Republished from HEINRICH-BÖLL-STIFTUNG, Abuja Office – Nigeria
Intersex-Nigeria was founded in November 2019 by Obioma Chukwuike to create public awareness and understanding of intersex people and to encourage community building among intersex persons. The advocacy is centered on the rights to bodily integrity, ending stigma and discrimination, creating visibility, ending medical intervention surgeries and other discriminatory practices perpetuated on intersex babies and persons. Intersex-Nigeria was created for intersex people to share their stories, to push for their acceptance and to engage the government on their social inclusion and the respect of their rights.
The people portrayed in the photo story are all members of Intersex-Nigeria. Some found it easy to participate, others were hesitant. Ultimately, all agree that there is a need to amplify intersex voices and increase their visibility so that society sees intersex people as people and not as anything else. Representation is important, seeing people who are like you, coming forward to boldly identify with your group is empowering for others. The photo story is an opportunity to remind the Nigerian society of the fact that sex is not binary and that government regulations, service and infrastructure provision need to take this into account. Above all, the government needs to ensure social inclusion.
Intersex persons all live different kinds of lives but all of them are strongly shaped by everyday discriminatory experiences, which do not allow them to pursue the professional or family life they are dreaming about… Read more