Under the knife

August 9, 2009
By Abiose Adelaja

It is still dark this Tuesday morning. About seven women bring their baby girls for circumcision at one of the most popular compounds on Kobomoje Street, Beere, a suburb of Ibadan, Oyo State. While the circumciser's sons are in front of the house ushering more women in, the circumciser, sitting amidst bottles of herbs, bowls of water, cotton wool, lime, knives and razor blades, is getting ready for the operation.

One-month old Temilade is the first. She cries till she runs out of tears; with what little energy she has, she wriggles her tiny legs and hands against the pressure of her mother's hand. Anyone hearing Temilade's cry might wonder about the texture of her mother's love. Ironically, the mother cannot bear the pain, looking away as the circumciser cuts part of Temilade's clitoris with a razor blade. Blood gushes out.

The circumciser, known as Baba Oloola, wordlessly dips a thick cotton wool in a bowl of herbs and presses it against her genital to stop the bleeding.

Temilade's voice is one out of millions of children around the world who have experienced what is now called the politically correct Female Genital Cutting (FGC). The World Health Organization reports that 130 million girls and women in 28 African countries undergo this operation every year; categorising it as a harmful practice against women, since it is an act that intentionally alters the genital organs of women for non-medical reasons.

Culture and heritage

NEXT's visit to Beere (the reporter disguised as someone interested in circumcising her child), last week, would seem to confirm the 96.8 percent prevalence rate in Oyo State cited in a National Baseline Survey in 2000.

The middle-aged circumciser, who gave his name as Akande, hails from the large Oloola Family of Ibadan and thus inherited the art from his grandparents. He circumcises male and female.

"I am an engineer by profession, but my father said he had to hand over to me because I am the first son," he says. Mr. Akande practices as a member of the National Association of Nigerian Traditional Medicine Practitioners, Ibadan branch. He also does tribal marks, treats convulsing children, malaria and other ailments using herbs.

Not surprisingly, he sees his job as service to humanity. "I am very content. I am happy to be saving lives. Several companies have called me, even UCH (University College Hospital, Ibadan) called me to be doing circumcision for boys; but the blessing I get from doing this job cannot be compared to whatever money I might have been making as an engineer." The entire procedure costs N3,000. This includes N1,000 for the operation, N1,000 for a bottle of herbs and N1,000 for other materials and services.

Activists say the practice is a violation of women's human rights and is against the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Culture vs the law

A Senior Programme Officer with BAOBAB for Women's Human Rights, Mufuliat Fijabi, said it is wrong to blame the practice on culture. "This culture is man-made," she said. "It is men who decided they have to control the sexual appetite of women. It is barbaric, it is harmful and should be stopped."

Only nine states - Edo, Delta, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Ondo, Osun, Ogun, Cross River and Bayelsa - have legislated against the practice. But the executive director of Inter-African Committee (IAC), an NGO working on traditional practices affecting the health of women and children, Oyefunso Orenuga, said the problem is not one of law but implementation.

"Our problem is; who implements?" She said. "The police, who are supposed to be implementing it, are not even aware or sensitised. So, the practice still goes on because culture dies hard."

According to a copy of the bill passed into law in Edo State, a circumciser shall serve a six-month imprisonment or pay a fine of N1,000 or both if caught, while in Ogun State the penalty is one year imprisonment.

Beyond the law

Mrs. Orenuga said her organisation is now targeting mothers directly. The efforts seem to be working. A 44-year-old woman, Mrs. Awotunde, who was circumcised, told NEXT, "I was circumcised at age six," she said. "I can still remember that I could feel the pain then. I was tied down, then they used something like (a) small knife to cut the flesh. They pulled up the flesh and cut it out."

A native of Ilora, Oyo State, the mother of three and English lecturer at the Lagos State Polytechnic, said she has changed her mind about circumcision. "Before, I thought that it was good and I would have circumcised my daughter if I had one. But now, I think it is not worth it, because it doesn't mean that an uncircumcised woman will be a flirt."

