“Bodily autonomy is the right to governance over one’s own body. Specifically, for women, non-binary, and trans people, this means making decisions about one’s physical self. It also means the freedom to take up space in the world. Unfortunately, bodily autonomy is consistently challenged by people, governments, and entire systems. Laws informed by patriarchal ideologies continue to suppress and govern others.”
It is important to allow individuals to have a choice on what is to be done or not to their bodies. Our society needs to allow every individual to begin deciding on very small matters concerning our bodies even from a young age because it is important in shaping how we set boundaries to our personal space and protect ourselves from both physical and mental harm. It is quite unfortunate that our society is predominantly patriarchal with deeply rooted sexist and misogynistic values propagated by men that are anti-bodily autonomy which mostly affect women children and minority groups. If we allow for one group’s bodily autonomy to be taken away, it implies that we are giving a chance for another group’s bodily autonomy to be taken away as well. This encourages the creation of a gap and acceptance of the notion that bodily autonomy is not guaranteed for anyone and is allowable to be infringed. The added disadvantage of patriarchal values being rooted deep in our society is that many women also play a part in protecting the system with the intention of buying protection and acceptance, but this system will eventually harm them. These are women who have been raised in a cultural setting and with a perception that conformity earns you a place within the system, thereby giving up their own bodily autonomy without even realizing the dire effects of conforming to the norm.
How then can we identify different kinds of cultures and perspectives that take away bodily autonomy from women within our societies? In Uganda, there are various cultural and religious practices that include but are not limited to virginity testing and labia pulling, marital rape, female genital mutilation (FGM), forced marriages of underage girls, perception on decent dress code and denial of education access to education to young girls. It is evident education grants every person access to knowledge and with this knowledge, an advantage and empowerment within society. Therefore, denial of access to education to girls and minority groups limits the axis of knowledge to them, thereby leaving them in a position of disempowerment and unable to detect when the right to bodily autonomy is being denied or infringed.
We shall be looking at the Ugandan context and how our cultures, values and perspectives in life generally take away the right to bodily autonomy from women children and minority groups in Uganda. We explored a number of incidents that previously happened in Uganda that affected or led to the infringement of minority groups and women’s right to bodily autonomy.
- The Anti-Pornography Bill 2014
In 2014 the Anti-Pornography Bill was brought before parliament with the intention of bringing a law into force intended to criminalize illegal pornographic dealings within Uganda. It was mostly intended to protect children from online predators peddling pornographic material. Unfortunately for women in Uganda, the Bill had a number of clauses that targeted women’s body parts in the definition section of what qualifies as or amounts to pornographic material. The description of women’s body parts including breast and thighs among others in the Bill alluded to dress code being an issue amounting to pornographic material that can be penalized. Due to ongoing the parliamentary debate on the Bill that was publicized in the media at the time, a number of women within Kampala were victims of public stripping by men. The reasoning was that it was their responsibility to shame women and teach them not to dress indecently in public.
This preposterous act was a violation of these women’s right to bodily autonomy because these men took it upon themselves to strip these women naked and reveal their naked bodies to the public without their consent, which was shameful, dishonoring and took away the dignity of these women. The participants in the workshop were asked to describe how these actions the actions of the men in this scenario made them feel.
“I feel embarrassed because it seems society wants to dictate what I wear taking away the right of how I express myself in what I wear at some point these actions made me want to change how I dress up not because I want to wear what society is telling me but because I am afraid of being stripped naked in public. Despite the fear, I try to dress up in comfortable clothes as that is my way of expressing myself.”
“Sometimes I feel embarrassed about what I wear because many times when I choose to wear something that I like and feel comfortable in and feel nice in as well, family members always discourage me from wearing it because they believe that my body type does not suit what I am wearing. They often make fun of my body saying it’s like for a boy, so it makes me wear big bigger clothes than my size, so my body is not revealed, however this is very bad as it makes me feel bad and insecure about myself.”
“We also get to see that many women are judged because of what they choose to wear, and this causes a lot of emotional damage and insecurities, even if there is nothing wrong with the outfit chosen by the women.”
