Gily Coene

Gily Coene
Vrije Universiteit Brussel | VUB · Philosophy - Moral Sciences (FILO)

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56
Publications
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1,297
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Publications

Publications (56)
Article
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The Instagram account (@Balance_ton_bar) highlighted the issue of sexual violence in Brussels nightlife sharing testimonials from victim-survivors. Set up in response to reports of drug-facilitated sexual assault at nightlife establishments, the account aimed to raise awareness and hold establishments accountable. This study examines these testimon...
Article
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Background Previous initiatives concerning adolescent sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education in Low-or-Middle Income Countries (LMICs) have been limited by cultural norms and misinformation perpetuated within families. Responding to the paucity of research on the implementation of SRH interventions in LMICs and limited knowledge regarding t...
Article
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Access to public healthcare services for Belgium’s undocumented migrants is regulated through a parallel, administrative procedure within the legal framework of Urgent Medical Aid. This imposes several constraints on their access to healthcare services. Drawing on empirical-ethical methodologies, we show how this procedure impacts on the relationsh...
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Background This paper presents findings from a qualitative effectiveness evaluation of an intervention aimed at improving caregiver-young adolescent sexual and reproductive health (SRH) communication including training modules for caregivers on parent-child SRH communication. Methods Data was collected (October 2021-November 2021) using a narrativ...
Article
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Purpose of the Review Adolescent sexual and reproductive health remains a major public health challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Comprehensive sex education (CSE) has been hailed as a key strategy to inform young people about sexual health and wellbeing and prevent negative health outcomes. This paper presents an overview of the trends and chal...
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Background Communication on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) between caregivers and their young adolescent children plays a significant role in shaping attitudes and behaviours that are critical to laying the foundations for positive and safe SRH behaviours in later adolescence. Nevertheless, this communication is often limited, particularly in...
Article
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Open and positive parent-child communication about sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is known to reduce negative SRH outcomes for young people. However, socio-cultural influences can inhibit meaningful SRH communication. Restrictive gender norms threaten the SRH of adolescents, as they make adolescent boys more likely to engage in risky sexual b...
Article
Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a major societal problem with significant healthcare implications. The consequences of this kind of violence result in victims (and perpetrators) regularly needing healthcare. Various structural barriers can prevent victims from accessing services or result in inadequate responses to their needs. International res...
Preprint
Women's lower participation in the male-dominated sports in Iran is perceived to be caused by religious and cultural forces. This article uses feminist scholarship to investigate whether belief in Islam plays a central role in forming women's perceptions of sports participation and gender. Based on interviews with twenty-six women participants, the...
Article
Purpose Undocumented migrants experience major legal constraints in their health-care access. Little is known on how undocumented migrants cope with these limitations in health-care access as individuals. The purpose of this study is to explore the coping responses of undocumented migrants when they experience limited health-care access in face-to-...
Article
Low socio-economic status has been consistently identified as a primary risk factor for sexual and reproductive health violations affecting young women. This study shows how poverty interacts with gender power relations to impact upon adolescent girls’ sexual and reproductive lives in Western Uganda. Qualitative research with 147 participants was u...
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Introduction While several studies have focussed on the experiences of women living with infertility, there is a paucity of information related to understandings, representations and actions of key stakeholders (i.e. organisations and individual actors involved in activities or professional care surrounding infertility) when it comes to infertility...
Article
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Background: Limited research has been conducted on the effectiveness of sexuality education for very young adolescents (VYAs) ages 10-14 years in Sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore, evaluations of sexuality education programs often report outcomes of risky sexual practices, yet positive aspects of sexuality are hardly studied and rarely reported. Thi...
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Background: So far knowledge about undocumented migrant health status is poor. The objective of this study is to compare patterns in causes of death between undocumented migrants and legal residents, of both migrant and non-migrant origin. Method: Using cause-of-death data, we compared undocumented migrants with Belgian residents and documented...
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We seek to clarify and assess the underlying moral reasons for opposing all medically unnecessary genital cutting of female minors, no matter how severe. We find that within a Western medicolegal framework, these reasons are compelling. However, they do not only apply to female minors, but rather to non-consenting persons of any age irrespective of...
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Background: In many low-and middle-income countries women with infertility are often in polygynous marriages. From a human and women's rights perspective, the practice of polygyny is commonly understood as harmful. Studies indicate that polygyny aggravates negative life circumstances of women with infertility with respect to their health and socia...
Article
Background: We present findings of a process evaluation of a Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) program for young adolescents in 15 schools in South-Western Uganda. Methods: Using the Medical Research Council (UK) framework for process evaluation and the European Expert Group guidance on evaluation of sexuality education programs, we conduc...
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The successful implementation of sexuality education policy for young people has been shown to depend on a sound legislative and institutional framework. This article shows that both institutional factors and contextual obstacles have impeded the implementation of sexuality education policy in Uganda. Qualitative research techniques were employed i...
Article
Van de verschillende sectoren betrokken in het beleid en de praktijk rond partnergeweld, is de politionele sector uitermate belangrijk. Hoewel België een sterk wetgevend en beleidsmatig kader heeft ontwikkeld rond partnergeweld, worden de politionele praktijken gekenmerkt door interne verschillen en versnippering. Bovendien is het niet altijd even...
Article
The female body has been in the foreground of nation-building in Iran especially since the 1930s projects of modernization, when unveiling women and adaptation to Western clothing became a crucial factor of bolstering modern Iranian national identity as opposed to a religion-based national identity. After the 1979 Revolution, the Islamic dress code...
