Socio-cultural and Religious Beliefs, Women’s Sexual Reproductive Rights, and Sustainable Development in Eswatini

In recent times, there has been a burgeoning interest in religion as a category of analysis in development studies. Through its values and its potential for social and ecological activism, religion plays an important role in the sustainable development agenda. However, drawing on women’s experiences in patriarchal spaces, this chapter argues that while religion is constructive, it can also be damaging to women’s identities, to the extent of thwarting development. That women’s worth is defined by their ability to produce offspring, especially “heirs,” infringes on their health rights, thus defeating the sustainable development envisioned by Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5. Informed by the African feminist theory as a theoretical framework, the study adopted a qualitative approach, drawing on scholarly analysis and literature review to explore the socio-cultural and religious dynamics affecting women’s reproductive rights. The sociological approach and interpretive phenomenological analysis were handy in contextualizing reproductive health rights violations within intersecting cultural and religious realities in patriarchal spaces, with lobola religio-cultural practice being the focus. The chapter concludes by stating that women’s freedom from patriarchal “claws” is a prerequisite to the full realization of the SDG agenda. Thus, without a heightened commitment to address the root cause for the infringement of women’s and girls’ rights to sexual and reproductive health rights, SDG 5 on gender equality will remain nothing more than an unrealized goal.