Edgar Kuchingale, a doctor in Malawi who also attended the conference, told me that to this day prejudice, especially about immoral sexual behavior, remains a major hurdle. But for Brookman-Amissah, now vice president for Africa of Ipas, a reproductive-health nongovernmental organization, the problem mostly lies elsewhere: “It is not as if it is by custom that Africans are against abortion. Rather, it is the colonial laws that we need to get rid of.”
Many restrictive abortion laws in Africa date back to colonial codes, and the bigotry of the law has trickled through society. Mali’s law is based on the Napoleonic Code from 1810, which forbade abortion. Nigeria’s, one of the world’s most restrictive, dates back to a British provision from 1861.
Like so many other ‘African’ ideas and laws.
the thing about naija is that you can go to a pharmacy and get drugs to induce an abortion, over the counter, so like most laws all that ish is for show
Yup. In Ivory Coast you can even get it properly done in a clinic. Even though it’s “illegal”… there are so many colonial laws that are still effective in Africa, i wonder what is this thing they call independence and celebrate every year. Seriously.
To all those who say that we need colonial/imperial activity to protect human (esp. women’s) rights.
Sorry I haven’t been posting much, I’ve started like 378 different blogs and I need to really start this one back up again. :)
As this study makes clear, women still police other women’s sexuality. It reminds us too of what we already know: that policing does tangible damage to women’s relationships with other women. Few things do more to fray the already tenuous bonds of sisterhood. But what this study (and so many others before it) miss is the obvious point that this competitive “bitchiness” towards other women rests on the assumption that men are so unreliable that there’s no point in trying to “police” their behavior. If women believed that men had the power to resist sexual temptation, if they believed that male infidelity was the result of a choice rather than a biological inevitability, then women wouldn’t feel nearly as threatened by cleavage.
I usually hate calling out for followers, but I would love to find some blogs that really enjoy poetry or human rights.
If you’re a blog that likes either of these things, I would totally love to follow you if you like this post or follow me. <3