A professor of Community and Family Health, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Modupe Onadeko, explained the consequences of FGC. "Apart from short term consequences, such as (the) risk of transmitting HIV/AIDS, tetanus, hepatitis infection through unsterilised knives and blades or blood, women who are circumcised also suffer long term consequences such as obstructed labour due to narrowed vaginal opening."

Mrs. Awotunde however believes that circumcision helped her because she married as a virgin. "I don't feel any sexual urge unless I am touched," she said. "I don't see it as a problem, because many of us that married at that time married as virgins.

Mali: Women Finally Demand Law Against Genital Mutilation

August 8, 2009

Yesterday, some 700 activists, mostly women, have marched in favor of the introduction of laws to ban the practice of female genital mutilation (FMG) in Bamako. The demonstrators presented the request directly to parliament. The long overdue initiative, organized by the Coordination of women’s NGO’s in Mali, was repeated in other areas of the country, where more women also staged small gatherings. “The rate of FMG in Mali is very high, reaching some 92%” said Nicola Giovannini of the “No Peace without Justice” NGO to MISNA; the organization has been engaged in a vast campaign against female mutilation alongside Malian NGO’s. Giovannini said that in Mali, there is a strong political consensus for a law to ban the practice, but authorities have so far suggested that Malian society itself is not yet ready to penalize this terrible and very established practice. The participation in anti FMG protests suggests that there is an ever stronger – if long overdue - desire for change.

Women Under Obstetric Attack

August 6, 2009 FEMALE GENITAL Mutilation (FGM) in the three Northern Regions of Ghana has been identified as the contributory factor to the growing number of obstetric fistula cases among women in these areas. Statistics show that, the condition affects a minimum of three per 1,000 expectant mothers in Ghana but mostly women who have undergone circumcision stand the chance of suffering fistula complications during childbirth and other related cases. Besides this, an estimated 500 Ghanaian women including girls between the ages of 10 and 17 who get pregnant also suffer fistula conditions yearly. Minister of Health Dr. George Adja Sipa-Yankey disclosed this when he commissioned the ultra-modern Tamale Fistula Repair Centre at the Old Tamale Hospital which is to serve as a referral point for government hospitals in the three Northern Regions. He called on traditional rulers who command a lot of authority in their respective communities and concerned citizens to wage a relentless fight against the dehumanizing practice of FGM saying “it is criminal under the laws of Ghana for anyone to practice FGM.” Dr. Sipah-Yankey indicated his ministry would work towards prevention and treatment of fistula by repositioning family planning to ensure majority of women are protected from unwanted pregnancies. He added it would also encourage participation of skilled birth attendants and ensure availability of basic and comprehensive emergency obstetric and neonatal care services in both public and private hospitals. In her address, Minister for Women and Children’s Affairs, Akua Sena Dansua, explained that obstetric fistula is a hole that forms between a woman’s vagina and bladder or rectum as a result of prolonged and obstructed labour, leaving her with chronic urinary or fecal incontinence. She revealed women who suffer this condition are often abandoned by their husbands and families, blamed for their condition and ostracized by their communities. She added that this affects girls and women living in poor and remote rural areas with inadequate or absent health services as well as those who give birth at home without professional care. Madam Dansua called for effective ways to prevent fistula by ensuring access to quality maternal healthcare services, including family planning, skilled birth attendants and emergency obstetric care saying, “Prevention also entails tackling underlying social and economic inequities through efforts aimed at empowering women and girls, enhancing their life opportunities and delaying marriage and childbirth.” The Northern Regional Director of Health Service Dr. Akwasi Twumasi said the Fistula Repair Centre has a consulting room, 10 admission beds and a modern theatre equipped to offer surgical operations mainly for the repair of fistula and other maternal surgical conditions. According to him, prevention rather than treatment is the key to ending fistula, but added the backlog of fistula cases which is about 43 in the region needs to be attended to and prevention activities intensified to ensure they are reduced to the barest minimum. From Stephen Zoure, Tamale

Female Genital Mutilation

August 5, 2009

While Ugandan leader, Yoweri Museveni, criticized Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and slapped a ban on the age old practice in many African tribes, some traditionalists are set to resist the decree. The ban in Uganda coincides with the season for administering the practice targeting teenage girls (14 - 18years).

