November 29, 2011
International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics
Alexandra George
United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon has called on governments around the world to fight violence against women, including female genital mutilation. The official stated brutality experienced by the gender is a major barrier to equality and is usually committed by men.
As well as female genital mutilation, women are the subject of rape, abuse at work and school, sexual attacks at times of war and domestic violence - issues that Mr Ban's UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign was set up to fight in 2008.
"Our challenge is to ensure that the message of 'zero tolerance' is heard far and wide," he said on Friday (November 25th), which was the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
He called on governments to "harness the energy, ideas and leadership of young people", who he argued are key to preventing continued brutality by driving a change in attitudes in newer generations.
"Only then will we have a more just, peaceful and equitable world," Mr Ban claimed.
Female genital mutilation is a widespread problem, which mapping company Maplecroft's latest Women's and Girls' Rights Index showed affects up to 90 per cent of individuals of this gender in some countries.
To read the full article on the FIGO website, click here
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Sister Fa awarded the 2011 Freedom to Create Prize
November 21, 2011
BizCommunity.com
Sister Fa, an internationally renowned female rap artist from Senegal, who has devoted her work to raising awareness on the dangers of female genital cutting, was awarded the 2011 Freedom to Create Prize, yesterday 20 November 2011 at an awards ceremony and concert at the Kirstenbosch Gardens in Cape Town, South Africa.
Announcing the winner at the awards ceremony, Freedom to Create spokesperson Priti Devi said, "We applaud the courage of Sister Fa and admire the creative use of her music to speak out against a practice that infringes on the basic human dignity and rights of women and girls. Sister Fa is an inspiring example of the transformative power of the arts to affect real change in the world."
"Sister Fa is a powerful example of how many artists around the world are using their talent to be the voice of courage in their community, standing up for social justice and in defense of human dignity." Devi added.
Sister Fa received the award from the guest of honour, 2011 Freedom to Create Prize judge, author and chief executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Achmat Dangor.
Music - a powerful tool
On receiving the award, Sister Fa commented, "The Freedom to Create Prize has given me the opportunity to further raise awareness of the traumatic and harmful consequences of this widely practiced tradition. In Africa, if you play any music in an open space, people generally come to listen to your music. It is a powerful tool to reach out to people, to bring them together. I believe in using my music to help the young people - who are the future of Senegal - to understand that they are not alone and that we can rise together to create a movement for social change."
The prize is a US$100 000 award, which is divided across two categories - Main and Imprisoned Artists, and was established in 2008 to celebrate artists who use their talents to promote social justice and inspire the human spirit. This year, the prize attracted 2 051 entries from over 145 countries, including 56 from South Africa.
Other winners
First runner-up of the main prize was presented by the Mayor of Cape Town Patricia de Lille, to Ayat Al-Gormezi, a 20 year old poet and student at the Faculty of Teachers in Bahrain, who was put on trial and detained for merely expressing her opinion peacefully and openly. Her bravery and willingness to take a risk in the struggle for justice has raised awareness of the numerous women imprisoned in Bahrain.
Receiving the award on behalf of Ayat, who is faced with a travel ban, her brother Mohamed Hasan Yusuf said, "I am very grateful for this recognition of my sister's courage by Freedom to Create. Ayat's call for justice was no more radical than that heard on the streets of Tunis, Cairo and Benghazi at the same time, but her severe punishment has been one of the most sinister attacks on free speech in recent times. The Freedom to Create Prize has provided Ayat with a global platform to continue using her creativity to demand justice and equal rights for all in Bahrain."
Ramy Essam, the "singer of the Egyptian revolution", was the second runner up for the main prize. Essam spent 18 days in Tahrir Square in Cairo, writing music and performing songs to motivate the protesters, risking his life and suffering threats and attacks from the military police, but refusing to leave until Mubarak's regime collapsed.
Essam said, "Having witnessed the corrupt practices during Mubarak's regime, I felt incredibly strongly about the need to speak up against such corruption. I felt a sense of responsibility to the people who risked their lives to protest on the streets of Cairo. Through my songs, I captured the fear, optimism and defiant demand for change that was sweeping across the country, allowing the rest of the world to witness our revolution. The Freedom to Create Prize has inspired me to continue to use music as a voice for those who cannot speak up for themselves."
Music also featured strongly in the Imprisoned Artist Prize category with Win Maw, one of Burma's most famous musicians, being awarded the US$25 000 prize. Win Maw contributed his musical talent to the award-winning documentary 'Burma VJ'. Win Maw expresses the political views of the Burmese people with his music, which provides a rallying point for the masses during the numerous political upheavals in Myanmar. He is a leading exponent of artists giving voice to democratic movements for social change.
The singer and human rights activist Win Maw has been imprisoned in Myanmar (formerly Burma) since 2008. In 2009 he was sentenced to further ten years imprisonment - an addition to the eight year sentence he received in 2008. The 2011 Imprisoned Artist Prize was presented by the Sudanese theatre activist, Ali Mahdi Nouri, winner of the 2010 Freedom to Create prize.
Receiving the award on behalf of Win Maw, his representative Aung Thwin said, "Despite the risks to his personal safety, Win Maw continues to inspire young artists with his music even from prison. He was beaten and tortured during the early stages of his detention, accused of being the mastermind behind the in-country news coverage of the September 2007 monk-led uprising. Win's arrest has brought pain and struggle to his family, wife and children. His wife now shoulders the responsibility for the children's education and the family's survival."
"The Freedom to Create Prize has given Win Maw and his family the platform to continue using his music to strive for democracy and freedom for all imprisoned artists around the world, and advocate for his release from prison", he added.
Congratulating Win Maw, Burma's pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi shared this message with the audience at the Freedom to Create concert in a specially recorded video. "It is a matter of pride for us that the Freedom to Create Imprisoned Artist award has been won by a Burmese this year. It is also a matter of sadness for us because it means that our artists are imprisoned for their beliefs, they are prisoners of conscience."
"Artists help to create more beauty in this world to open our eyes to aspects of our life that otherwise we may not have noticed. To imprison them for their beliefs, their ideas, is to make our world narrower. I know Win Maw personally and I've always appreciated his dedication to music. I hope that it will not be long before Win Maw himself will be able to come to thank Freedom to Create personally for the support that you've given him during his time of need", added Suu Kyi.
To read the full article on the BizCommunity website, click here
BizCommunity.com
Sister Fa, an internationally renowned female rap artist from Senegal, who has devoted her work to raising awareness on the dangers of female genital cutting, was awarded the 2011 Freedom to Create Prize, yesterday 20 November 2011 at an awards ceremony and concert at the Kirstenbosch Gardens in Cape Town, South Africa.
Announcing the winner at the awards ceremony, Freedom to Create spokesperson Priti Devi said, "We applaud the courage of Sister Fa and admire the creative use of her music to speak out against a practice that infringes on the basic human dignity and rights of women and girls. Sister Fa is an inspiring example of the transformative power of the arts to affect real change in the world."
"Sister Fa is a powerful example of how many artists around the world are using their talent to be the voice of courage in their community, standing up for social justice and in defense of human dignity." Devi added.
Sister Fa received the award from the guest of honour, 2011 Freedom to Create Prize judge, author and chief executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Achmat Dangor.
Music - a powerful tool
On receiving the award, Sister Fa commented, "The Freedom to Create Prize has given me the opportunity to further raise awareness of the traumatic and harmful consequences of this widely practiced tradition. In Africa, if you play any music in an open space, people generally come to listen to your music. It is a powerful tool to reach out to people, to bring them together. I believe in using my music to help the young people - who are the future of Senegal - to understand that they are not alone and that we can rise together to create a movement for social change."
The prize is a US$100 000 award, which is divided across two categories - Main and Imprisoned Artists, and was established in 2008 to celebrate artists who use their talents to promote social justice and inspire the human spirit. This year, the prize attracted 2 051 entries from over 145 countries, including 56 from South Africa.
Other winners
First runner-up of the main prize was presented by the Mayor of Cape Town Patricia de Lille, to Ayat Al-Gormezi, a 20 year old poet and student at the Faculty of Teachers in Bahrain, who was put on trial and detained for merely expressing her opinion peacefully and openly. Her bravery and willingness to take a risk in the struggle for justice has raised awareness of the numerous women imprisoned in Bahrain.
Receiving the award on behalf of Ayat, who is faced with a travel ban, her brother Mohamed Hasan Yusuf said, "I am very grateful for this recognition of my sister's courage by Freedom to Create. Ayat's call for justice was no more radical than that heard on the streets of Tunis, Cairo and Benghazi at the same time, but her severe punishment has been one of the most sinister attacks on free speech in recent times. The Freedom to Create Prize has provided Ayat with a global platform to continue using her creativity to demand justice and equal rights for all in Bahrain."
Ramy Essam, the "singer of the Egyptian revolution", was the second runner up for the main prize. Essam spent 18 days in Tahrir Square in Cairo, writing music and performing songs to motivate the protesters, risking his life and suffering threats and attacks from the military police, but refusing to leave until Mubarak's regime collapsed.
