Abstract

This project analyses the intersection of human rights and gender in two west African
countries, Guinea Bissau and Senegal, by looking into the local resistancies to sexual
and reproductive rights. Through a consideration of the evolving cultural practices
relative to sexuality, and the ideological refashioning of society, we consider activisms for
gender equality, against gender based violence and promotion of rights to sexuality, we
focus on how society engages with body politics. While there has been a multiplication
of studies, in the last decades, around the way the social is produced through the
regulation of sexuality, most studies present a farily schematic conceptualisation of
normativity. This project builds upon a previous knowledge on sociocultural dynamics
and cultural values to consider the obstacles to the social change coded in the
promotion of sexual and reproductive rights.