endangered by the pregnancy.
The Islamits are very active in promoting their vision in medias. They own radios and publishing houses. In addition, they have managed to be members of all national commissions in charge of drafting or implementing programs targeting women, in particular the one dealing with women’s health and sexuality another political feature has given them more opportunity to influence national policy. To comply with the Malthusian position of its main donors (World Bank and USAID) that link the slow pace of economic development to the growth of the population, the Senegalese government needs a religious legitimization for its family planning programs in order to have them accepted by a reluctant population, males in particular. Several Muslim intellectuals play the role of advisers in this area to the government and to the donors, and clearly do not advocate for the promotion of women’s rights.
In my opinion these views are not only an obstacle to the promotion of women’s reproductive and sexual rights, but they are a threat to their human rights in general because all rights are interdependency. Other factors might also empower Islamists. There are:
- a deep economic and social cries, high rate of unemployment and poverty,
- lower flows of investments from westerner countries and increase in Arab investment as well as offer of opportunities to young men to come to Arabic ( in particular Saudi Arabia) for studies,
- Deep identity crises and a desire from many Senegalese to put the Muslim identity under the others.
What way out?
Issues pertained to reproductive and sexual rights are not yet considered as a priority in the agenda of African women’s movement . The majority of women’s organizations are more concerned about women’s economic and political rights. Although more and more campaign against domestic violence and rape, few have a holistic and feminist vision on women’s reproductive and sexual rights.
In addition, the definition of the concept of sexual rights, the issue of sexual orientation, the definition of MGF as violence and the way it should be punishment, are still controversial within the African feminist movement.
A main consequence of these tensions is a lack of a strong mobilization on the issues of women’s reproductive and sexual health and rights in the continent, is one hand there is no pressure on government to demand the enforcement of their international commitments, and one the other hand give room to fundamentalists (both Muslim and Christian) to strengthen their position.
A strategy I am interested to explore and that is the aim of my research is collect the position of Senegalese women, those who are not educated and often do not participate to this sort of debate.
Through qualitative research methods I am interested in finding out how they understand the concepts of individual rights, self determination, bodily integrity, and ownership of one’s body, interdependency of rights, or how they would define them in the light of their experience. I’d also like to know if they think these definitions should be operationalized in laws or in national programs, and what strategies they think would be the best to achieve this. Third, I’d like to find out about their knowledge and perceptions about the Islamic position (if any) and also their opinion about whether Islam empower them or deprive them from power in the area of reproduction and sexuality.
SOME FACTS ABOUT SENEGAL
Location West Africa
Population :
around 9 millions. 45% of the population less than 15 years old
Women form 52% the population
Around 60% of the population live in urban areas
Main ethnic groups :
Wolof ( 43%), Pular (Fulani), Serer, Jola, Mandeng, Soninke.
Administrative language : French
Revenue per capita : around 600 US $ per year
Social :
Marriage is almost universal. At 30, 97% of Senegalese women are married.
At 20, the majority of Senegalese women have a least one child
Labour
Women form 43% of the labour force
Education:
Adult’s illiteracy rate: 75% for women and 55% for men.
Enrollment in primary school: 45% of girls against 68% of boys.
29% of girls in high school.
Household maintenance: 20% of households are maintained by women (de jure) the majority are maintained by women (de facto)
Heath
Life expectancy: 53 years for women and 51 years for men
Budget of the Ministry of Health: 6.50% of the national budget
Access to primary health care: 40% of the population
Child mortality: 68/1000
Maternal mortality: 510 /100,000 live births
Women’s median age to marriage: 17, 4 years
Prevalence of female genital mutilation: 20%. (It’s the removal of the tip of the clitoris that is the rule)
HIV/Aids prevalence: 1.4
STD prevalence in the 12 months before the DHS: 0, 7 % of women and 0, 11 % of men
Main Components of the National Program on Reproductive Health
Family Planning
Prenatal Health
Delivery and post partum health
Promotion of breast feeding and good traditional practices related to weaning. Monitoring of child nutrition and immunization
Prevention and treatment of infertility
Prevention of abortions and post abortion services
Prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections including cancers
STD and HIV/AIDS Program
Counselling for responsible parenthood
Female Genital Mutilation
Counselling and treatment for sexual problems
[1] The Cairo ICPD defines Reproductive Health as follows: “Reproductive health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, in all matters relating to the reproductive system and to its functions and processes. Reproductive health implies that people are able to have satisfying and safe sex life and that they have the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so. Implicit in this last condition are the right of men and women to be informed and to have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods of family planning of their choice, as well as other methods of their choice for regulation of fertility which are not against the law, and the right to access to appropriate health care services that will enable women to go safely through pregnancy and childbirth and provide couples with the best chance oh having a healthy infant ( Para 94 p.58)
The Beijing Platform for Action in its paragraph 96 defines sexual rights as follows: “The human rights of women include their right to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free from coercion, discrimination and violence. Equal relationships between women and men in matters of sexual relation and reproduction, including full respect for the integrity of the person, require mutual respect, consent and shared responsibility for sexual behavior and its consequence.
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