La fistola ostetrica in Tigray. Retoriche culturaliste e violenza strutturale

Abstract

The obstetrical fistula, by this time disappeared in the flourishing Western Countries, is yet dramatically present among the poorest brackets of the female population in the Third World, which are often malnourished and socially disadvantaged inspite of the funds and the several interventions in favour of the motherly health in these countries. An analysis on the social origins of this disease led in Tigray (Ethiopia) showed how the violence of social forces structurally suppressive and unequal jeopardize some subjects to sicknesses that have a place in their bodies. Throught the biography of obstetrical fistula’s victim this study aims to explicate the deep connexion between poverty, inequalities and disease, which has too often been ignored by the global health politics in Africa. The reasons have to be searched in a compassionate ethos (Fassin, 2006; 2010) and also in a cognitive-behavioural perspective which tends to individualize the social processes of the disease (and depoliticize them) and obfuscates the real dynamics (economic, social and political) that generate contexts of risk.