Essam said, "Having witnessed the corrupt practices during Mubarak's regime, I felt incredibly strongly about the need to speak up against such corruption. I felt a sense of responsibility to the people who risked their lives to protest on the streets of Cairo. Through my songs, I captured the fear, optimism and defiant demand for change that was sweeping across the country, allowing the rest of the world to witness our revolution. The Freedom to Create Prize has inspired me to continue to use music as a voice for those who cannot speak up for themselves."
Music also featured strongly in the Imprisoned Artist Prize category with Win Maw, one of Burma's most famous musicians, being awarded the US$25 000 prize. Win Maw contributed his musical talent to the award-winning documentary 'Burma VJ'. Win Maw expresses the political views of the Burmese people with his music, which provides a rallying point for the masses during the numerous political upheavals in Myanmar. He is a leading exponent of artists giving voice to democratic movements for social change.
The singer and human rights activist Win Maw has been imprisoned in Myanmar (formerly Burma) since 2008. In 2009 he was sentenced to further ten years imprisonment - an addition to the eight year sentence he received in 2008. The 2011 Imprisoned Artist Prize was presented by the Sudanese theatre activist, Ali Mahdi Nouri, winner of the 2010 Freedom to Create prize.
Receiving the award on behalf of Win Maw, his representative Aung Thwin said, "Despite the risks to his personal safety, Win Maw continues to inspire young artists with his music even from prison. He was beaten and tortured during the early stages of his detention, accused of being the mastermind behind the in-country news coverage of the September 2007 monk-led uprising. Win's arrest has brought pain and struggle to his family, wife and children. His wife now shoulders the responsibility for the children's education and the family's survival."
"The Freedom to Create Prize has given Win Maw and his family the platform to continue using his music to strive for democracy and freedom for all imprisoned artists around the world, and advocate for his release from prison", he added.
Congratulating Win Maw, Burma's pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi shared this message with the audience at the Freedom to Create concert in a specially recorded video. "It is a matter of pride for us that the Freedom to Create Imprisoned Artist award has been won by a Burmese this year. It is also a matter of sadness for us because it means that our artists are imprisoned for their beliefs, they are prisoners of conscience."
"Artists help to create more beauty in this world to open our eyes to aspects of our life that otherwise we may not have noticed. To imprison them for their beliefs, their ideas, is to make our world narrower. I know Win Maw personally and I've always appreciated his dedication to music. I hope that it will not be long before Win Maw himself will be able to come to thank Freedom to Create personally for the support that you've given him during his time of need", added Suu Kyi.
To read the full article on the BizCommunity website, click here
Classrooms in London schools tackle genital mutilation
November 23, 2011
Deutsche Well
Author: Laura Schweiger
Editor: Sarah Steffen
Each year, 6,500 girls in central London could undergo female genital mutilation. Now the city hopes to curb the practice by raising awareness through the integration of FGM education in secondary school curriculum.
Although female genital mutilation (FGM) is most commonly performed in Africa, where some 30 countries have subjected approximately 92 million girls to this practice, it is also an issue in Western countries. Parents from immigrant communities in countries including Germany, France and the United Kingdom are taking their young daughters abroad to subject them to FGM. Anecdotal evidence also points to it taking place in large European centers like London.
The United Nations has declared FGM, the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons, a gross human rights violation on account of the horrific consequences it has on its victims. Consequences of FGM include chronic pelvic infections, prolonged bleeding, difficulty urinating and pain during sexual intercourse. Complications during childbirth and obstetric fistula as a result of prolonged labor due to FGM can also occur.
It is estimated that half a million girls and women in Europe are currently suffering with the lifelong consequences of FGM. Somalia-born Leyla Hussein, who now lives in London, is one of them. She endured FGM in her birth country at the age of seven.
"All I could hear them say was, 'It's Leyla's turn, it's Leyla's turn.' And I just ran," she recalled. "They were chasing me for awhile before they could catch me. I could just hear this girl saying to me, 'We're just going to cut something off from your genitals, but it's going to make you perfect.' They said to me at the time that I wasn't going to feel it and that they were going to use anesthetic, but I felt every little thing that day."
It is estimated that some 20,000 girls in the UK could be subjected to FGM. Each year, 6,500 girls in central London alone could face FGM, making it the city with the highest number of girls at risk in Europe.
Fighting FGM in the classroom
Now London hopes to curb the practice by raising awareness through the integration of FGM education in secondary school curriculum. The London Metropolitan Police have teamed up with the agency Kids Taskforce and the local Lilian Baylis School to create a video featuring young girls learning about FGM's consequences through interviewing various authorities. The video is part of an FGM resource pack for teachers and students, and can be downloaded by schools using a password.
"I think it's absolutely vital that boys and girls know about this subject," said Detective Sergeant Vicky Washington from the London Metropolitan Police. "It may not be that they are at risk, but they could be exposed to someone who is. It's also about educating young people that this is happening and that it's child abuse and violence against women and has horrific debilitating effects, both short and long-term."
Lilian Baylis School, a multi-cultural secondary school in South London where 47 languages are spoken, will begin teaching lessons on FGM by this December. FGM, nonetheless, already has a presence at the school.
"Some of our girls have been victims of FGM and often we have to deal with the negative health aspects of FGM in this school," said deputy head teacher Elga Stuck. "During menstruation the girls might feel very faint. If they have to go the toilet during the lesson, it can be a very painful procedure and urinating might take them half an hour."
In addition to Lilian Baylis, so far roughly a dozen other schools have indicated an interest in tackling FGM in their lessons. It is up to the schools themselves to decide in which class they will teach the FGM curriculum, for instance as part of health education or a citizenship class. Although schools are under no obligation to include the topic in their curriculum, Stuck said she encourages them to do it because she already sees progress in raising FGM awareness at her own school.
The UK's "hidden crime"
"I've used the film for staff training sessions," said Stuck. "Teachers were incredibly taken aback. A lot of them didn't realize that FGM was happening here in Britain. They all felt, yes, it was something that was done to people in another country, but the fact that we have children in this school who have had FGM, I think shocked a lot of the teachers. The awareness is there now, and I think that's very important."
By tackling FGM in schools like Lilian Baylis, authorities said they hope to secure the UK's first conviction for this crime - something which has eluded them since the creation of the Female Genital Mutilation Act in 1985. But why has nabbing a conviction been so challenging? According to Washington from the London Metropolitan Police, the problem lies in the secretive nature of FGM.
"This is a hidden crime," she said. "It's performed by families who are loving, caring families. They're not your stereotypical child abusers. They think they're doing the right thing to their daughter. We're asking those families to come forward, and that is incredibly difficult."
The daughters' loyalty to their parents has also kept authorities from prosecuting FGM cases.
"These girls are very young," Washington said. "They don't know why they're going abroad. They think they're going for a celebration, a party. We're asking them to go against their parents, which is an extremely difficult thing to do."
Taboo topic
How successful the integration of FGM topics into school curriculum will prove to be in identifying FGM perpetrators remains to be seen, but there is another, more immediate, hurdle. Tackling the topic in a classroom setting may not sit well with some parents and could cause further hardships for certain children.
"Some parents agreed with the message of the film and some didn't because they might have come from the country where FGM is practiced," Stuck said.
"I'm not worried about tackling a controversial topic, but I also have to think about the children who come from the communities where FGM is practiced," she added. "What I don't want is children going up to other children and asking, 'Have you been cut?'"
Despite the sensitive nature of the topic, FGM survivor and activist Leyla Hussein urged schools to make use of the resource pack, which is now available to schools across the UK. She said she wants girls at risk of undergoing FGM to know that they have options.
"I know these girls will say, 'I'm going to let my family down,'" Hussein said. "But they're not going to let their family down by not having this done to them. They should go to the police, a school teacher, someone they can trust. In the long run they'll realize they've done the right thing."
To read the full article on the Deutsche Well website, click here
Deutsche Well
Author: Laura Schweiger
Editor: Sarah Steffen
Each year, 6,500 girls in central London could undergo female genital mutilation. Now the city hopes to curb the practice by raising awareness through the integration of FGM education in secondary school curriculum.
Although female genital mutilation (FGM) is most commonly performed in Africa, where some 30 countries have subjected approximately 92 million girls to this practice, it is also an issue in Western countries. Parents from immigrant communities in countries including Germany, France and the United Kingdom are taking their young daughters abroad to subject them to FGM. Anecdotal evidence also points to it taking place in large European centers like London.
The United Nations has declared FGM, the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons, a gross human rights violation on account of the horrific consequences it has on its victims. Consequences of FGM include chronic pelvic infections, prolonged bleeding, difficulty urinating and pain during sexual intercourse. Complications during childbirth and obstetric fistula as a result of prolonged labor due to FGM can also occur.
It is estimated that half a million girls and women in Europe are currently suffering with the lifelong consequences of FGM. Somalia-born Leyla Hussein, who now lives in London, is one of them. She endured FGM in her birth country at the age of seven.
"All I could hear them say was, 'It's Leyla's turn, it's Leyla's turn.' And I just ran," she recalled. "They were chasing me for awhile before they could catch me. I could just hear this girl saying to me, 'We're just going to cut something off from your genitals, but it's going to make you perfect.' They said to me at the time that I wasn't going to feel it and that they were going to use anesthetic, but I felt every little thing that day."
