Monday Sep 18, 2023
Farida Akhtar: Controlling Women’s Bodies Through Biology (Bangladesh)
“If we are poor, we cannot decide for ourselves how many children we should have. If we are black, we are not able to decide for ourselves how many children we should have. If we are refugee women, we cannot decide for ourselves. If we are an ethnic minority, you know, we cannot decide for ourselves. Our bodies are controlled by international communities… It's an aggression on women's bodies. And controlling the woman's body is controlling a nation. Controlling the woman's body is controlling a race of people.”
“To be able to get education, we have to mortgage our uterus. And that is not fair. We should have education on our own right. Education is a basic human right. It should be available for no condition. Whether we bear children or not, it should be available to women.”
“These are violences. I think, you know, we don't sometimes see these invisible violences that are happening around the world.”
“I think if we are united together, if women are united together, we believe that there is no way they can control us.”
Abstract:
“The control over woman is exercised through the control over her body. The politics and ideology of biology are manifested in the development of the health and reproductive technologies and the entire medical system. Reproductive technologies, both pro- and anti- natal, are produced and used on women’s bodies to have control over women’s reproductive functions. In that way, the control over a class of people, ethnic group, religious community and even a nation can be established and racist and imperialist domination promoted. The population control policies and programmes carried out in the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America and among the poor, black and immigrant communities of the northern countries are horrendous examples of this control. The so-called modern contraceptives, especially intra-uterine devices, injectables and implants are direct interventions in women’s bodies. The International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in 1994 established a mechanism of control over women’s bodies in the guise of ‘reproductive rights and reproductive health’ and a section of ‘feminists’ are supporting such control mechanisms both in the developed and the developing countries.
Also to be discussed is how women’s expanding educational opportunities and experiences in the workplace are affected by the ideology of women’s biology.
Farida is the executive director of UBINIG, a policy research organisation in the field of women’s issues, and a founder of the Feminist International Network of Resistance to Reproductive and Genetic Engineering (FINRRAGE). She is author of Depopulating Bangladesh: Essays on the Politics of Fertility (1992) and two other books on the subject of reproductive technology, and has an international reputation for her work in opposing reproductive technology. Farida regularly writes columns for the daily national press in Bangladesh and is also Editor of Chinta, a fortnightly publication. She is an active member of Resistance Network, a network which resists the abusive use of harmful contraceptives on women’s bodies.”
Since 1996:
Farida is continuing her campaigning on this issue, writing about IVF for The Business Standard in July 2023 (https://www.tbsnews.net/thoughts/ivf-no-surveillance-solution-business-women-continue-bear-brunt-infertility-blame-674606) She remains the Executive Director of UBINIG, and has written various articles for their website, in English (https://ubinig.org/index.php/blog/showAerticle/271 https://ubinig.org/index.php/blog/showAerticle/68) and Bangla (https://ubinig.org/index.php/blog/showAerticle/147 https://ubinig.org/index.php/blog/showAerticle/89) .
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