When we talk about 'reproductive rights' this is what we mean. It's the difference between people as objects, and people as agents: between regarding people as pawns on the policy chessboard and recognizing them as the players, the decision-makers, the drivers of policy; autonomous individuals intimately concerned with the direction of their own lives. Under these conditions women, especially, enjoy better health and live fuller lives.
Interpretation
Reproductive rights emphasize the autonomy and agency of individuals, particularly women, in making decisions about their lives and health.
This quote by Nafis Sadik highlights the fundamental distinction between viewing individuals as mere tools in a policy game versus recognizing them as active participants who shape their own destinies. It underscores the importance of reproductive rights in empowering people, particularly women, to make choices that affect their health and quality of life, ultimately leading to a more equitable society where individuals can thrive.
In practice
In a discussion about gender equality at a conference, you might emphasize this quote to highlight the importance of autonomy in women's health decisions.
The people who believe themselves to be on the left, and who defend the agents of Islam in the name of tolerance and culture, are being rightwing. Not just rightwing. Extreme rightwing. I don't understand how you can be so upset about the Christian right and just ignore the Islamic right. I'm talking about equality.
In 1492, the natives discovered they were indians, discovered they lived in America, discovered they were naked, discovered that the Sin existed, discovered they owed allegiance to a King and Kingdom from another world and a God from another sky, and that this God had invented the guilty and the dress, and had sent to be burnt alive who worships the Sun the Moon the Earth and the Rain that wets it.
My worthy friend, gray are all theories_x000D_ _x000D_ And green alone Life's golden tree.
I sometimes think that the price of liberty is not so much eternal vigilance as eternal dirt.
I've crossed these sands many times," said one of the camel drivers one night. "But the desert is so huge, and the horizons so distant, that they make a person feel small, and as if he should remain silent." The boy understood intuitively what he meant, even without ever having set foot in the desert before. Whenever he saw the sea, or a fire, he fell silent, impressed by their elemental force.
How can we live in harmony? First we need to know we are all madly in love with the same God.
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