“I will talk about my experience that happened recently on a night when I was on my way to a concert. I wore short-shorts for the event. Since I don’t have a car, my friend and I got onto a boda boda which is a famous motorbike mode of transport in Uganda. On our way to the venue, we noticed a number of other boda boda riders following us while aggressively insulting my friend and I. We were called “malaya” prostitutes for our dress code and threatened to sexually assault us because we were asking for it by revealing our bodies. We were lucky that our boda boda rode faster, and we were able to lose that crowd. I felt very violated, angered and irritated by this incident. I had to forcefully change my mindset in order to enjoy my concert. I also want to point out that context in dress code honestly matters and very evident in my case, I was going for a concert and I felt that what I was wearing is suitable for the concert. I was also comfortable in my body. I would not choose to wear the same outfit if I were going to a church for example, so I would hope society would respect the fact that I choose to wear what I feel comfortable in because even in my dress code I am consciously respectful of the different dress code that might be required with different functions or occasions.”
There exists a distasteful mentality by a lot of men in our society whereby they believe that a woman’s dress code determines how she should be treated. It is commonly said that she is asking for certain attention through the choice of their dress code, with a famous saying, “She Asked for It”. In our societies a woman as perceived by men to be dressed indecently is inviting sexual violence or even physical violence against herself and as a result of that perceived indecency she is deserving of that punishment because men have the power to do so. We get to see that this creates a notion within our society that women do not own our bodies.
This perception is ingrained in men, as they feel the need to take charge and either reward us for dressing “well/decent” or punish us for dressing “indecently” according to their set standard. It is not only men that attack women, but there are some women in society who conform and support in the attack of women as well or remain silent in the presence of such attacks. So in as much as it is unfortunate that we find situations in which women partake attacking women in such circumstances we get to witness how the ingrained patriarchal values and systems are rooted deep in our society with women that also gate keep this undesirable system that does not even favor them.
It is therefore important for women who are in a position of power to use that power to help other vulnerable woman until it becomes the norm, but all women are helped unsupported and protected from being in vulnerable positions. This, however, should not take away the fact that the major perpetrator of violence against women is men.
“I believe that as women we have the right to express ourselves in any way that we desire regardless of how you are dressed, or how you speak, or how you act in society. It is important for us to be able to choose for ourselves because we are born different and unique.”
“There are also many incidents when men find out that some women are lesbian, and these men usually boldly express their desire to sexually assault these women with the aim of turning them back into heterosexual beings as a result of experiencing sex with a man. The idea that a man can change your sexuality by forcefully having sex with you goes to show you that a number of men feel and gladly express they are perceived ownership of our bodies as women and what violent acts they are able to get away with because the system protects them.”
2. Cyber Sexual Harassment – Revenge Porn Saga
The drafting of the law intentionally left vague definitions and the gross negligence in not identifying important terms in the bill which was eventually was passed into law left a number of women vulnerable. The clauses identifying women’s body parts as indecent and amounting to pornographic material were eventually removed from the bill before it was passed into law however some definitions on what amounts to pornography, pornographic material, who can distribute pornographic material who or what amounts to a victim in these circumstances we’re all left vague and open to human perception. As a result, many women in our society, mostly celebrity, were victims of revenge porn attacks and cyberbullying. These women were later summoned or arrested when criminal charges of distributing pornographic material despite being victims of revenge porn, which further violated their right to bodily autonomy. We get to see that the creators of this law focused on useless things rather than the main intention which was to protect children from predators, women and vulnerable minority groups.
Perception is key in these matters because in the art world, some nude pictures are considered art, which then poses a question of perspective on what morality stands for in our society. It is quite evident that our society sexualizes and objectifies women’s bodies. The manner in which our bodies are visualized and valued depending on how much of your body is revealed to the world is deemed to determine if the value of that woman has dropped and such a woman is seen to lose respect. Some members of society begin to treat you as less than human. At the end of the day, it is society that makes us women feel the way we feel because of a lot of men who are in position of power that have pushed for these narratives of values and have insisted in seeing women as objects. This has led our society to uphold values that objectify women and visualizes women as sub citizens within our own country, and allowing a perception that our rights a secondary to the human rights that men enjoy.
