As our nation welcomes key figures from around the world to spotlight a family values agenda spearheaded by the Church of the Latter Day Saints (LDS Church), we understand the eyes of the world will yet again be on Sierra Leone.

Our country has made bold, monumental strides for children, girls, women, and our families. From the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Act to the Prohibition Against Child Marriage Act, to our landmark Radical Inclusion Policy, to the (two-times) unanimous Cabinet approvals of the Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Health Care Bill. These are powerful testaments to the leadership of President Julius Maada Bio and Her Excellency, the First Lady Fatima Maada Bio, whose tireless work has kept girls’ dignity, safety, and education at the heart of national progress.

And yet, while we celebrate how far we have come, we know there is still further to go - and we must guard these gains fiercely.

The conference organisers promise empowerment, education, and protection for women and children. We note that our First Lady will give a keynote address - and we trust and respect her leadership as a global advocate whose voice has inspired girls and mothers across Sierra Leone. But we are profoundly concerned by the version of ‘family values’ being brought to Freetown this week that lifts up the language of protection and empowerment but that through its backing by the LDS Church seems to hide an oppressive stance for girls and women, our dignity, our protection, and our freedoms.

As both a Sierra Leonean and a global hub for girls’ and women’s rights, we are guided by evidence. Our latest publication “Until Everybody is Free” documents the devastating impact of similar conferences in recent years by the LDS Church in Ghana, Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire. It shows how these events have undermined progressive education, reversed vital health information for young people, rolled back hard-won gains to women’s freedoms, and emboldened policies that push already marginalised communities into silence and shame - all under the banner of “family protection.”

Our Nigerian sisters remind us plainly:

“It may seem like just another church event. But behind the nice sounding songs and smiling faces lies a movement designed to erase the hard-won rights of Sierra Leone’s women and children.”

So, we have honest questions for the LDS Church. Where do you stand on rights of girls and women…

Should girls who become pregnant be forced out of school?

Should a woman stay in an abusive marriage to protect her “family”?

Should girls be married before the age of 18?

Should girls be subjected to FGM in the name of culture?

Should girls and women be able to decide when and how to have children?

Should children be denied age-appropriate, truthful knowledge about their own bodies?

Should women be forced to carry forward pregnancies that jeopardize their lives and well being?

And why have communities in Nigeria, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire warned us about your gatherings?

We believe Sierra Leone’s families will be strongest when every girl is free and every woman is safe. These freedoms are deeply connected - protection, dignity, education, bodily autonomy - and we cannot stand aside while some rights are cherry-picked and others die on the vine. A true, comprehensive agenda for girls includes access to complete education – both schooling and an understanding of her body and sexual health - freedom from all forms of violence (child marriage, sexual and cultural violence), and the ability to survive pregnancy as well as make her own decisions about when and under what circumstances she has children.

So, to the LDS Church: we ask you to be transparent. Where do you truly stand on the rights, choices, and futures of Sierra Leone’s girls and women?

Welcoming the conversation,


Purposeful

 

  https://thecalabashnewspaper.com/an-open-letter-to-the-organizers-of-the-strengthening-families-conference/