“I support culture, but you must support culture that is useful and based on scientific information. There is no part of a human body that is useless," Museveni told a gathering in the Nakapiripiriti district home to pastoralist ethnic groups: Sabinys, Pokots and Karamojong, after some elders told him that the practice is part of their culture.

"There is no part of a human body that is useless, Museveni told the predominantly peasant gathering, currently faced with hunger due to failed crops and scorched fields due to prolonged dry spells, a harsh experience attributed to climate change.

“Some people are preparing to initiate girls in the brutal initiation mid this month, but the community has decided that it is not useful, since women are not getting anything out of it. The district council has decided to establish an ordinance banning it," says Nelson Chelimo, chairman of Kapchorwa district.

His community has been sensitized against the practice for several years. Educated young women in Kapchorwa have shunned it, but their numbers are fewer compared to the largely illiterate population caught in the brutal tradition. The district council's ordinance will now be submitted to parliament so that it can become law, and subject to enforcement by the national police force.

It is widely believed among the many tribes that a woman who married without first being circumcised would be stricken for life with various illnesses. However, those who have transformed from traditional to modern lifestyle have found those beliefs to be false.

Last year, the United Nations (UN) passed a resolution that called Female Genital Mutilation a violation of the rights of women and saying that it constituted "irreparable, irreversible abuse" that increases the risk of HIV transmission, as well as maternal and infant mortality.

According to UN estimates, between 100 million to 140 million women worldwide have undergone the horrifying practice, which has attracted Euro 1million fund from the European Union to empower women on the African continent make inroads toward achieving Millennium Development Goal number three. The 1 million (about $1.26 million) Netherlands government funded initiative will mainly draw lessons from conflict and post conflict hotspots in Africa where women bear the brunt of gender based violence (GBV) which includes sexual assault, rape and female genital mutilation.

“These lessons are meant to empower the continent’s women to confront the horrors of GBV and demand justice across Africa,” Netherland’s ambassador to Uganda, Jeroen Verheul says.

Temples of War, Pan African women network Akina Mama wa Africa (AMWA) and the Netherlands government have picked two case studies from Sierra Leone and DR Congo where women’ s bodies have served as temples of war in past and present conflict.

“We need to see prevention of gender based violence prioritized through constitutional reforms and enabling laws,” says Ms. Solome Nakaweesi Kimbugwe, AMWA’s Executive Director.

The project will apply the lessons learned from the two countries to other conflict and post conflict areas, including Northern Uganda, where women have suffered acts of violence during the brutal 22-year rebellion at the hands of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army and government army. As the way forward, activists should demand legal reforms to earn justice for the victims.

By United Nations benchmarks, Uganda is on course to achieve MDG No.3 for promotion of gender equality and women empowerment, but a lot more ground has to be covered to stop GBV. The Female Genital Mutilation Bill, for instance is currently before Parliament. Other daunting legislations that relate to gender such as the Domestic Relations Bill, Domestic Violence Bill and the Sexual Offences Bill are still stuck at cabinet level.

“Uganda in the 1990s was a best practice case in terms of gender progress and policy formulation, but has somewhat stagnated on the legislation front. Because of this, experiences of Congo and especially Sierra Leone are a good rejoinder that should jolt Kampala out of stagnation,” says Christine Butegwa, Director, AMWA.

Like Uganda, the Sierra Leone story is disturbing. On the one hand, the country is conflict ridden but its culture also serves up another vice on the GBV menu female genital mutilation which happens in some of Uganda’s communities.

On top of this suffering comes raging men during the war, who rape teenagers, women and even children. The Rape and Crisis Centre in Freetown, according to Sierra Leonean activist Amie Kandeh herself a victim of female genital mutilation records testimonies of women who have turned up to tell horrifying stories, when soldiers and rebels alike forced sons to gang rape their own mothers while their siblings looked on.

“This is not drama, but reality. And you talk of compensation, how much can you compensate? At the Rape and Crisis Centre, the youngest rape victim is two months old,” says Ms. Kandeh.

