Women's bodies as a global political arena: The abortion rights controversy in the U.S. and Italy, and the compulsory hijab debate in Iran

Abstract

Why is a woman's choice about her body often disregarded in both Western and non-Western countries? In June 2022, Roe v. Wade, was overturned in the U.S. In September 2022, Mahsa Amini died after being arrested by the Iranian police for not wearing the hijab correctly. Recently the number of gynecologists who refuse to perform abortions on moral grounds reached its highest peak in Italy.

Abortion rights and the hijab controversy might seem two very different issues, and conventionally they are not addressed together by academic literature on transnational womanhood. Yet they are underpinned by similar concerns about women's bodily autonomy. This article focuses on present-day abortion rights in the U.S. and Italy and the headscarf debate in Iran; it investigates how policing women's bodies in both Western and non-Western contexts is influenced by social norms and traditions, including religious orientations and culturally accepted misogynistic practices aimed at controlling the female part of the population. By comparing three different cultural contexts and framing the discussion in Western and non-Western feminist readings of women's bodies, it demonstrates that abortion bans and compulsory veiling imposed by local and national governments represent legislative efforts to enforce patriarchal norms in the broader global context.