It is estimated that some 20,000 girls in the UK could be subjected to FGM. Each year, 6,500 girls in central London alone could face FGM, making it the city with the highest number of girls at risk in Europe.
Fighting FGM in the classroom
Now London hopes to curb the practice by raising awareness through the integration of FGM education in secondary school curriculum. The London Metropolitan Police have teamed up with the agency Kids Taskforce and the local Lilian Baylis School to create a video featuring young girls learning about FGM's consequences through interviewing various authorities. The video is part of an FGM resource pack for teachers and students, and can be downloaded by schools using a password.
"I think it's absolutely vital that boys and girls know about this subject," said Detective Sergeant Vicky Washington from the London Metropolitan Police. "It may not be that they are at risk, but they could be exposed to someone who is. It's also about educating young people that this is happening and that it's child abuse and violence against women and has horrific debilitating effects, both short and long-term."
Lilian Baylis School, a multi-cultural secondary school in South London where 47 languages are spoken, will begin teaching lessons on FGM by this December. FGM, nonetheless, already has a presence at the school.
"Some of our girls have been victims of FGM and often we have to deal with the negative health aspects of FGM in this school," said deputy head teacher Elga Stuck. "During menstruation the girls might feel very faint. If they have to go the toilet during the lesson, it can be a very painful procedure and urinating might take them half an hour."
In addition to Lilian Baylis, so far roughly a dozen other schools have indicated an interest in tackling FGM in their lessons. It is up to the schools themselves to decide in which class they will teach the FGM curriculum, for instance as part of health education or a citizenship class. Although schools are under no obligation to include the topic in their curriculum, Stuck said she encourages them to do it because she already sees progress in raising FGM awareness at her own school.
The UK's "hidden crime"
"I've used the film for staff training sessions," said Stuck. "Teachers were incredibly taken aback. A lot of them didn't realize that FGM was happening here in Britain. They all felt, yes, it was something that was done to people in another country, but the fact that we have children in this school who have had FGM, I think shocked a lot of the teachers. The awareness is there now, and I think that's very important."
By tackling FGM in schools like Lilian Baylis, authorities said they hope to secure the UK's first conviction for this crime - something which has eluded them since the creation of the Female Genital Mutilation Act in 1985. But why has nabbing a conviction been so challenging? According to Washington from the London Metropolitan Police, the problem lies in the secretive nature of FGM.
"This is a hidden crime," she said. "It's performed by families who are loving, caring families. They're not your stereotypical child abusers. They think they're doing the right thing to their daughter. We're asking those families to come forward, and that is incredibly difficult."
The daughters' loyalty to their parents has also kept authorities from prosecuting FGM cases.
"These girls are very young," Washington said. "They don't know why they're going abroad. They think they're going for a celebration, a party. We're asking them to go against their parents, which is an extremely difficult thing to do."
Taboo topic
How successful the integration of FGM topics into school curriculum will prove to be in identifying FGM perpetrators remains to be seen, but there is another, more immediate, hurdle. Tackling the topic in a classroom setting may not sit well with some parents and could cause further hardships for certain children.
"Some parents agreed with the message of the film and some didn't because they might have come from the country where FGM is practiced," Stuck said.
"I'm not worried about tackling a controversial topic, but I also have to think about the children who come from the communities where FGM is practiced," she added. "What I don't want is children going up to other children and asking, 'Have you been cut?'"
Despite the sensitive nature of the topic, FGM survivor and activist Leyla Hussein urged schools to make use of the resource pack, which is now available to schools across the UK. She said she wants girls at risk of undergoing FGM to know that they have options.
"I know these girls will say, 'I'm going to let my family down,'" Hussein said. "But they're not going to let their family down by not having this done to them. They should go to the police, a school teacher, someone they can trust. In the long run they'll realize they've done the right thing."
To read the full article on the Deutsche Well website, click here
Cult blamed for growth in female circumcision
November 22, 2011
Daily Nation
Joyce Kimani
A religious cult has been blamed for rising cases of female circumcision in Naivasha and its environs.
Women say although the tradition is almost extinct in the area, the cult is forcing its members to circumcise girls.
Most take place in Naivasha, Maai Mahiu, Kinangop and Narok.
It is expected that there will be an increase in female circumcision cases in Narok and the rest of Maasai Land because they hold on strongly to their culture.
Councillor Esther Njeri has mobilised people in these areas to fight what is considered in the region to be an important and ancient rite of passage from girl to womanhood.
They will be seeking to arrest traditional circumcisers who force young girls to be circumcised.
Ms Njeri said that they had started persuading members of the religious organisation to end the circumcisions.
She said many school-age children had come out and confessed that they were forced.
“The children call us and tell us when they learn that their parents are planning to circumcise them. So far, we have rescued more than 10 girls from members of the religious sect,” she said.
The councillor said that most of the girls are circumcised during the December school holidays.
She said that in some Maasai primary schools, girls are told to write a composition on the dangers of female circumcision, Ms Njeri said.
Naivasha district commissioner Hellen Kiilu cautioned women who still practise the female cut that they were breaking the law.
She said a crackdown had been launched to curb the practice.
To read the full article on the Daily Nation website, click here
Daily Nation
Joyce Kimani
A religious cult has been blamed for rising cases of female circumcision in Naivasha and its environs.
Women say although the tradition is almost extinct in the area, the cult is forcing its members to circumcise girls.
Most take place in Naivasha, Maai Mahiu, Kinangop and Narok.
It is expected that there will be an increase in female circumcision cases in Narok and the rest of Maasai Land because they hold on strongly to their culture.
Councillor Esther Njeri has mobilised people in these areas to fight what is considered in the region to be an important and ancient rite of passage from girl to womanhood.
They will be seeking to arrest traditional circumcisers who force young girls to be circumcised.
Ms Njeri said that they had started persuading members of the religious organisation to end the circumcisions.
She said many school-age children had come out and confessed that they were forced.
“The children call us and tell us when they learn that their parents are planning to circumcise them. So far, we have rescued more than 10 girls from members of the religious sect,” she said.
The councillor said that most of the girls are circumcised during the December school holidays.
She said that in some Maasai primary schools, girls are told to write a composition on the dangers of female circumcision, Ms Njeri said.
Naivasha district commissioner Hellen Kiilu cautioned women who still practise the female cut that they were breaking the law.
She said a crackdown had been launched to curb the practice.
To read the full article on the Daily Nation website, click here
Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) turns worrisome issue in Sierra Leone
November 22, 2011
Awoko.org
An agreement stating that girls under 18 will not undergo Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Sierra Leone was recently signed by village chiefs and other community leaders, including women who perform FGM witnessed by Police, Civil Society and NGO’s.
The agreement affects the Kambia, Port Loko, Western Rural and Western Urban and Pujehun Districts; but Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) and FGM is still a worrisome issue to many Sierra Leoneans.
Rugiatu Turay still remembers the pain she felt the day she and four of her sisters and three other girls were dragged to an enclosed hut which looked like a fenced forest at the end of the village locally known as ‘Bondo Bush.’
After few hours, she said “some of the young and aged women intensified their visits to the traditionally hut roofed with elephant grass, singing traditional songs and drumming.”
She said, several women were singing and dancing jubilantly while others were cooking and moving around, suddenly the atmosphere changed.
“We were forcefully bundled together and lined up, moments later we were stripped naked and told to sing and clap as elderly women dressed in rags instruct us.”
Turay also said that some of the women were very tipsy and violent. “I felt humiliated standing in the middle of fifteen women, stack naked on a scruffy environment barefooted,” she broke into tears and wept for around 5, minutes.
Among the eight of us the eldest was about 15 with piercing breast, she said.
Additionally she told AWOKO some of the rural girls were enthusiastic for the mutilation of their genitalia for varied reason, as one of the girls said after Bondo she is going to get married to an uncle’s son who is a leading farmer in the village with two wives. She said other girls believe FGM earns them respect among their peers.
“They used a crude penknife, it was so painful. I bled excessively for two days and fainted when I wanted to walk,” Turay said, describing how at the age of 11 she was subjected to female genital mutilation.
Afterwards the scar itched and got infected. As a result she developed severe menstrual pains, blood clots and a cyst, she said.
When Turay heard her younger sisters were due to undergo genital mutilation too she tried, in vain, to intervene. The death of a cousin, who bled to death after being subjected to the practice, triggered her activism.
Today Turay leads the Amazonian Initiative Movement (AIM), one of several nongovernmental organizations that campaign in West Africa against the harmful traditional practice of female genital mutilation. She formed the group in 2002 with other women she met in refugee camps in Guinea during Sierra Leone’s 1991 to 2001 civil war. Turay is one of an estimated 100 to 140 million girls and women worldwide who have undergone female genital mutilation the removal of all or part of the female external genitalia as part of traditional initiation rituals or marriage preparation customs.
Though the government has forbidden the practice for under age children, some female activists and Non Governmental Organizations are making tremendous efforts in raising awareness, among victims and perpetrators of FGM. According to statistics from the Family Support Unit of the Sierra Leone Police sexual and gender based violence on teenage girls has increased by 18 percent. However the statistics also reveal that for every 1,000 SGBV related cases only 20 is likely to be prosecuted.
Police records show that children from rural areas are more likely to be abused.