In several African countries, women’s sexuality and sexual reproductive rights are controlled by men under the cause of culture, norms, morality and even religion. But in scenarios where armed conflict has intervened in countries like Burundi, Ivory Coast, Congo, Somalia, Sudan’s Darfur, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Uganda, the plight of women has worsened, with crude violations of women’s sexual reproductive rights running high, leading to unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, prolonged tears, urinary fistula, faecal fistula and chronic sexually transmitted diseases.

Often, victims of such acts are rejected and stigmatized by their own families and made to suffer post traumatic stress disorders, depression and suicidal attempts. Few post conflict peace building initiatives in many countries address the women’s sexual reproductive health rights.

By Judith Auma
Judith Auma writes for The African Executive

The need for deeper reflections to end the cut

August 4, 2009
By OKIYA OMTATAH OKOITI

The very cloudy rhetoric against the circumcision of women is darkened further by the usually suspicious and antagonistic relationship between modern and traditional lifestyles. The recurring use of the perversion mutilation seems to support the misguided Western paradigm that those who practice it are nefarious individuals or communities, the cut being the ultimate sign of their degenerate otherness.

If female circumcision is mutilation, so is any fashion that requires unnatural mechanical or surgical intrusion upon the body.

The coarse fabric of the debate is made up of many uneven strands, a good number carelessly twisted to fit a given very narrow thought line. Among these are arguments from self-styled traditionalists that glorify the bad practice, extolling its supposed virtues such as the unsubstantiated passing on of so-called age-old societal values during the healing in seclusion, arguing that changing it will mean for its adherents decomposition, disintegration, ultimately a separation from the very principle of life! Death! But they cannot show how the cut is necessary to group survival as it confers only obvious disadvantages on its recipients.

Then there are the superficial modernists who cash in, vilifying and opposing it as a backward practice that has outlived its use. Unable to understand its root causes and purpose, some of them end up perfuming and dancing themselves dizzy around the deplorable custom, addressing its diversionary justifications through their so-called alternative rites of passage.

The cold truth, however, is that the cut is just one of the burdensome customs, nay, inhuman cultural prisons that women throughout history have endured, and endure today, in the name of fashion or tradition to please men. The practice is neither backward nor has it outlived it use as a tool of oppression, it is simply wrong, morally repugnant.

The pursuit of male adoration is a strong stimulant in all societies. When the attainment of all important male favour means that the female body must be reconstructed to fit the prescribed fashion, history shows that regardless of potential health hazards, women pay the price.

Women are admired, not for their mind, personality, or inner beauty, but for their physical bodies. The ideal modern woman in today’s advertising has a shapely robotic figure, complete with breasts symbolically larger than her head.

Whether through cosmetics or a tattoo, all cultures seek to change the woman’s body to some arbitrary physical ideal, imbued with a sense of eroticism linked to bondage, embodying notions of fashion, conformity, and male constructed ideals of feminine beauty.

In the West today, just as it is with those who cut their women, constructed images of the ideal are used to keep women in inhuman cultural prisons of male power and control but whose keys have conveniently been turned over to female gatekeepers.

For example, scary walking chopsticks populate Western catwalks where well-fed motherly modelling agents force young models to diet. In fact, even in recent times, malnourished models have collapsed and died from starvation because of fasting to gain a desired weight.

Throughout history women have been socialised to endure gross abuse in the pursuit of acceptability and perceived beauty, in the name of fashion or tradition to please men. Tight corsets to produce a tiny waist, resulting in broken ribs and damaged internal organs, were common in the West in the recent past. Today’s barbaric practices include very tight clothes, poisonous skin lighteners, and elective plastic surgery. Pain and death remain constant companions of the women’s “remote controlled” search for male approval.

The ancient Chinese custom of foot binding that reflected Chinese ideas of the time about feminine beauty, virtue, and social status caused severe life-long disability and pain for millions of women. Women’s feet were made small using bandages to break and bend the toes under the sole, increasing the arch to an extreme so that the toes and heel were brought as close together as possible. The ideal foot was the three-inch golden lotus. Female relations crippled young girls, to make them more attractive to future husbands. The girls had to live the rest of their lives in pain simply to please men who decreed that a Chinese woman with “big feet” was ugly.

