Publication of a Resource Book on Sexuality in Senegal, a project with Groupe de Recherche sur les Femmes et les Lois au Sénégal (GREFELS), Senegal

In 2008, a small grant from the Sexuality, Society and Gender Program of the University of Uppsala in Sweden was recived to undertake a research on Senegalese women’s sexuality which findings would be published as a book.The research was completed an all articles drafted, but the money for printing and disseminating the book was lacking.  This grant made the publication possible.  

Project:  Publication of a Resource Book on Sexuality in Senegal

Objectives: (i) to provide Senegalese women with information on sexuality (ii) to enable them to appropriate their body, (iii) to highlight the central role of sexuality in control over women,  (iv) to look at the issue of erotism and pleasure,  (v) to promote the vision of sexual rights as human rights (vi) to contribute to activism for the promotion of sexual rights as human rights in Senegal.

Challenges:

It was difficult to get respondent speak about sexuality in general and about their intimate experience about sexuality during the data collection. Many respondents invoked islam or tradition to legitimate certain practices and perception. Some religious people were against the ideas contained in the book, certainly because they were aware of our struggle against fundamentalism and for the defense of women’s human rights.

Publication forthcoming