ARGENTINA: Argentine feminist groups are calling on women around the country to hold a huge breastfeeding protest on Saturday, called “Tetada” — or “Breast Fest” in English, in response to the criminalization of public breastfeeding after a young mother was stopped from feeding her baby at a public square on Tuesday.
The protest is being organized ahead of World Breastfeeding Week, which celebrated on August 1-7 in many countries across the world.
On July 19, Constanza Santos, a 22-year-old mother, was breastfeeding her baby at a public square in Buenos Aires when two policemen told her it was prohibited. As she protested, they demanded that she identify herself and threatened to arrest her.
“We reject the institutional violence that affected the young mother,” said Laura Postiglione from feminist group MuMaLa. “Breastfeeding is a fundamental right for food security and for the development of children,” she added.
In Argentina, breastfeeding is not forbidden and the previous progressive government of Cristina Kirchner passed a bill in 2013 “promoting public awareness on breastfeeding.”
According to a 2015 survey by the Milk League in Argentina, almost a third of people surveyed wanted breastfeeding to remain private, although a larger proportion of men (30 percent) than women (23 percent) voted in favor of the move.