The modern fixation with physically delicate women, easy to dominate, is best played out in the equally punishing but fashionable high-heeled shoes. A woman tottering on pinpointed high-heels looks invitingly weak, just like the Chinese woman with bound feet did. It doesn’t matter if she is the head of a government; it is fashionable to restrict her.

Equally, cut women are an appropriate symbol of their restricted lives. They don’t have much control over their bodies or their destinies, and for the most part, depend on men for their well-being and happiness.

Eradicating female circumcision will involve more than screaming that it is a harmful practice; we have to change those societies’ deeply-ingrained sentiments regarding the woman. And it is the men, in whose pleasure these atrocities are usually carried out, who hold the key.

Though the cut is entirely a woman’s matter, performed on girls and young women by other females, it is a self-enforcing convention of the men’s subjugation of their women. That’s why it persists despite modernization, public education, and legal prohibition.

It may be worthwhile studying how foot binding in China was ended in a single generation. Scholars say it took much more than laws and protests. First, there was the end of imperial dynasties in 1911. Then in 1915 the new Chinese government outlawed the practice and sent inspectors to enforce the law through monetary fines to offenders. This was backed up by forming associations of parents who pledged not to foot-bind their daughters nor let their sons marry foot bound women.

Could a similar combination of progressive politics, social campaigns and enforced law help end the scourge of circumcising women?

