The Hindu : Front Page : Meet will discuss impact of religion on woman’s sexual rights

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 29, 2007
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Meet will discuss impact of religion on woman’s sexual rights

Aarti Dhar

Activism of the Church in the West to figure in meet
Debate to include issue on child marriages

HYDERABAD: The impact of religious fundamentalism on woman’s sexual and reproductive health and rights will be one of the issues to be debated at the Fourth Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive Sexual Health and Rights (APCRSH) that begins here on Monday.

The issue is expected to produce a lively debate, considering religion has an impact on sexual behaviour of women and limits their access to health care and sexual choices.

The activism of the Church in the West, Islamic tenets on matters like sodomy, and homosexuality and prevailing concepts of child marriage and male child preferences will be discussed threadbare.

Talking to reporters on the eve of the three-day conference, Terence Hull, Professor of demography at the Australian national University said the debate surrounding child marriages, adolescent sexuality and abortion policy and maintaining traditional values against what the policy makers perceive as globalisation and Westernisation would be put before for the participants to express their opinions.

As against the four billion people in Asia, the Pacific region has a population of just 35 million.

Sex ratio

The problems of sex ratio at birth that daunted policy makers in India and China did not exist in the countries of the Pacific though they were home to the diaspora from these countries, Prof. Hull said.

Pointing out thousands of million died in India due during abortions though it was legalised but the procedures adopted were unsafe.

There was also a need to educate the youth about sexuality and provide them adequate services including preventive tools.

Political touch

To give the conference a political touch, 10 members of Parliament and Parliamentarians from different countries of this region will come together under the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development.

“Sexuality does not operate in isolation. It intersects gender, class, caste, religion, economics, law, culture and many other variables. We need to acknowledge that all people are not heterosexual and can have different preferences. Everyone including lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgendered, transsexual have a right to be safe from violence and discrimination and enjoy their sexuality,” Radhika Chandiramani, executive director of TARSHI told reporters.

“Disabled people have rights too”

“People with disabilities have rights too and there have always been deep and persistent negative stereotypes, prejudices and fears about people living with disability and particularly about their sexuality. There are 650 million people in the world living with a disability and this figure is increasing. These prejudices are consistent across most countries and cultures and in many cultures, to have a disability and to be a sexual being is a double taboo,” said Jane Chivers, manager Family Planning NSW, Australia.

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