It is only through their minds that you can change the attitude of people by talking about the link between FGM and SGBV. Evidence shows that, girls below 18 suffer the most in all forms of SGBV, said a paralegal monitoring SGBV cases.
The United Nations Development Program has funded the Justice Sector Development Project to provide humanitarian and legal aid to SGBV victims with several success stories, but sadly out of court settlements of violations of fundamental human rights has worried many campaigners. At puberty, the majority of girls in Sierra Leone are initiated into the Bondo Society, a secret society of women that uses circumcision to initiate new members to become women.
FGM is a volatile issue in Sierra Leone. In February, four female journalists were brutally attacked by the Bondo Society in Kenema, one of Sierra Leone’s largest cities. The journalists were abducted, stripped, and marched through the city after being accused of reporting on an anti-FGM campaign. Police and human rights organizations intervened to free the women. FGM, partial or total removal of external genitalia, continues to be practiced illegally throughout Africa.
FGM is practiced as a rite of passage in 28 African countries. Approximately three million young women annually are forced to undergo FGM as an initiation into womanhood.
According to WHO, every year two million girls are at risk of being subjected to the practice which is sometimes referred to as female genital cutting or female circumcision.
Sierra Leone is one of 28 African countries where female genital mutilation is practiced. It is also a custom in parts of the Middle East and Asia.
The procedure is usually performed by an elderly woman of the village who has been specially designated this task, or by a traditional birth attendant.
But in some countries more affluent families seek the services of medical personnel to avoid the dangers of unskilled operations in unsanitary conditions.
WHO has consistently condemned the harmful traditional practice as “wilful damage to healthy organs for non-therapeutic reasons.”
In the past, studies have suggested that the practice of female genital mutilation can result in infertility, pregnancy and childbirth complications, and psychological problems through inability to experience sexual pleasure.
In a study published in August this year in the Lancet, researchers made the strongest link yet between extreme forms of female genital mutilation and female infertility.
Their findings provide the most compelling evidence to date that girls who have undergone genital mutilation in childhood could be at risk of infertility later in life.
The new findings have given activists like Turay a much-needed credibility boost.
“We want people to drop their knives; we want parents and girls to become more open about the practice; we want the victims to talk about the practice and to be ready to say ‘no’, so that the government knows women are ready for a change!” Turay said.
In Sierra Leone, female genital mutilation usually takes the form of a crudely performed operation to remove the clitoris sometimes with razor blades, penknives and even with broken glass as a key part of the initiation ceremonies that prepare girls for marriage and motherhood. UNICEF estimates that some 90% of Sierra Leonean women are subjected to genital mutilation. Turay and her fellow campaigners in Sierra Leone believe the best way to raise public awareness about the risks of female genital mutilation is to teach the women designated to perform the procedure to read and write in Sierra Leone these are often illiterate older women and provide them with an alternative source of income.
But convincing people that this ingrained tradition is wrong is an uphill struggle in a country emerging from a decade of civil war, where people long to return to traditional values and where 66% of the population is illiterate, she said.
Turay said there were other positive developments in Sierra Leone and that religious leaders there had started to oppose the harmful practice. “Two Imams have made a public declaration to say that their daughters will never be initiated and other Imams and pastors have started preaching about the practice in their prayer meetings,” she said.
Since AIM was founded in 2002, four activists have left after receiving death threats. Turay said that despite a powerful pro-genital mutilation lobby in Sierra Leone, the campaign is making progress.
“Educating people is empowering them. It is only through their minds that you can change the attitude of people,” Turay said.
Turay and other AIM activists visit villages and talk to the women who earn a living from genital cutting to try to persuade them to give it up. “We have been able to get about 700 practitioners from 111 villages to drop the practice,” she said.
AIM has received funding from donors in the United States to provide 40 of 700 women who perform genital mutilation with alternative employment, but Turay said she did not know how her group would help the remaining 660.
AIM would like to set up a skills training centre to teach the former genital mutilators and girls intent on escaping the practice to read and write, operate computers and make money from agriculture or tie-dying cloth.
To read the full article on the Awoko wordpress, click here
Awoko.org
An agreement stating that girls under 18 will not undergo Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Sierra Leone was recently signed by village chiefs and other community leaders, including women who perform FGM witnessed by Police, Civil Society and NGO’s.
The agreement affects the Kambia, Port Loko, Western Rural and Western Urban and Pujehun Districts; but Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) and FGM is still a worrisome issue to many Sierra Leoneans.
Rugiatu Turay still remembers the pain she felt the day she and four of her sisters and three other girls were dragged to an enclosed hut which looked like a fenced forest at the end of the village locally known as ‘Bondo Bush.’
After few hours, she said “some of the young and aged women intensified their visits to the traditionally hut roofed with elephant grass, singing traditional songs and drumming.”
She said, several women were singing and dancing jubilantly while others were cooking and moving around, suddenly the atmosphere changed.
“We were forcefully bundled together and lined up, moments later we were stripped naked and told to sing and clap as elderly women dressed in rags instruct us.”
Turay also said that some of the women were very tipsy and violent. “I felt humiliated standing in the middle of fifteen women, stack naked on a scruffy environment barefooted,” she broke into tears and wept for around 5, minutes.
Among the eight of us the eldest was about 15 with piercing breast, she said.
Additionally she told AWOKO some of the rural girls were enthusiastic for the mutilation of their genitalia for varied reason, as one of the girls said after Bondo she is going to get married to an uncle’s son who is a leading farmer in the village with two wives. She said other girls believe FGM earns them respect among their peers.
“They used a crude penknife, it was so painful. I bled excessively for two days and fainted when I wanted to walk,” Turay said, describing how at the age of 11 she was subjected to female genital mutilation.
Afterwards the scar itched and got infected. As a result she developed severe menstrual pains, blood clots and a cyst, she said.
When Turay heard her younger sisters were due to undergo genital mutilation too she tried, in vain, to intervene. The death of a cousin, who bled to death after being subjected to the practice, triggered her activism.
Today Turay leads the Amazonian Initiative Movement (AIM), one of several nongovernmental organizations that campaign in West Africa against the harmful traditional practice of female genital mutilation. She formed the group in 2002 with other women she met in refugee camps in Guinea during Sierra Leone’s 1991 to 2001 civil war. Turay is one of an estimated 100 to 140 million girls and women worldwide who have undergone female genital mutilation the removal of all or part of the female external genitalia as part of traditional initiation rituals or marriage preparation customs.
Though the government has forbidden the practice for under age children, some female activists and Non Governmental Organizations are making tremendous efforts in raising awareness, among victims and perpetrators of FGM. According to statistics from the Family Support Unit of the Sierra Leone Police sexual and gender based violence on teenage girls has increased by 18 percent. However the statistics also reveal that for every 1,000 SGBV related cases only 20 is likely to be prosecuted.
Police records show that children from rural areas are more likely to be abused.
It is only through their minds that you can change the attitude of people by talking about the link between FGM and SGBV. Evidence shows that, girls below 18 suffer the most in all forms of SGBV, said a paralegal monitoring SGBV cases.
The United Nations Development Program has funded the Justice Sector Development Project to provide humanitarian and legal aid to SGBV victims with several success stories, but sadly out of court settlements of violations of fundamental human rights has worried many campaigners. At puberty, the majority of girls in Sierra Leone are initiated into the Bondo Society, a secret society of women that uses circumcision to initiate new members to become women.
FGM is a volatile issue in Sierra Leone. In February, four female journalists were brutally attacked by the Bondo Society in Kenema, one of Sierra Leone’s largest cities. The journalists were abducted, stripped, and marched through the city after being accused of reporting on an anti-FGM campaign. Police and human rights organizations intervened to free the women. FGM, partial or total removal of external genitalia, continues to be practiced illegally throughout Africa.
FGM is practiced as a rite of passage in 28 African countries. Approximately three million young women annually are forced to undergo FGM as an initiation into womanhood.
According to WHO, every year two million girls are at risk of being subjected to the practice which is sometimes referred to as female genital cutting or female circumcision.
Sierra Leone is one of 28 African countries where female genital mutilation is practiced. It is also a custom in parts of the Middle East and Asia.
The procedure is usually performed by an elderly woman of the village who has been specially designated this task, or by a traditional birth attendant.
But in some countries more affluent families seek the services of medical personnel to avoid the dangers of unskilled operations in unsanitary conditions.
WHO has consistently condemned the harmful traditional practice as “wilful damage to healthy organs for non-therapeutic reasons.”
In the past, studies have suggested that the practice of female genital mutilation can result in infertility, pregnancy and childbirth complications, and psychological problems through inability to experience sexual pleasure.
In a study published in August this year in the Lancet, researchers made the strongest link yet between extreme forms of female genital mutilation and female infertility.
Their findings provide the most compelling evidence to date that girls who have undergone genital mutilation in childhood could be at risk of infertility later in life.
The new findings have given activists like Turay a much-needed credibility boost.
“We want people to drop their knives; we want parents and girls to become more open about the practice; we want the victims to talk about the practice and to be ready to say ‘no’, so that the government knows women are ready for a change!” Turay said.