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Hymen (re)construction and nontherapeutic male circumcision are medical nonindicated interventions that give rise to specific ethical concerns. In Europe, hymen (re)construction is generally more contested among medical professionals than male circumcision. Yet, from a standard biomedical framework, guided by the principles of autonomy, beneficence...
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Introduction In many Sub-Saharan African countries, women with infertility search relentlessly for treatment. Guided by the Partners for Applied Social Sciences model for health seeking behaviour and access to care research, this study aims to understand the health seeking behaviour of women with infertility in the West Coast region of The Gambia a...
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Background In preventing the transfer of HIV to their children, the Ministry of Health in Mozambique recommends all couples follow medical advice prior to a pregnancy. However, little is known about how such women experience pregnancy, nor the values they adhere to when making childbearing decisions. This qualitative study explores perceptions and...
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Background: There is an increasing awareness that infertility in Sub-Saharan Africa constitutes a severe social and public health problem. Few of the existing studies on infertility explicitly take into account the differences between women. However, how women experience infertility is formed by their various social positions. This research explore...
Article
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Background: In most Sub-Saharan African countries, little is known about young adolescents' sexual and reproductive health (SRH). Though some efforts have been made to understand and improve SRH of older adolescents, very young adolescents (VYAs) are often overlooked, and little is known about their sexual knowledge and behaviors. The goal of this...
Article
In this paper, drawing on notions, such as harmful cultural practices and beauty, and based on semi-structured interviews with young female university students in Iran, perceptions and experiences on beauty practices and cosmetic surgery are studied. We show how despite existing criticism of the gendered aspects of beauty practices among Iranian wo...
Article
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Measures of sexual wellbeing and positive aspects of sexuality in the World Health Organization definition for sexual health are rarely studied and remain poorly understood, especially among adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa. The objective of this study was to assess sexual wellbeing in its broad sense-i.e., body image, self-esteem, and gender equi...
Article
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Unequal power and gender norms expose adolescent girls to higher risks of HIV, early marriages, pregnancies and coerced sex. In Uganda, almost half of the girls below the age of 18 are already married or pregnant, which poses a danger to the lives of young girls. This study explores the social construction of gender norms from early childhood, and...
Book
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Interactive multisectoral manual to insert FGM/C in academic training
Book
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Manual para insertar la MGF en la formación académica a estudiantes de medicina, enfermería, educación, trabajo social, estudios de género, comunicación, antropología, etc. Formato pdf, con capítulos sectoriales.
Article
The “What are you reading?” section invites (early-career) researchers to report on works that are deemed relevant to the field and that are of particular significance to the author's ongoing research. This “What are you reading?” contains a discussion of a number of works that deal with the (late) nineteenth century, including Stephanie Shields' “...
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Background By focusing upon family planning counselling services, the Mozambican government has significantly enhanced the general health of female and male clients. However, little is known about the experiences of family planning by female and male adults. This article focuses on knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding contraceptive methods...
Article
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Introduction: Male involvement has been considered crucial to prevent passing HIV from mother to infant in sub-Saharan Africa. However, little is known about how HIV-positive Mozambican men and their female partners perceive and involve themselves in pregnancy and breastfeeding. This study analyses HIV-positive men’s role on compliance of medical a...
Article
Abstract Measures of sexual wellbeing and positive aspects of sexuality in the World Health Organization definition for sexual health are rarely studied and remain poorly understood, especially among adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa. The objective of this study was to assess sexual wellbeing in its broad sense—i.e., body image, self-esteem, and ge...
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Background Family planning contributes substantially in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Recently, male involvement has gained considerable attention in family planning programs but the implementation thereof remains a challenge. In that context, our study aimed at measuring the effect of a six-month-long family planning education progra...
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To assess spousal agreement levels regarding fertility preference and spousal communication, and to look at how it affects contraceptive use by couples. We conducted a cross-sectional study to collect quantitative data from March to May 2010 in Jimma zone, Ethiopia, using a multistage sampling design covering six districts. In each of the 811 coupl...
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Understanding why people do not use family planning is critical to address unmet needs and to increase contraceptive use. According to the Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey 2011, most women and men had knowledge on some family planning methods but only about 29% of married women were using contraceptives. 20% women had an unmet need for famil...
Article
Sex-related differences in end-of-life decisions (EOLD) are underresearched and unexplored. To investigate whether there are (1) differences in demographic and/or clinical characteristics between male and female decedents; (2) differences between men and women in the prevalence of EOLD with a possible or certain life-shortening effect; (3) differen...
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Not being able to procreate has severe social and economic repercussions in resource-poor countries. The purpose of this research was to explore the consequences of female and/or male factor infertility for men and women in Rwanda. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. Couples presenting with female and/or male factor infertility pro...
Book
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Des thèmes tels que le foulard, les migrations par mariage, la répudiation, la polygamie, les mutilations génitales, les opérations de reconstruction de l'hymen ou les crimes d'honneur ne manquent généralement pas d'alimenter de grands débats sociétaux. Ce livre entend apporter une contribution critique aux controverses sociétales actuelles en cern...
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This article presents an analysis of the recent headscarf debate in Belgium, and explores in particular to what extent issues of gender equality and feminist arguments were central to the discussion. It is argued that compared to France, concerns about secularity and state-neutrality, national identity and equality, all find resonance in the Belgia...
Article
Being a Feminist, is not to Exclude! Feminist Pragmatism in the Debate on Multiculturalism in Flanders. Whereas analyses of political scientists and sociologists emphasize the complexity of the Belgian and Flemish multicultural context, less attention has been spend on how gender issues articulate within or across the different dimensions of divers...

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