Finding a Future Without Female Genital Mutilation

August 4, 2009 By Halima Mohamed Personal experience It seems that in Sudan anything is possible. For a girl to be circumcised one day and have the same operation repeated the next day because a grandmother or aunt is not satisfied with the cut is sadly not uncommon. I remember being forced to lie down on three old mattresses - two of them stretched on an “angareb”, which is a popular wooden bed, and the other one was plied under my torso. My midwife, Hajja Zeinab, sat on a low wooden stool. As she faced my naked body, our eyes met. I tried to escape her firm look, but she immediately addressed me with caution, “Now you are a woman. A real woman never cries. Now I will remove this dirt and you will become very clean and a real Muslim,” she said. Later I learned that this belief reveals the depth and core of the atrocity. Several women participated in the ritual. Two of them took hold of my thighs, while two others firmly held my arms. One sat behind me and put my head on her lap. With her right hand she covered my eyes and as she put her left arm on my chest, she must have felt my heart beating fast because she said, “Honour your father’s name. Don’t be afraid. This is not painful. You have seen your sister and your cousins. None of them cried.” I didn’t utter a sound as tears ran down my face. “In the name of Allah Most Gracious, Most Merciful,” Hajja said. She raised her fat hand, ornamented with some golden bracelets, and addressed the women around her. “Open her widely,” the midwife murmured, ordering the two women holding my thighs. I felt the fingers of her left hand moving my nudity apart and then a sharp needle pierced my flesh up and down and in the middle. I cried at the top of my voice and tried to raise my torso and kick the two women who firmly held my thighs.“Oh Women, hold her firmly!” Hajja Zeihab cried. Anesthetic resistant Suddenly, she started cutting. The pain was excruciating. I cried like a mad person. In spite of having her head bent between my thighs I felt as if she was cutting in the middle of my skull. More women were called to help hold me down. Some of them nicknamed me coward. Others scolded me for being the only one among the four who had acted cowardly. I was anesthetic resistant Hajja called one of the old ladies over and asked, “Does everything look okay?” No, no,” said the old woman, “cut this piece. Yes this one. And remove her clitoris. What is the use of it? And, remove the dirt. Do as I tell you.” I think that was grandmother Amna, doing her best to claim herself among the old women as the expert in the anatomy of young girls. Again she went between my thighs and cut me with the razor. Have I said razor? I am not sure whether it was a razor or a kitchen knife. But I was sure of one thing, she wasn’t wearing gloves or covering her head. She wore only her white short dress. She was fat and stout and mowed my flesh with no mercy. The stitches were the worst part. Nine stitches in all caused me pain and panic whenever I tried to move. Pain and superstition My sister, two cousins and I (all cut at the same time) were taken outside the excision room and showed the sea. A vision of the sea is believed to serve as a barrier against evil spirits. This evil could be caused by a sudden visit from a relative who might have attended a grievous incident such as contributing to the burial of a dead person and then surprise us with his presence without informing our mothers to take the necessary precautions. This was believed to cast an evil eye, causing damage to the wound and hindering fast healing. For the next seven days I cried out of pain, and suffered urine retention. I couldn’t urinate for the first three days following circumcision. Every time I wanted to pass water, I had to bite my lower lip and scream from between my teeth. With a slight degree of difference, this same scenario repeats many times in a woman’s life, every time she gives birth. And this legacy of pain is transmitted from generation to generation even today. “Female genital mutilation and cutting violates girls’ and women’s human rights, denying them their physical and mental integrity, their right to freedom from violence and discrimination and, in the most extreme cases, their lives,” stated the UNICEF report on the State of the World’s Children, 2009. The (WHO) mentioned that In Africa, about three million girls are at risk for FGM annually. Between two atrocities According to a UNICEF report, eighty nine percent of Sudanese women are circumcised. Sudan ranks 5 among countries practicing this barbaric custom worldwide. WHO memtioned four types of FGM, but in sudan There are three types including Sunna ”removal of the prepuce”, medium ”Clitoridectomy” and Pharaonic “infibulation”, “see attached illustrations”. The Fifth Population Census (2008) results have revealed that Sudan's overall population figure is more than thirty nine million people. The number of excided women is estimated at 14 million. In spite of this horrible percentage, the Sudanese government last February legalized Sunna type. Sadly, this decision came, last February, on the day when the world was commemorating International Day of Zero Tolerance of Female Genital Mutilation Day. Does this practice need legalization? That was the first question that came into my mind whereas my eyes went quickly over the news published in Sudan Tribune newspaper website. “The Council of Ministers on February 5 dropped the article (13) of the draft Children’s Act of 2009, which provides for the ban of female genital mutilation as part of other customs and traditions harmful to the health of the child, and after approval of the draft Children’s Act 2009,” said the newspaper. The newspaper went on saying “the cabinet decided to drop the article (13), which deals with female circumcision, taking into account the advisory opinion of the Islamic Fiqh Academy, which distinguish between harmful circumcision or infibulation (Pharaonic circumcision) and the circumcision of Sunna, a less extensive procedure.” It is regrettable to say that the government decision