The freedom of the female body: the sexual and reproductive dignity of women

ABSTRACT

This article aims to demonstrate the need to understand the basic notion of female personal autonomy and the domination

over their bodies that constitutes the biggest obstacle to gender equality. This notion is often understood in a restrictive

way as the free choice to procreate, however, female freedom is a larger set of rights, interdependent on each other,

without which there are no autonomous choices or real equality such as access access to education and information,

access to health care, access to contraceptive methods, legal and safe abortion, protection against sexual violence such

as rape, female genital mutilation, child marriages, forced marriages etc. All over the world, women are deprived of

the right to freely dispose of their bodies, and the repercussions do not only concern the violation of bodily autonomy

protected by laws, they deprive us of a fundamental universal right. Some States contest the recognition of these rights

and the implementation of programs designed to support them. Within civil society itself, religious representatives defend

representations of the family and the procreative role of women who oppose their autonomy of choice.

Keywords: Autonomy. Health. rights. Warranties. Women.