In Sierra Leone, female genital mutilation usually takes the form of a crudely performed operation to remove the clitoris sometimes with razor blades, penknives and even with broken glass as a key part of the initiation ceremonies that prepare girls for marriage and motherhood. UNICEF estimates that some 90% of Sierra Leonean women are subjected to genital mutilation. Turay and her fellow campaigners in Sierra Leone believe the best way to raise public awareness about the risks of female genital mutilation is to teach the women designated to perform the procedure to read and write in Sierra Leone these are often illiterate older women and provide them with an alternative source of income.
But convincing people that this ingrained tradition is wrong is an uphill struggle in a country emerging from a decade of civil war, where people long to return to traditional values and where 66% of the population is illiterate, she said.
Turay said there were other positive developments in Sierra Leone and that religious leaders there had started to oppose the harmful practice. “Two Imams have made a public declaration to say that their daughters will never be initiated and other Imams and pastors have started preaching about the practice in their prayer meetings,” she said.
Since AIM was founded in 2002, four activists have left after receiving death threats. Turay said that despite a powerful pro-genital mutilation lobby in Sierra Leone, the campaign is making progress.
“Educating people is empowering them. It is only through their minds that you can change the attitude of people,” Turay said.
Turay and other AIM activists visit villages and talk to the women who earn a living from genital cutting to try to persuade them to give it up. “We have been able to get about 700 practitioners from 111 villages to drop the practice,” she said.
AIM has received funding from donors in the United States to provide 40 of 700 women who perform genital mutilation with alternative employment, but Turay said she did not know how her group would help the remaining 660.
AIM would like to set up a skills training centre to teach the former genital mutilators and girls intent on escaping the practice to read and write, operate computers and make money from agriculture or tie-dying cloth.
To read the full article on the Awoko wordpress, click here
No more suffering in silence: A west London scheme has made treatment for women who have suffered genital mutilation less traumatic, find
November 23, 2011
The Guardian
Linda Jackson
Projects highlighted by the Guardian Public Services Awards are often tackling challenges that society as a whole might prefer not to think about. This year's winner of the diversity and equality award is a prime example of work on such vital but unsettling issues.
The Acton African Well Woman Centre, a community project based in west London, has developed unique expertise in helping women who have arrived in the UK, having been through the trauma of female genital mutilation (FGM). It is the only scheme to offer reversal treatment to women who have undergone the severest form of the practice when they were younger, leaving them often in constant pain.
For women like 22-year-old Hamdi, from Somalia, who has suffered in silence for almost 15 years, the centre has offered her a confidential, invaluable life-line.
Warned by her mother against the barbaric ritual, she ran off with her friends aged just eight to undergo what she thought was a rite of passage. Nothing could have prepared her for the pain and suffering that followed, and six years later she came to the UK following a family split. Last year, the former care worker married and, supported by her husband, she approached the centre for help.
To her relief the team of midwives and counsellors offered her a de-infibulation – a reversal of the most extreme form of FGM. Today, she is living free from pain and is determined that any daughter she has will not go through the same ordeal.
Sadly, staff at the centre encounter cases such as that of Hamdi every week. Figures suggest a staggering 65,000 women in the UK have been subjected to FGM, particularly women from Somalia, Eritrea or Sudan. In its severest form, FGM involves "stitching up" a woman to guarantee her chastity to a future husband, who can then cut her open on their wedding night.
Now, thanks to the project, these women are able to book an appointment without the embarrassment of seeing a male general practitioner and waiting months for a hospital consultation. Instead of the trauma of going to a hospital operating theatre, women can undergo the reversal in a 30-minute procedure under local anaesthetic.
Juliet Albert, a specialist FGM midwife who is based in Acton, where there is a large Somali community, says the centre has de-infibulated 160 women since it started three years ago. A further 16 women have been referred for hospital-based treatment and 29 for specialist trauma consultations.
She says: "The need for a community-based ante-natal service became clear after growing numbers of Somali women were arriving at hospital in labour having suffered from FGM. This was placing them at risk of trauma. We wanted to try and reach out to women who weren't already pregnant, so we put an advert on Somali television giving details of the free drop-in service. We were immediately inundated with the response. Since then women have come to us after hearing about the centre by word of mouth."
It is not just women from African communities in London who are receiving the service. Women from Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and Cardiff have all had their lives changed by the centre, which offers a confidential, holistic approach. Working alongside Albert is another midwife, a counsellor and an Arabic and Somali-speaking health advocate.
The team also runs a service for pregnant women at the nearby Queen Charlotte's Hospital, which previously had no policy on women with FGM. Thanks to the project, midwives based at the hospital now receive training so that they have the knowledge and skills to de-infibulate if required, and they refer women identified ante-natally to the team.
As well as operating the clinic, the team also engages with the local community through coffee mornings and presentations, and promotes sexual health, family planning and cervical screening.
To read the full article on The Guardian website, click here
The Guardian
Linda Jackson
Projects highlighted by the Guardian Public Services Awards are often tackling challenges that society as a whole might prefer not to think about. This year's winner of the diversity and equality award is a prime example of work on such vital but unsettling issues.
The Acton African Well Woman Centre, a community project based in west London, has developed unique expertise in helping women who have arrived in the UK, having been through the trauma of female genital mutilation (FGM). It is the only scheme to offer reversal treatment to women who have undergone the severest form of the practice when they were younger, leaving them often in constant pain.
For women like 22-year-old Hamdi, from Somalia, who has suffered in silence for almost 15 years, the centre has offered her a confidential, invaluable life-line.
Warned by her mother against the barbaric ritual, she ran off with her friends aged just eight to undergo what she thought was a rite of passage. Nothing could have prepared her for the pain and suffering that followed, and six years later she came to the UK following a family split. Last year, the former care worker married and, supported by her husband, she approached the centre for help.
To her relief the team of midwives and counsellors offered her a de-infibulation – a reversal of the most extreme form of FGM. Today, she is living free from pain and is determined that any daughter she has will not go through the same ordeal.
Sadly, staff at the centre encounter cases such as that of Hamdi every week. Figures suggest a staggering 65,000 women in the UK have been subjected to FGM, particularly women from Somalia, Eritrea or Sudan. In its severest form, FGM involves "stitching up" a woman to guarantee her chastity to a future husband, who can then cut her open on their wedding night.
Now, thanks to the project, these women are able to book an appointment without the embarrassment of seeing a male general practitioner and waiting months for a hospital consultation. Instead of the trauma of going to a hospital operating theatre, women can undergo the reversal in a 30-minute procedure under local anaesthetic.
Juliet Albert, a specialist FGM midwife who is based in Acton, where there is a large Somali community, says the centre has de-infibulated 160 women since it started three years ago. A further 16 women have been referred for hospital-based treatment and 29 for specialist trauma consultations.
She says: "The need for a community-based ante-natal service became clear after growing numbers of Somali women were arriving at hospital in labour having suffered from FGM. This was placing them at risk of trauma. We wanted to try and reach out to women who weren't already pregnant, so we put an advert on Somali television giving details of the free drop-in service. We were immediately inundated with the response. Since then women have come to us after hearing about the centre by word of mouth."
It is not just women from African communities in London who are receiving the service. Women from Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and Cardiff have all had their lives changed by the centre, which offers a confidential, holistic approach. Working alongside Albert is another midwife, a counsellor and an Arabic and Somali-speaking health advocate.
The team also runs a service for pregnant women at the nearby Queen Charlotte's Hospital, which previously had no policy on women with FGM. Thanks to the project, midwives based at the hospital now receive training so that they have the knowledge and skills to de-infibulate if required, and they refer women identified ante-natally to the team.
As well as operating the clinic, the team also engages with the local community through coffee mornings and presentations, and promotes sexual health, family planning and cervical screening.
To read the full article on The Guardian website, click here
Thursday, November 3, 2011
World Vision supports MOU banning FGM in Pujehun
November 3, 2011
Sierra Express Media
SEM Contributor
World Vision Sierra Leone a child focused nongovernmental organization in partnership with the Advocacy Movement Network (AMNET) has succeeded in advocating and lobbying traditional chiefs and SOWEIS in Pujehun District to sign an MOU banning the female genital mutilation of girls under the age of eighteen.
World Vision Team Leader Bindi Boima in Pujehun has said that MOU is a community led initiative with enthusiasm to implement the provisions of the MOU in a bid to protect vulnerable children in rural communities within Pujehun District.
He said “World Vision is committed and determined to protect the welfare of children in Sierra Leone.”
According to the Programs Coordinator of Advocacy Movement Network Aminata Koroma, in a bid to protect the girl child from all forms of human right violations, World Vision Sierra Leone has been keen in advancing the campaign against FGM for minors.
She said World Vision Sierra Leone provided funding to AMNET for consultations with paramount chiefs, Councils Line Ministries, Civil Society, and Human Right Committees on the issue of child bondo which they say has left many children with severe health complications during and after the FGM practice.
She said in the past, it was a taboo to discuss the issue of Female Genital Mutilation due to its traditional social and economic beliefs in society, but ‘we have managed to break the barriers in making local chiefs and the ‘soweis’ understand the dangers FGM poses to the wellbeing of the girl child.
The Programs Coordinator of Advocacy Movement Network Aminata Koroma said after several meetings at various communities within Pujehun District, the idea of an MOU was lengthily discussed.