was taken while a woman is on the head of the Ministry of health. Also the memory of a tragic death of a 4-year-old child as result of circumcision complication was still fresh. Instead people were encouraged to have their daughters cut according to Sunna, in specific centers already established for this purpose in different parts of the country. Sunna is used to refer to traditions. With this decision, my dear homeland is taking three decades of voluntary work back to square one. Ups and downs Resistance against this practice started in the early 1940s. The practice was declared illegal in Sudan in 1941 but continued without interruption. Not a single incident of punishment was recorded even though about 90% of northern Sudanese women have had it done. Successive national surveys between 1979 and 1983 recorded that ninety six percent of women have undergone FGM. In 1991, this percentage dropped to eighty nine percent, which matched with the UNICEF world report on children for 2009, showing only a drop of 7.3%. This gradual shift in public attitudes toward FGM was due in large part to efforts led by non governmental organizations(NGOs), Babikir Badri Scientific Studies Association on Women Studies(BBSAWS)and NCEHTP, in coordination with many other autonomous organizations and individuals. It is worth noting that BBSAWS was the first local NGO to shoulder the struggle against FGM in Sudan. Several factors contribute to the prevalence of excision. On the top of the list are: the absence of a long-term strategy, no implementation of strict measures defending children against this practice, displacement and internal migration, the concentration of NGOs in urban centers, associating circumcision with Islam and the existence of beneficiaries who resist eradicating this custom by any means. However, the government’s current stance is the major obstacle. Whenever FGM is legal, it destroys efforts undertaken by NGOs, turns ethnic groups into advocators and codifies the presence of groups who are officially supported to derive their livelihood from the profession, not to mention the propaganda they use to promote the profession. Stigma and economic component To be honest, in Sudan, it is women who shoulder the biggest responsibility for the excisions whether they are practitioners or supporters, whereas the majority of males consider it “women’s affairs.” The severity of the cut depends upon personal request. Mothers and grandmothers who were victims of circumcision, almost always request infibulations or the “Pharaonic” type of excision. The midwives, contrary to reality, claim that they only perform “Sunna”. Sunna, which is considered a lighter version of FGM, but is still barbaric, especially with successive deliveries. Midwives, like Hajaa Zeinab, never fail to honour a client’s request. They work in accordance with the law of supply and demand, not the law of the land. By doing so, they involve women in a vicious cycle of circumcision, decircumcision (tasheem) and recircumcision (adlah). The latter is performed to tighten a woman after giving birth. Moreover, midwives have their own means of propaganda and advertising this commodity. Whenever such a midwife is among a large number of women, she tells stories about uncircumcised girls being always dirty even if they spend the whole day showering themselves. Whereas circumcised girls are always described by her famous phrase, “waa halati,” which means, “what a nice girl!” Psychological trauma Azza, a woman’s rights activist and psychiatrist told me a devastating story about a young woman she met while studying for her Masters degree at the Psychiatric Hospital in Khartoum. Upon discovering that his bride was excised, a husband took her to a midwife to re-open the labia majora to allow penetration of the vagina. The husband was then instructed to sleep with her within the same hour. Azza recalled that the bride was traumatized. She told her doctors that although she believes sexual intercourse is a vital part of marriage, she cannot forget the pain and sight of her pooled blood from her husband forcing her to have sex with him just after the procedure. A way out The gloomy picture reflected by events of this story, don’t deny the light at the end of the tunnel. Change is in process. Of course this will not happen overnight, but with persistence, proper education and consistency, change is attainable. I believe that in order to stop FGM in Sudan (and worldwide), the civil society organizations, NGOs, artists, writers, dramatists, cartoonist, musicians, activists, media practitioners, physicians, the whole family, etc must continue to pressure governments to clear politics and back down on their decisions in favour of FGM, and have and support the views calling for the implementation of the Child Rights Conventions. Additionally, these efforts have a greater chance of success if they line up with a long-term media campaign, enrolling all concerned and directed through private broadcasting. Continuation of personal efforts is a must. I, for one, prevented my young nieces from having to endure excision and convinced two illiterate mothers to abandon the practice. I believe that an effective cure for this disease will have to involve personal and collective trials discussions. Men and women who don't practice female circumcision need to come in the open, and not hide it. “As a man I didn't find it difficult to say I am married to an uncircumcised woman, and my 22 year old daughter is not circumcised and this helped me in convincing many relatives and friends throughout more than 27 years." Mohamed Ahmed wrote in an email to me. I received his message with hope and great appreciation. For the sake of my daughter from whose eyes beam a promising tomorrow and who brings seeds of change, I will continue to work at home and through the media to put an end to FGM. This article is part of a writing assignment for Voices of Our Future, which is providing rigorous web 2.0 and new media training for 31 emerging women leaders. We are speaking out for social change from some of the most forgotten corners of the world. Meet Us.

