Listen to the author read this commentary:
ISTANBUL – A woman’s choice with what to do with her body has always been a topic talked about by men.
At a football match in Sivas, Türkiye this week, we again experienced male opinions on women’s bodies, specifically on a woman’s choice of how to give birth.
In the Fenerbahçe – Sivasspor football match, the Sivasspor team opened up a banner that said, ‘‘Natural childbirth is the normal way of giving birth.”
Women responded on social media, outraged at the team’s act and the silence of other men.
What concerns me is how can any male have a sharp opinion about childbirth – something that they know nothing about, since they do not experience giving birth.
An all-male football team thinks that they can have a right to say what is correct or not for a woman’s body.
The choice of having a child through vaginal or cesarean birth should only concern the woman who is giving birth and the doctor who is taking care of the mother and the baby.
Some men think that women choose to have a cesarean birth because it is easier. But women don’t choose this option because it’s easier for them. Cesarean birth is an operation leaving scars and pain.
It is not an easy option because giving birth to a human is not easy, whatever way you try.
We should not merely ignore or disregard comments by men about giving birth being easy. This kind of commentary should be stopped. They did not experience it nor will they experience it, so it is not their place to judge.
Secondly, how can other males see this and do or say anything? At a football match in Turkey, of all places, an especially male-dominated space.
The team players fight about everything, whether important or not. For example, in another football match, some supporters – seeing that their team was losing, went into the arena and started attacking and throwing things at the players.
But when the Sivasspor team came with this banner, no players or supporters did anything. They just stood there and watched.
This is just one example of men in Turkey thinking they have a right to judge a woman’s choice about what to do with her body.
We see attitudes like this all over the world. Some countries have made it illegal to get an abortion, and the people who made these decisions were men.
I can’t understand how men can have such strong opinions about my body as a woman, and how acting according to their views instead of my own can be normalized.
This situation makes me feel extremely uncomfortable.
My body should be my choice, not anyone else’s.
Naz Mergen is a Senior Reporter with Youth Journalism International from Istanbul. She wrote this commentary.
Patri Stan is a Junior Reporter and Illustrator with Youth Journalism International from Romania. She made the illustration.
