Which rights matters: Girls’ education at the expense of their sexual and reproductive rights?

Abstract

Globally, girl’s education is seen as a human right and means through which to achieve gender equality and is frequently championed by the international development community as the ultimate empowerment of girls (Desai, 2016; Khoja-Moolji, 2018; Robinson, 2021; Tarabini, 2011). Along the same lines, girls’ sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) is also presented in international development discourse as a fundamental right and precondition for achieving gender equality (UNFPA, 2021). However, the relationship between girls’ right to education and girls’ right to sexual and reproductive health has not been adequately explored. In the context of Tanzania, the prevalence of teenage pregnancies is high and one of the leading causes of girls' attrition from school (Centre for Reproductive Rights, 2013). Therefore, pregnancy in school has been prohibited by the Tanzanian government, and as a response many schools have practised a number of regulations aimed at preventing girls from becoming pregnant in the first place (ibid.). While many studies³ have focused on the different factors leading to teenage pregnancy in Tanzania and how education serves as an antidote to it, this paper explores the relationship between girls’ right to education and girls’ sexual and reproductive health and rights by specifically looking at how girls’ bodies and sexuality are regulated through secondary school in Tanzania. Based on semi-structured online interviews with Tanzanian women, I argue that girls’ secondary education in Tanzania is gained at the expense of their sexual and reproductive rights. In doing so, this paper sheds light on girls’ education and the “trade-off” that emerges between, on the one hand, girls’ right to education, and on the other hand, girls’ sexual and reproductive health and rights.