This project analyses the intersection of human rights and gender in two west African countries, Guinea Bissau and Senegal, by looking into the local resistances to sexual and reproductive rights. Through a consideration of the evolving cultural practices relative to sexuality, and the ideological refashioning of society, we consider activisms for gender equality, against gender based violence and promotion of rights to sexuality, we focus on how society engages with body politics. While there has been a multiplication of studies, in the last decades, around the way the social is produced through the regulation of sexuality, most studies present a fairly schematic conceptualisation of normativity. This project builds upon a previous knowledge on sociocultural dynamics and cultural values to consider the obstacles to the social change coded in the promotion of sexual and reproductive rights.