safeguard your reproductive rights

By SITEMBILE SIWAWA


THE women's movement has called on women countrywide to safeguard their reproductive rights.In an interview recently Young Women Christian Association (YWCA) executive director Patricia Ndhlovu said a lot of women are not aware of their reproductive rights either in or outside marriage.

Ms Ndhlovu said most women only define gender-based violence (GBV) as being battered by their husbands but little is known that even refusal by one's partner to use protection when having sexual intercourse is GBV.

"Many women are not aware that refusal by a partner to use protection is GBV in its own right and it is also a serious violation of their reproductive rights," she said.

She said failure by women to know their reproductive rights has resulted in many of them having unwanted pregnancies and getting infected with HIV.

Ms Ndhlovu said women must not allow men to dictate to them what they are supposed to do when it comes to their reproductive rights because they are the ones at risk of getting infected and having unwanted pregnancies.

"Our women must always go to the nearest health centres to get correct information on these rights which many of them are not aware of," she said.

She also said as women are observing the 16 days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, they should be reminded that the right to safer sex lies in their hands and they must know that failure by their partners not to adhere to condom usage is tantamount to gender-based violence.

And Zambia National Women Lobby (ZNWL) chairperson Beauty Phiri said a lot of sensitisation on reproductive rights for women is needed because many of them are aware that they have them.

"GBV exists in many forms, it's not only being battered but even one's partner's refusal to use protection is gender-based violence," she said.

Many women think reproduction must be controlled by men but it's the women who should control it by getting beneficial literature from health centres, Ms Phiri said.

She said the media needs to bring out a lot of these issues because many women are not responsive to them and they end up having multiple pregnancies which they cannot keep and end up aborting.

Ms Phiri said women need to be educated on what constitute gender-based violence, where it starts from and where it ends.