Learning and knowing that these patriarchal values are ingrained deeply in our value systems is important in order to create self-awareness and always push to check ourselves to ensure that we do not contribute to empowering these patriarchal value systems. We should ensure that in our speech and daily practices, we do not make sexist and misogynist comments and actions based on our patriarchal upbringing but choose to take on the unlearning that we have encountered in order to empower women and not be part of the patriarchal oppressors. We should also note and accept that decency is relative and undefined. We cannot limit the notion of decency according to one belief, as every individual comes from various tribes with different cultural values on what decency according to dress code actually means.
During the pandemic, a number of women begun a silhouette challenge on social media, where women were recording naked videos with a silhouette covering the nudity within the videos as a piece of art and for fun. However, a number of some men, without consent from these women, decided to use their tech skills to remove the silhouette filter from these videos in order to reveal the nude bodies of the women who decided to partake in this social media challenge. This was applauded by many men whose intention was to violate the privacy of these women with the purpose of exerting their power over these women and to shame them for exerting their choice taking part in this social media challenge that was intended for fun and art. Men in our society desire to use nudity as a form of shaming women and taking away our dignity. If women choose a form of embracing nudity as a form of empowerment that is not acceptable to men in our societies, many men feel the need to shame women into submission and knowing our place in humility.
3. Sexual Harassment in the workplace & Daily life
“I am a Muslim woman who wears a hijab and fully veils when going out of my home. I was invited for a job interview which was to take place at a hotel lounge, so I went for the interview. My interviewer who is a man begun asking what I can offer sexually for the job. I was shocked because I was under the impression that I was going for a professional interview and did not expect to be asked to offer any sexual favors in order to get the job. I declined and had to end the interview and as a result I missed out on that job opportunity, particularly because I was being sexually harassed. When I mentioned this incident to one of my uncles, he instead told me that I was wrong for even accepting to go for a job interview that was in a hotel as a young woman. He even went further to ask what I had done to make the man make such propositions, well implying that there is no reason for me to be sexually harassed in such a situation unless I had done something to cause the harassment that I faced. There is a way man in the society sexually objectify women no matter what the women wear, the blame will always shift to the women regardless of what you are wearing.”
“My friend’s car was knocked by a bodaboda motorcycle. It was very clear that the border Raider was the one in the wrong, however, other border bodaboda riders came and ganged up on my friend because of what she was wearing. The conversation changed from the fault of the bodaboda rider who knocked my friend’s car into men harassing her for her dress code, they insulted her and bullied her and as a result the rider who knocked her vehicle was shielded from paying for the damage that he had caused.”
There are also incidents of women taking on jobs in predominantly male dominated careers, whereby women are shamed by these men and force to go back to do feminine jobs. For example, a woman who goes to supervise a construction site which she is paying for can be asked by the builders where the man in charge of the construction is. It is therefore seen that certain roles are not perceived as meant for women to take on. Many women have missed out on work opportunities due to different forms of harassment and bullying.
4. Discriminatory Access to Sexual & Reproductive Health Services
Many women face stigma when it comes to accessing sexual and reproductive health services in the form of contraceptives, informed medical opinions and choice to access certain procedures.
It is also important to address the role that the medical world plays in denying women’s right to bodily autonomy. In Ugandan hospitals, there exists a medical policy that requires a woman who intends to carry out tubal ligation and tie her fallopian tubes to obtain the consent of a male guardian.
This could be her husband and if she has never been married or is divorced, it should be her father, brother, an uncle or at least any of a male relative. Some hospitals will even suggest that you bring any man as long as he is willing to sign off and give consent for you to get the procedure done, regardless of whether he is your male relative, your guardian or not. Woman is therefore prohibited from opting for this procedure without the consent of a man in her life. Therefore, a single woman without any man when in her life to give consent for this procedure is easily denied the option to have this procedure done regardless of her desire to go ahead with this procedure.