After which, she said it was agreed that that the paramount chiefs take copies of the MOU for discussion with their subjects before the signing ceremony covered by this reporter at Pujehun Council Hall over the weekend.
AMNET is complementing the effort of government in the implementation of international instruments signed to protect children and women, she explained.
AMNET has been advocating on the ban on child labour, with focus on the human right perspective through a process that involves successful consultations, dialogue, lobbying and dialogue with key stakeholders in Kambia, Port Loko, Western Rural and Western Urban and Pujehun District is the latest District to sign such MOU.
The President of Council of Paramount Chiefs Samuel AS Gbonda of Panga Krim Chiefdom Gobaru Pujehun District as Chairman of the signing ceremony emphasized the full implementation of the bye- laws prohibiting the practice assuring their fullest corporation in ensuring FGM is banned and defaulters prosecuted.
The only Female Paramount Chief present at the ceremony Matilda Yayo Minah of Kpukuma Krim Chiefdom sang bondo songs and implored the ‘soweis’ whose livelihood depends on the FGM practice.
She said in the past “we all have initiated or facilitated the FGM practice for many under age children but now the government has passed laws banning the practice. She implored locals to abide by the rules and discourage the practice.
Dauda David Fawundu Deputy Chairman of the Pujehun District Council said they are signing the MOU to put into effect some bye laws about initiation of children in to Bondo at tender age
He called for the empowerment of women and protection of the girl child from harmful traditional practices that have negative effects on the health of children and appealed for continued support towards traditional rulers and locals.
The paramount Chief of Gallineris Perri Chiefdom Pujehun District Alhaji Kamara Koroma assured World Vision and AMNET that they will work towards the successful implementation of the MOU to ban FGM in their respective communities.
Tommy Sandy Assistant Regional Human Right Officer South gave brief background of the Human Right Commission and expressed appreciation to World Vision and AMNET for supporting the protection of the girl child in a bid to complement government efforts.
He said the Human Right Commission is monitoring several violations of human right.
An officer of the Sierra Leone Police Family Support Unit in Pujehun Therisa Kandeh said violations of any of the foundermental human rights of the child is a punishable crime and the police is prepared and determined to enforce the law.
A representative of the Ministry of Social Welfare and Children’s Forum Network President in Pujehun said the MOU is a mile stone in mitigating the practice in deprived rural communities.
Local authorities in Pujehun District willingly signed the MOU with zeal, it beckons a new era in the campaign against FGM a widely believed practice in villages, Towns and Cities.
To read the full article on the Sierra Express Media website, click here
Sierra Express Media
SEM Contributor
World Vision Sierra Leone a child focused nongovernmental organization in partnership with the Advocacy Movement Network (AMNET) has succeeded in advocating and lobbying traditional chiefs and SOWEIS in Pujehun District to sign an MOU banning the female genital mutilation of girls under the age of eighteen.
World Vision Team Leader Bindi Boima in Pujehun has said that MOU is a community led initiative with enthusiasm to implement the provisions of the MOU in a bid to protect vulnerable children in rural communities within Pujehun District.
He said “World Vision is committed and determined to protect the welfare of children in Sierra Leone.”
According to the Programs Coordinator of Advocacy Movement Network Aminata Koroma, in a bid to protect the girl child from all forms of human right violations, World Vision Sierra Leone has been keen in advancing the campaign against FGM for minors.
She said World Vision Sierra Leone provided funding to AMNET for consultations with paramount chiefs, Councils Line Ministries, Civil Society, and Human Right Committees on the issue of child bondo which they say has left many children with severe health complications during and after the FGM practice.
She said in the past, it was a taboo to discuss the issue of Female Genital Mutilation due to its traditional social and economic beliefs in society, but ‘we have managed to break the barriers in making local chiefs and the ‘soweis’ understand the dangers FGM poses to the wellbeing of the girl child.
The Programs Coordinator of Advocacy Movement Network Aminata Koroma said after several meetings at various communities within Pujehun District, the idea of an MOU was lengthily discussed.
After which, she said it was agreed that that the paramount chiefs take copies of the MOU for discussion with their subjects before the signing ceremony covered by this reporter at Pujehun Council Hall over the weekend.
AMNET is complementing the effort of government in the implementation of international instruments signed to protect children and women, she explained.
AMNET has been advocating on the ban on child labour, with focus on the human right perspective through a process that involves successful consultations, dialogue, lobbying and dialogue with key stakeholders in Kambia, Port Loko, Western Rural and Western Urban and Pujehun District is the latest District to sign such MOU.
The President of Council of Paramount Chiefs Samuel AS Gbonda of Panga Krim Chiefdom Gobaru Pujehun District as Chairman of the signing ceremony emphasized the full implementation of the bye- laws prohibiting the practice assuring their fullest corporation in ensuring FGM is banned and defaulters prosecuted.
The only Female Paramount Chief present at the ceremony Matilda Yayo Minah of Kpukuma Krim Chiefdom sang bondo songs and implored the ‘soweis’ whose livelihood depends on the FGM practice.
She said in the past “we all have initiated or facilitated the FGM practice for many under age children but now the government has passed laws banning the practice. She implored locals to abide by the rules and discourage the practice.
Dauda David Fawundu Deputy Chairman of the Pujehun District Council said they are signing the MOU to put into effect some bye laws about initiation of children in to Bondo at tender age
He called for the empowerment of women and protection of the girl child from harmful traditional practices that have negative effects on the health of children and appealed for continued support towards traditional rulers and locals.
The paramount Chief of Gallineris Perri Chiefdom Pujehun District Alhaji Kamara Koroma assured World Vision and AMNET that they will work towards the successful implementation of the MOU to ban FGM in their respective communities.
Tommy Sandy Assistant Regional Human Right Officer South gave brief background of the Human Right Commission and expressed appreciation to World Vision and AMNET for supporting the protection of the girl child in a bid to complement government efforts.
He said the Human Right Commission is monitoring several violations of human right.
An officer of the Sierra Leone Police Family Support Unit in Pujehun Therisa Kandeh said violations of any of the foundermental human rights of the child is a punishable crime and the police is prepared and determined to enforce the law.
A representative of the Ministry of Social Welfare and Children’s Forum Network President in Pujehun said the MOU is a mile stone in mitigating the practice in deprived rural communities.
Local authorities in Pujehun District willingly signed the MOU with zeal, it beckons a new era in the campaign against FGM a widely believed practice in villages, Towns and Cities.
To read the full article on the Sierra Express Media website, click here
SOMALIA: Women lobby for law against FGM/C
November 3, 2011
IRIN Africa
GALKAYO, 3 November 2011 (IRIN) - Women's groups in the Somali town of Galkayo are lobbying the authorities in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland to enact a law banning female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), saying the practice was becoming widespread. Activists say FGM/C causes serious health problems to the women and is against their religion.
"Unfortunately, we have noticed that instead of decreasing, the practice seems to be re-emerging, particularly in camps for the displaced,” said Lul Madar, head of the Mudug Women’s Development Network, one of the organizations pushing for the enactment of an anti-FGM/C law.
Madar said the increase in FGM/C seemed to correspond to an increase in the incidence of rape, particularly in internally displaced people’s (IDP) camps.
"We have many parents who believe that if the girl is cut, it will make it hard for the rapist; unfortunately, it won’t stop the rapist but will only add to the suffering of the woman,” she said.
Madar said women’s groups like hers were lobbying the Puntland authorities to pass a law criminalizing the practice, adding that although such a law may not stamp it out, “it will have a fear effect and can be used by activists to fight FGM/C”.
Hawa Aden, executive director of the Galkayo Education Centre for Peace and Development (GECPD), a group that advocates for women's issues, told IRIN the women were not only seeking a law but “also a religious fatwa [decree] proclaiming that FGM is Haram [illegal] under Islam.
“This will have an impact on the practice,” she said. “We must attack it on all fronts.”
Farhiya Jama, an anti-FGM/C activist, said she was determined to ensure that young girls did not undergo FGM/C. "I am 40 years old now and I still vividly remember when I was cut. It gives me nightmares.”
We want to tell these men that circumcision does not enhance or add to a girl's value as a wife and a mother but actually diminishes itJama said she suffered during childbirth and whenever she menstruates. "I dread the days when my period is close because of the pain I go through; it gets to the point where the pain makes it impossible to do anything. I don't want any girl to be subjected to this kind of suffering."
“Gudnin", or infibulation, as practised in Somalia, involves cutting off the external genitalia and sewing up the vagina, leaving a small hole for urine and menstruation.
Apart from the risks of severe blood loss, shock and infection, longer-term problems associated with FGM/C include infections of the urinary and reproductive tracts, infertility and a range of obstetric complications, such as postpartum haemorrhage and death of the baby, said Abdulkadir Jama Dhaga’ade, a gynaecologist-obstetrician and the director of Galkayo Medical Centre.
Dhaga’ade said FGM/C was one of the main contributing factors to the fistula cases he had been seeing. “It leads to prolonged labour and causes what is medically known as Uterine inertia.”
Convincing men
Madar of the Women’s Network said it was engaged in awareness campaigns targeting "not only the mothers and the girls but the men, particularly the young men of marriageable age, professionals and religious leaders. We want to tell these men that circumcision does not enhance or add to a girl's value as a wife and a mother but actually diminishes it."
