DAKAR – In a powerful op-ed, Senegalese academic Fatoumata Bernadette Sonko has launched a call for collective mobilization to defend women’s rights, in the face of a worrying erosion of their gains. According to the Senegalese Press Agency (APS), Ms. Sonko emphasizes the need to protect the legacy of the “ordinary heroines” that women are, whose advancements are under threat.
“The legacies of the ordinary heroines that women are, with or without feminist theory, must be defended and preserved like territorial integrity,” writes Ms. Sonko, a lecturer at the Center for Studies in Information Sciences and Techniques at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar.
Gains Threatened by a “Stony Societal Conservatism”
The academic recalls the significant progress made thanks to women’s struggles: improved education and health for girls, the criminalization of rape, the abolition of inequalities within couples, and parity in politics. However, she deplores the “hatred of equality” that manifests itself in a questioning of these rights.
“It is disheartening to see how gravediggers are working to further weaken acquired rights,” she denounces, pointing to a “patriarchal regime” that is trying to “rearm” its supporters of a “supervised emancipation.”
Faced with this “stony societal conservatism,” Ms. Sonko calls for “resistance,” urging to “flush out” the “hooded ones” and to “eradicate the continuum of violence in all its forms against Senegalese women.”
A Call for Collective Mobilization
The academic also criticizes the rejection of the “feminist perspective,” which “excludes women, threatens their gains, and prevents them from asserting their rights.” She denounces the construction of a “visceral fear of feminism” in the public sphere, aimed at maintaining women in a state of inferiority.
“Senegalese women being usually subjected to a cycle of punctual attention (elections, dramas) and general disinterest the rest of the time,” Fatoumata Bernadette Sonko insists on the need to “work together for the development and emancipation of all women.”
She applauds the commitment of those who have paved the way, those who fight for equality, and those who oppose gender-based violence, “political masculinism,” and “biased media representations.”
A Fight for Equality and Dignity
Ms. Sonko concludes by recalling the challenges faced by women in a society that values the masculine: “Educated to flourish in silence, girls are assigned a destiny, while boys are prepared to appropriate public space.”
She emphasizes the “extreme fragility” of women’s rights, threatened by “institutional, social, economic, and media maltreatment,” and calls for constant vigilance to defend the equality and dignity of all.
