Broad definitions of reproductive rights allow for one or more components of reproductive health to be stressed at the exclusion of others. Selectivity is paid for by the politically, economically and socially deprived. An example of the price extracted from broad definitions of reproductive rights in Egypt is the fact that women’s reproductive choices are not tied in to primary health care in Egypt.

The International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in Cairo in 1994 focused on birth control services and family planning services popular in the 1960s and targeted only married women. Conservative religious groups see the ICPD and Western organizations as depriving Egypt of their culture by using imperialism as a means of debate on ‘minor’ issues to divert people’s attention from the serious issues of poverty, illiteracy and class oppression.

If something is described as a right, it implies that it is necessary for the integrity and self-respect of a person or group to be promoted and protested by the State. Entitlement runs parallel to it.  For a group to fight for a right, they must first be aware that they are entitled to it and they have a claim on the “other,” in this case a health service or government, to secure the right.

The right to life is inarguably international. People die because they do not have access to health care and people sacrifice their lives for a cause that they value more than their lives. In the first case they were unable to exercise their right; in the second, they had conflicting values.

There are three factors that jeopardize reproductive health rights for women in Egypt. They are as follows:

Violence

Mothers submit to female genital mutilation (FGM) to contain the sexuality of their daughters and protect their availability for marriage. Women endure the violence in order to be socially accepted.

Cultural specificity

Conservative political groups argue that reproductive rights are Western in nature and foreign to Egyptian culture. Progressive groups assert that culture is a reason to design reproductive rights in accordance with the cultural specificity of Egypt. While it is understandable to reject foreign ideas when it is forced on people issues not shared by the society, neglecting the issues because someone else thought them up is an indirect advocacy for the violation of the rights behind the ideas.

However, culture is only one component of reproductive rights issues. Other components are political and economic rights, migration policies and population policies.

Reproductive rights in Egyptian law

It’s easy to obtain a safe abortion in Egypt if the person has the money. When quantitative analysis was conducted by social scientists in Egypt, it was noted that many women believe that abortion is prohibited by religion only if pregnancy was caused outside or due to absence of marriage, but legal if women became pregnant within the marriage.

Finally, through a process of consensus-building by women activists with social scientists, policymakers and jurists in the human rights and health movements, initiating a paradigm that addresses reproductive health and right issues without prioritizing a few rights to the exclusion of others is the challenge. The recognition of the universality of human rights is the reference point from which such change can occur.

Reference

Seif El Dawla, Aida. 2000. “Reproductive rights of Egyptian Women: Issues for Debate.” Reproductive Health Matters. 8 (16): 45 – 54.