Sabiny Now Circumcise Married Women

August 3, 2009
Story originally published December 9, 2003

(New Vision - Kampala) WHILE the commitment by the anti-Female Genital Circumcision (FGC) activists to eliminate the practice among the Sabiny of Kapchorwa district by 2006 still stands, meeting the target is becoming elusive with the new developments in the Sabiny society.

The girls who have survived the knife while in their adolescent stages are being forcefully circumcised upon marriage.

Female circumcision is a custom among the Sabiny in Eastern Uganda.

The practice involves the removal of the woman's pleasure producing parts. The surgeons are basically traditional women who believe that it is a spiritual cultural call for them to perform this operation.

The 2002 enumeration results of FGC in Kapchorwa district conducted by the Family Planning Association of Uganda (FPAU) show that in-laws and husbands are playing a significant role in the decision to have married women circumcised.

In the past, girls between the age of 13 to 20 were the main participants. Today the age bracket has widened to 48 years of age. "This is partly because women who were not circumcised in their adolescent stages are going in for the knife upon marriage," says Patrick Kitiyo, a youth counsellor with FPAU-Kapchorwa, and one of the people who took part in the enumeration exercise.

Kitiyo says harassment, intimidation, peer pressure and cultural beliefs are some of the reasons married women are going in for the knife.

"These conditions apply more to women living deep in the villages. Here it is a taboo for uncircumcised women to climb into their own granaries, preside over cultural ceremonies and to collect cow dug from one's kraal," he said.

Kitiyo says it is also considered a taboo for uncircumcised woman to fetch water ahead of the circumcised women.

"They are referred to as 'girls' and elders look at them as people who have nothing developmental to contribute to any debate and because society has also deemed it a taboo for them to climb into granaries or even collect cow dug, these women have been forced to undertake
circumcision to avoid harassment," he explains.

As a result, the range of married women undergoing FGC is widening. Out of the 647 women who were circumcised last year, 436 (67.4%) were married.

The sub-counties of Benet, Bukwo, Swum, Kwanyi and Kaprorom registered the highest number of married females who under went circumcision.
Enumeration results also show that 344 of the FGC cases were from Kongasis County while Kween and Tingey registered 244 and 68 cases respectively.

Besides pressure from the husbands and in-laws, inadequate anti-FGC campaigns and low school enrollment for girls are other reasons responsible for the high cases of FGC.

However, Beatrice Chelangat, the Programme Manager for the Reproductive, Educative And Community Health (REACH) programme based in Kapchorwa says even with the new developments, circumcision will be no more by 2006 and history in Uganda by 2015. REACH is an advocacy programme geared towards the total elimination of FGC among the Sabiny.

"But while we are doing our best in eliminating the practice, girls we have saved from the knife in their adolescent stages are now falling victims upon marriage," she adds.

"However, we have laid a new plan and starting next year we will be targeting newly married couples. We want them to denounce FGC in the same way they did while in their adolescent stages," she says.

Women undergoing circumcision also vary according to fertility experience. While some are circumcised before giving birth, others are circumcised after.

FGC is associated with a lot of festivities. These involve feasting, family reunion and merry making by the community.

"After circumcision, the candidates are bestowed upon the status of womanhood. This is one of the factors that make the practice cherished," says Kitiyo.

Besides being a harmful practice, one associated with shock, painful scares labial adherences, clitoral cysts and chronic urinary infection, the Sabiny -- especially the elders -- still regard FGC as a sacred ritual that is sanctioned by their ancestors.

Their cultural belief is that a woman cannot be considered to be an adult until she has undergone this procedure.

The Sabiny elders believe that female circumcision is as old as the Sabiny people. The real history surrounding FGC remains a mystery. Two beliefs however try to explain the origin of FGC in Kapchorwa.

One such belief is of a young girl who fell sick for a long time. When the elders decided to consult the ancestors, the ancestors demanded that some blood from the girl's private parts must be shed for her to cure.

"To drop this blood, the girl was circumcised and eventually the practice was picked on by the other women," says Kitiyo.

The second belief is based on the Sabiny pastoral life style. Being herdsmen, the Sabiny men are said to have been so mobile. They were often away either busy looking after their cattle or hunting. But on their return home, the men would find their wives pregnant. The alternative was to circumcise them. Although FGC is deeply rooted in the culture and traditions of the communities that practice it, there are clear indications that once the appropriate strategies and approaches to the practice are designed, FGC is likely to be abandoned like it has been with other cultural practices: knocking out teeth and tattooing inclusive.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200312090148.html

Support for Female Circumcision Declining in Egypt

August 3, 2009 Story originally posted July 9, 2009 New research finds the practice of female circumcision is losing support in Egypt, reported Voice of America (VOA). Though the Egyptian government banned female circumcision in the 1990s and strengthened the restriction in 2007 after a high-profile case where a 12-year-old girl died after the ritual, female circumcision is still widespread, says Ann Way, a researcher with the organization Measure DHS, which has been collecting information on the practice since 1995. The government ban, along with the well-publicized deaths, led some people - to start questioning the practice. Interestingly, fewer wealthy girls and women currently have the practice performed on them, stated VOA. Only about a third of girls in the wealthiest 20 percent of Egypt’s population will be circumcised by the time they’re 18. In contrast, in the poorest 20 percent, about three-quarters of the girls will end up circumcised.