The group is also taking its campaign to rural areas where the practice “is widespread”, she said.
Madar said convincing and winning the support of traditional elders and religious leaders was crucial to the group’s efforts.
"It is therefore very important to involve men, particularly religious leaders, in the campaign to eradicate FGM/C to debunk some of the myths that somehow the practice has a religious significance, or adds to the woman’s value," she said.
ah/mw
Theme (s): Gender Issues, Health & Nutrition,
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
To read the full article on the IRIN News website, click here
IRIN Africa
GALKAYO, 3 November 2011 (IRIN) - Women's groups in the Somali town of Galkayo are lobbying the authorities in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland to enact a law banning female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), saying the practice was becoming widespread. Activists say FGM/C causes serious health problems to the women and is against their religion.
"Unfortunately, we have noticed that instead of decreasing, the practice seems to be re-emerging, particularly in camps for the displaced,” said Lul Madar, head of the Mudug Women’s Development Network, one of the organizations pushing for the enactment of an anti-FGM/C law.
Madar said the increase in FGM/C seemed to correspond to an increase in the incidence of rape, particularly in internally displaced people’s (IDP) camps.
"We have many parents who believe that if the girl is cut, it will make it hard for the rapist; unfortunately, it won’t stop the rapist but will only add to the suffering of the woman,” she said.
Madar said women’s groups like hers were lobbying the Puntland authorities to pass a law criminalizing the practice, adding that although such a law may not stamp it out, “it will have a fear effect and can be used by activists to fight FGM/C”.
Hawa Aden, executive director of the Galkayo Education Centre for Peace and Development (GECPD), a group that advocates for women's issues, told IRIN the women were not only seeking a law but “also a religious fatwa [decree] proclaiming that FGM is Haram [illegal] under Islam.
“This will have an impact on the practice,” she said. “We must attack it on all fronts.”
Farhiya Jama, an anti-FGM/C activist, said she was determined to ensure that young girls did not undergo FGM/C. "I am 40 years old now and I still vividly remember when I was cut. It gives me nightmares.”
We want to tell these men that circumcision does not enhance or add to a girl's value as a wife and a mother but actually diminishes itJama said she suffered during childbirth and whenever she menstruates. "I dread the days when my period is close because of the pain I go through; it gets to the point where the pain makes it impossible to do anything. I don't want any girl to be subjected to this kind of suffering."
“Gudnin", or infibulation, as practised in Somalia, involves cutting off the external genitalia and sewing up the vagina, leaving a small hole for urine and menstruation.
Apart from the risks of severe blood loss, shock and infection, longer-term problems associated with FGM/C include infections of the urinary and reproductive tracts, infertility and a range of obstetric complications, such as postpartum haemorrhage and death of the baby, said Abdulkadir Jama Dhaga’ade, a gynaecologist-obstetrician and the director of Galkayo Medical Centre.
Dhaga’ade said FGM/C was one of the main contributing factors to the fistula cases he had been seeing. “It leads to prolonged labour and causes what is medically known as Uterine inertia.”
Convincing men
Madar of the Women’s Network said it was engaged in awareness campaigns targeting "not only the mothers and the girls but the men, particularly the young men of marriageable age, professionals and religious leaders. We want to tell these men that circumcision does not enhance or add to a girl's value as a wife and a mother but actually diminishes it."
The group is also taking its campaign to rural areas where the practice “is widespread”, she said.
Madar said convincing and winning the support of traditional elders and religious leaders was crucial to the group’s efforts.
"It is therefore very important to involve men, particularly religious leaders, in the campaign to eradicate FGM/C to debunk some of the myths that somehow the practice has a religious significance, or adds to the woman’s value," she said.
ah/mw
Theme (s): Gender Issues, Health & Nutrition,
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
To read the full article on the IRIN News website, click here
Female genital mutilation 'may be occurring in the Maldives'
November 1, 2011
International Federation of Gynecology and Obstretics
Paul Robertson
Worries have emerged that female genital mutilation could be being practised in the Maldives, the local Minivan News has revealed.
A Health Ministry insider from the Department of Gender and Family Protection told the publication there have been reports girls are being circumcised, although the news provider was not able to find conclusive evidence of this on a trip to Addu Atoll, where the act was thought to be being perpetrated.
The country's vice-president Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan was quoted by the information source as saying: "Mostly this is a failure of education ... many students receive free offers to go to madrassas in places like Pakistan, where they learn very traditional values."
Female genital mutilation was thought to have stopped in the Maldives in the 80s and 90s and the deputy health minister Fathimath Afiya told the Minivan News there were no official reports of the practice occurring but non-governmental organisations have raised their concerns.
GPs in the UK were recently urged by chairman of the British Medical Association's Ethical Committee Dr Tony Callard to look out for signs a girl may have been circumcised, particularly those who are from countries where the act is more prevalent, such as Iraq, Nigeria and Ethiopia, healthcare magazine Pulse reported.
To read the full article on the FIGO website, click here
International Federation of Gynecology and Obstretics
Paul Robertson
Worries have emerged that female genital mutilation could be being practised in the Maldives, the local Minivan News has revealed.
A Health Ministry insider from the Department of Gender and Family Protection told the publication there have been reports girls are being circumcised, although the news provider was not able to find conclusive evidence of this on a trip to Addu Atoll, where the act was thought to be being perpetrated.
The country's vice-president Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan was quoted by the information source as saying: "Mostly this is a failure of education ... many students receive free offers to go to madrassas in places like Pakistan, where they learn very traditional values."
Female genital mutilation was thought to have stopped in the Maldives in the 80s and 90s and the deputy health minister Fathimath Afiya told the Minivan News there were no official reports of the practice occurring but non-governmental organisations have raised their concerns.
GPs in the UK were recently urged by chairman of the British Medical Association's Ethical Committee Dr Tony Callard to look out for signs a girl may have been circumcised, particularly those who are from countries where the act is more prevalent, such as Iraq, Nigeria and Ethiopia, healthcare magazine Pulse reported.
To read the full article on the FIGO website, click here
For Young Women, a Horrifying Consequence of Mubarak’s Overthrow
October 29,2011
The New Republic
Betwa Sharma
Cairo—Ali, a 34-year-old Cairo businessman who asked that his real name not be used, is weighing whether or not to circumcise his 12-year-old daughter. Female circumcision, or female genital mutilation (FGM), as it is also known, involves removing part or the entire clitoris. In more severe forms of the procedure, the labia minora is removed and the vaginal opening is stitched up. Ali’s wife has told him about her own experience; describing her story to me, he said, “It is her most terrible memory.” He has heard discussions on television of potential harm the procedure can cause, but he feels a responsibility to protect the chastity of his daughter until she is married. Three thousand years of tradition instruct him that circumcision is the best means to this end. And, in the post-Mubarak Egypt, there are fewer and fewer voices offering an alternative view. The decades-long movement to stop FGM has become a casualty of the power struggle in Egypt.
The campaign to end FGM in Egypt was fighting an uphill battle before the revolution. Although FGM was outlawed in 2007 after a 12-year-old girl died from the procedure, the practice is still widespread. Despite efforts to reduce it, the number of girls aged 15 to 17 who underwent FGM only dropped from 77 percent in 2005 to 74 percent in 2008, according to the 2008 Egypt Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS). EDHS also showed that 91 percent of all women in Egypt between the ages of 15 and 49 have undergone FGM. The practice is common not only among Muslims, but also in the Christian community, which constitutes 10 percent of the Egyptian population. A sanitized version of FGM has gained increased prevalence in recent years, presenting additional challenges. In 1995, only 45 percent of all FGM operations were conducted by doctors; by 2008, the percentage had risen to 72 percent. A young woman working as a maid and living in Cairo, who asked to be referred to only as Ayesha, did not even know that FGM is illegal. Her mother had put her through the procedure, and she told me that she would do the same. (Experts have found that the practice is mostly perpetuated by mothers making decisions for their daughters.) “Unless someone can show me what is wrong with it I don’t think there is any reason to change,” she said.
Since the revolution, international support for this fight has significantly waned. Political instability has led to a 75 percent cut in Egypt’s FGM-related donor funds to the United Nations since January, according to Marta Agosti, the head of the anti-FGM program for the U.N.Changeover among government ministers has also slowed official work. The National Council for Childhood and Motherhood, the government body charged with addressing the problem, was shuttered after the revolution, and there is concern among activists that the capacity of the Council will shrink in its new home under the Ministry of Health. Instability and a lack of funds have curtailed the day-to-day work of NGOs; less field work and fewer workshops are taking place, according to Agosti.
In addition to the general shrinking of U.N. and NGO funds and efforts, the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood as one of the strongest political forces attempting to fill the void left by Mubarak’s departure presents potential obstacles to the campaign to end FGM. While the Muslim Brotherhood does not have an official position on FGM, the group has, in the past, opposed a complete ban on the practice. “Nothing in Islam forbids circumcision,” said Saad El Katani, the leader of the Brotherhood in parliament in 2008. Some members of the Brotherhood have argued that opposition to a complete ban does not indicate support of the practice, but they generally don’t speak out against it.
