Women and Talking Taboos
By Laura Pröfrock
Not married, childless, sexually active or inactive.
Abortion, sexual abuse, rape, suppression.
Choices and decisions that girls and women should be allowed to make for themselves; experiences and traumata that girls and women should be allowed to talk about.
Most of these topics are still considered controversial or tabooed in many countries and communities - also in Africa.
According to a research from the UNFPA, fewer than half of women in Africa aged 15 to 49 make their own decisions about their sexual and reproductive health and rights.
In the patriarchal society, the personal lives of African women are too often invisible, silenced, demonized or judged. There is a need to start an open and honest discussion, to break the barriers, to break the silence and to re-think female sexualities.
There is limited knowledge reinforcing notions of positive and pleasurable Black African female sexuality.
- Thandeka Yasmeen Ndaba
African women should be free to express their diverse sexualities, including their perceptions and pleasures, to reach self-discovery, freedom and healing.