There are many incidences of hospital staff failing to provide efficient information on contraceptive choices and their respective side effects. We therefore have many women opting for contraceptive choices that may not be compatible with their bodies, thereby suffering extreme side effects including heavy bleeding, horrible mood swings, and some even developing complications like cysts or fibroid.
In Uganda abortion is illegal so a woman who procures an abortion or a medical practitioner who offers the service of handling an abortion procedure are at risk of being jailed as per Uganda’s penal code act. As a result, we see that many women in Uganda are denied the right to decide whether to proceed with a pregnancy until the end of the nine months.
“I got an IUD, but my body rejected it. It was a terrible six months for me. I was not told which method worked best for my body and even when I inquired for information to on how to deal with the side effects I was told to just bear with it.”
“I was admitted in hospital when I went into Labour and required C-Section. Some relatives told me I was just lazy and did not want to go through natural Labour. Women, please listen to your bodies. It tells you exactly what you are feeling and experiencing. I almost lost my baby at the time. My partner thought I was pretending to be in too much pain and did not adequately advocate for me with the doctors.”
Many women receive insufficient medical attention due to wrong scientific perception on black women’s endurance of pain. Many have survived death with the help of a good caretaker who adequately advocated for them. There is need for more feminist medical researchers to conduct studies that are women centered reflecting women’s lived experiences that is not diluted by sexist and misogynistic male centered perception on the female anatomy.
5. Cultural Practices & Infringement on Bodily Autonomy
There exist many tribes in Uganda with various and diverse cultural customs and values that an affect women’s right to bodily autonomy. These are cultural practices that aim to either limit the sexual lives of young girls or prepare these young girls for future satisfaction of their male partners’ sexual desires.
For Example:
In Eastern Uganda, the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) was widely practiced in the Sabiny region until it was outlawed. However, we still have cases of families crossing the boarder to Kenya to practice FGM n young girls because it is not illegal in Kenya.
The “Nakku” practice in Buganda where a virgin girl is handed over to the Kabaka (King) for 1 sexual night and left to live a life of solitude.
As early as 10 years or even younger, girls are introduced to a cultural practice of pulling.
In most traditional marriages in Ugandan culture, the negotiations take place between the girl’s parents and her husband’s family, which takes away her right to have a say on the marriage terms. Some cultures still engage in child marriages, whereby an underage girl is forced into marriage with the consent of her family members.
Ugandan cultures and religions practiced in Uganda believe that LGBTQ practices are immoral and should be banned completely. This belief therefore denies them as a minority group the right to peaceful existence, thereby leaving them vulnerable to acts of violence.
Nothing about these cultural practices are for the benefit of these girls, but to serve men. We see that, from a young age, many girls and minority groups experience violations to our bodily autonomy by being forced to engage in cultural practices that do not even benefit us. These values imply that, as a woman and minority groups, we have no say regarding our bodies. This has led to an increase in the rape culture in our communities. As a result, many women and minority groups fall victim to acts of violence including but not limited to sexual and physical violence/assault, denial of access to education and financial empowerment. These also result in violations that affect mental health in the community.
In order to change the narrative and encourage our societies to respect the right to bodily autonomy, it is important to speak up at every opportunity and call out any form of violation to the right to bodily autonomy when we find ourselves in a position of power to do so. There is need for more dialogue and creating safe spaces in which women girls and minority groups are brought together to advocate for our rights without being re-victimized by the same system that causes the oppression we face. It is important to defeminize some of the discussions in order to shift blame from the victims or categories these as ‘women only’ problems and focus on challenging the perpetrators of these violations in order to advocate for reform within our communities. There is also need for self-love awareness among women, girls and minority groups in order to empower these groups with knowledge that we are not the problem, to build solidarity and strengthen the movements to advocate for advancement of the rights to bodily autonomy and protection from sexual and gender based violence.
Author: Rita Aywello, GT Coordinator Uganda