For instance, Manal Abul-Hassan, a female leader of the Muslim Brotherhood who plans to run for parliamentary elections in November, told me that FGMis “not halal (permissible) and it’s not haram (forbidden).” She does not favor its complete ban and disagrees with the U.N. characterization of FGM as a human rights violation. (Many parents share Hassan’s view and reject the word “mutilation”—especially for procedures like removing the excess skin around the clitoris. Young women argue that certain kinds of circumcisions are no different from plastic surgery in the West.) Like others in the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan sees the campaign against FGM as stealth promotion by NGOs of a Western agenda. Activists fear that the more traditionalist elements in the group pose a threat to their work—that attitudes like the one expressed by Hassan might harden to condone the procedure.
In addition, activists are also fighting the shadow of Suzanne Mubarak, who, for all her husband’s transgressions, was a force behind the campaign to end FGM. As the former dictator’s wife,Mubarak gave speeches and organized conferences opposing the practice, making her one of the most recognizable faces in the international fight against FGM. She played a key role in getting Christian and Muslim religious leaders to forbid the procedure, which had a far greater impact than the legal ban. After declaring their position, the fatwa office in Cairo—the office of the Grand Mufti of Egypt—set up a hotline; several anecdotes emerged about women changing their decision to go ahead with the practice based on advice they received from this hotline. Activists assert that their efforts to eliminate FGM were well underway before Suzanne Mubarak demonstrated interest in the issue. “We didn’t wait for Madame Mubarak to talk about FGM,” Sidhom Magdi, head of the Egyptian Association for Comprehensive Development, told me. But they do not deny that her involvement gave the movement political momentum that it had previously lacked.
Now, however, anything attached to the Mubaraks’ legacy is, if not explicitly tainted, an easy target. Civil society groups characterize Mubarak’s efforts as self-promoting. “She was devoid of a feminist vision or a socialist vision,” said Nihad Abu Kumsan, a lawyer and head of the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights. Hassan insists that FGM-related figures were exaggerated by the Egyptian government so that the former first lady could pocket international funds. “Suzanne Mubarak used these numbers to make money and steal money,” she told me. While most activists were not Mubarak supporters, the backlash troubles them. Agosti worries that Suzanne Mubarak’s previous involvement will “become an excuse to undo all the past work.”
For years, activists combating FGM in Egypt have described their fight as “painfully slow.” In the post-revolution Egypt, the process has become glacial. “We have no leader and we have no strategy,” said Kumsan. The U.N., aware of that the issue is a minefield, is also keeping a low profile for the time being. “We have to be very careful right now as we don’t want the issue to be captured by the ultra-orthodox,” said Agosti, expressing a fear that the U.N. will be characterized as an agency promoting the Western agenda or worse, Mubarak’s legacy.
Ali, the Cairo businessman, and his wife ultimately decided against FGM for their daughter. “We don’t want to change what God has created,” he told me. In making this decision, Ali is already among the minority of parents who reject FGM. This minority is in danger of shrinking further in the new Egypt.
Betwa Sharma is a New York-based journalist who covers human rights. Her work can be found at www.betwasharma.com.
To read the full article on the New Republic Website
The New Republic
Betwa Sharma
Cairo—Ali, a 34-year-old Cairo businessman who asked that his real name not be used, is weighing whether or not to circumcise his 12-year-old daughter. Female circumcision, or female genital mutilation (FGM), as it is also known, involves removing part or the entire clitoris. In more severe forms of the procedure, the labia minora is removed and the vaginal opening is stitched up. Ali’s wife has told him about her own experience; describing her story to me, he said, “It is her most terrible memory.” He has heard discussions on television of potential harm the procedure can cause, but he feels a responsibility to protect the chastity of his daughter until she is married. Three thousand years of tradition instruct him that circumcision is the best means to this end. And, in the post-Mubarak Egypt, there are fewer and fewer voices offering an alternative view. The decades-long movement to stop FGM has become a casualty of the power struggle in Egypt.
The campaign to end FGM in Egypt was fighting an uphill battle before the revolution. Although FGM was outlawed in 2007 after a 12-year-old girl died from the procedure, the practice is still widespread. Despite efforts to reduce it, the number of girls aged 15 to 17 who underwent FGM only dropped from 77 percent in 2005 to 74 percent in 2008, according to the 2008 Egypt Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS). EDHS also showed that 91 percent of all women in Egypt between the ages of 15 and 49 have undergone FGM. The practice is common not only among Muslims, but also in the Christian community, which constitutes 10 percent of the Egyptian population. A sanitized version of FGM has gained increased prevalence in recent years, presenting additional challenges. In 1995, only 45 percent of all FGM operations were conducted by doctors; by 2008, the percentage had risen to 72 percent. A young woman working as a maid and living in Cairo, who asked to be referred to only as Ayesha, did not even know that FGM is illegal. Her mother had put her through the procedure, and she told me that she would do the same. (Experts have found that the practice is mostly perpetuated by mothers making decisions for their daughters.) “Unless someone can show me what is wrong with it I don’t think there is any reason to change,” she said.
Since the revolution, international support for this fight has significantly waned. Political instability has led to a 75 percent cut in Egypt’s FGM-related donor funds to the United Nations since January, according to Marta Agosti, the head of the anti-FGM program for the U.N.Changeover among government ministers has also slowed official work. The National Council for Childhood and Motherhood, the government body charged with addressing the problem, was shuttered after the revolution, and there is concern among activists that the capacity of the Council will shrink in its new home under the Ministry of Health. Instability and a lack of funds have curtailed the day-to-day work of NGOs; less field work and fewer workshops are taking place, according to Agosti.
In addition to the general shrinking of U.N. and NGO funds and efforts, the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood as one of the strongest political forces attempting to fill the void left by Mubarak’s departure presents potential obstacles to the campaign to end FGM. While the Muslim Brotherhood does not have an official position on FGM, the group has, in the past, opposed a complete ban on the practice. “Nothing in Islam forbids circumcision,” said Saad El Katani, the leader of the Brotherhood in parliament in 2008. Some members of the Brotherhood have argued that opposition to a complete ban does not indicate support of the practice, but they generally don’t speak out against it.
For instance, Manal Abul-Hassan, a female leader of the Muslim Brotherhood who plans to run for parliamentary elections in November, told me that FGMis “not halal (permissible) and it’s not haram (forbidden).” She does not favor its complete ban and disagrees with the U.N. characterization of FGM as a human rights violation. (Many parents share Hassan’s view and reject the word “mutilation”—especially for procedures like removing the excess skin around the clitoris. Young women argue that certain kinds of circumcisions are no different from plastic surgery in the West.) Like others in the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan sees the campaign against FGM as stealth promotion by NGOs of a Western agenda. Activists fear that the more traditionalist elements in the group pose a threat to their work—that attitudes like the one expressed by Hassan might harden to condone the procedure.
In addition, activists are also fighting the shadow of Suzanne Mubarak, who, for all her husband’s transgressions, was a force behind the campaign to end FGM. As the former dictator’s wife,Mubarak gave speeches and organized conferences opposing the practice, making her one of the most recognizable faces in the international fight against FGM. She played a key role in getting Christian and Muslim religious leaders to forbid the procedure, which had a far greater impact than the legal ban. After declaring their position, the fatwa office in Cairo—the office of the Grand Mufti of Egypt—set up a hotline; several anecdotes emerged about women changing their decision to go ahead with the practice based on advice they received from this hotline. Activists assert that their efforts to eliminate FGM were well underway before Suzanne Mubarak demonstrated interest in the issue. “We didn’t wait for Madame Mubarak to talk about FGM,” Sidhom Magdi, head of the Egyptian Association for Comprehensive Development, told me. But they do not deny that her involvement gave the movement political momentum that it had previously lacked.
Now, however, anything attached to the Mubaraks’ legacy is, if not explicitly tainted, an easy target. Civil society groups characterize Mubarak’s efforts as self-promoting. “She was devoid of a feminist vision or a socialist vision,” said Nihad Abu Kumsan, a lawyer and head of the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights. Hassan insists that FGM-related figures were exaggerated by the Egyptian government so that the former first lady could pocket international funds. “Suzanne Mubarak used these numbers to make money and steal money,” she told me. While most activists were not Mubarak supporters, the backlash troubles them. Agosti worries that Suzanne Mubarak’s previous involvement will “become an excuse to undo all the past work.”
For years, activists combating FGM in Egypt have described their fight as “painfully slow.” In the post-revolution Egypt, the process has become glacial. “We have no leader and we have no strategy,” said Kumsan. The U.N., aware of that the issue is a minefield, is also keeping a low profile for the time being. “We have to be very careful right now as we don’t want the issue to be captured by the ultra-orthodox,” said Agosti, expressing a fear that the U.N. will be characterized as an agency promoting the Western agenda or worse, Mubarak’s legacy.
Ali, the Cairo businessman, and his wife ultimately decided against FGM for their daughter. “We don’t want to change what God has created,” he told me. In making this decision, Ali is already among the minority of parents who reject FGM. This minority is in danger of shrinking further in the new Egypt.
Betwa Sharma is a New York-based journalist who covers human rights. Her work can be found at www.betwasharma.com.
To read the full article on the New Republic Website
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