Fighting Female Genital Mutilation

September 2, 2010
Human Rights Watch

In Iraqi Kurdistan, 40 percent of women and girls between the ages of 14 and 22 have been subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM), surveys suggest, a practice that involves cutting out the clitoris. The practice is perpetuated by women -- often mothers, aunts and grandmothers - who say they want the best for the children, as they believe it makes their girls "clean" and marriageable.


Some link the practice to Sunni Islam's Shafi'i school of thought, to which most Kurds belong.Human Rights Watch researchers Nadya Khalife and photographer Samer Muscati traveled to the rural villages and farmlands of Iraqi Kurdistan to interview and photograph women about their experiences with FGM.


The ensuing Human Rights Watch report had immediate impact. Shortly after its release the Kurdistan Islamic Scholars Union issued a fatwa declaring that FGM isn't an Islamic practice and that people should abandon it if it is proven harmful.

As each traveled to Iraqi Kurdistan at a different time, it was only later that Nadya and Samer discussed their experiences researching this issue.

Nadya: FGM is such a nuanced issue for women, it's so sensitive. And yet, Samer, you're a man, and you photographed these women. Did you get any kind of push-back from such a conservative society because you're male?

The Practice of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting in Kenya’s Meru Society

September 16, 2009 After briefly reading about the prevalence of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) in the Meru tribe of Kenya while updating our website’s Media Watch section, I decided to do some further research on the history of FGM/C amongst Meru women, and what is being done to change these barbaric traditions. The tradition of FGM/C in the Meru society dates back to an ancient myth in which all healthy men of the village were sent off to fight enemy tribes, but upon their return from war, found their women impregnated by the weaker men who had been left behind. The myth continues that from this day forward, women were forced to endure the removal of their clitorises to deplete their sexual desires in the hopes that they would remain faithful to their warrior husbands. This practice of FGM/C has been carried forward into present Meru society despite the fact that these procedures have been illegal since 2001 under the Children’s Act. The Act specifically states: No person shall subject a child to female circumcision, early marriage or other cultural rites, customs or traditional practices that are likely to negatively affect the child’s life, health, social welfare, dignity or physical or psychological development. (Kenya 2001, Sec. 14) In an effort to change and modernize Meru society, elders of the tribe have begun to run an Alternative Rites-of-Passage (ARP) program that promotes both knowledge of cultural traditions of the Meru, as well as modern values. These ARP programs have been taught in several Meru locations since 2007, and so far more than 2,000 girls and young women have taken these classes as an alternative to the brutal FGM/C. The idea behind the program is to remain true to the values of the Meru and the idea of preparing girls for womanhood through education rather than physical mutilation. These young women learn about relationships, marriage, self-awareness, Meru cultural values and traditions, substance abuse and even HIV/AIDS. While ARP seems like the perfect alternative to FGM/C in the Meru society, there is still a huge amount of resistance to the change and FGM/C procedures are now often performed under cover of night, sometimes by individuals not qualified to perform them. There are so many risks and dangers involved in the practice of FGM/C (aside from the fact that it is a blatant violation of basic human rights), that these procedures are becoming increasingly dangerous. Some of the short-term side effects include severe pain, shock, hemorrhage, tetanus or sepsis (bacterial infection), urine retention, open sores in the genital region and damage or injury to nearby genital tissue. Some of the long-term consequences of FGM/C can include recurrent bladder and urinary tract infections, cysts, infertility, increased risk of childbirth complications and newborn deaths, and the need for further surgeries depending on the type of FGM/C that the woman was subjected to. There are four main procedures used to perform FGM/C and in brief they are: 1) Clitoridectomy: involves the partial or complete removal of the clitoris and sometimes the prepuce as well; 2) Excision: involves the partial or complete removal of the clitoris and the labia minora, which can or cannot include the removal of the labia majora as well; 3) Infibulation: the creation of a covering seal to narrow the vaginal opening. The seal is formed by removing and then repositioning the inner and/or outer labia. This procedure can or cannot involve the removal of the clitoris; and 4) Other: this includes all procedures performed on female genitals not for medical purposes and can include pricking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterizing the genital area. There are many organizations including the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund and local NGO’s throughout Africa that are trying to put an end to the practice of FGM/C. As I mentioned earlier, ARP programs are being created in different regions of the continent, including in the Meru society, but there are still millions of young girls at risk of FGM/C every year in Africa. Moving towards the eradication of FGM/C will require that education and awareness about the consequences of this procedure to young women (both physically and mentally) be made available to community leaders throughout the many regions in Africa where FGM/C is prevalent. In the meantime, it will be up to the many women who have suffered this barbaric procedure, and the brave men who support them to bring forward change in local communities through alternative learning programs. Hopefully the international community will continue to fight for the rights of children in developing countries, specifically the rights of girls, by bringing awareness to the public on such a large scale, that these violations of human rights can no longer be ignored.

Women and Violence

Violence affects the lives of millions of women worldwide, in all socio-economic and educational classes. It cuts across cultural and religious barriers, impeding the right of women to participate fully in society. Violence against women takes a dismaying variety of forms, from domestic abuse and rape to child marriages and female circumcision. All are violations of the most fundamental human rights. In a statement to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in September 1995, the United Nations Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, said that violence against women is a universal problem that must be universally condemned. But he said that the problem continues to grow. The Secretary-General noted that domestic violence alone is on the increase. Studies in 10 countries, he said, have found that between 17 per cent and 38 per cent of women have suffered physical assaults by a partner. In the Platform for Action, the core document of the Beijing Conference, Governments declared that “violence against women constitutes a violation of basic human rights and is an obstacle to the achievement of the objectives of equality, development and peace”. Traditional practices In many countries, women fall victim to traditional practices that violate their human rights. The persistence of the problem has much to do with the fact that most of these physically and psychologically harmful customs are deeply rooted in the tradition and culture of society. The Work Of The Special Reporter The issue of the advancement of women’s rights has concerned the United Nations since the Organization’s founding. Yet the alarming global dimensions of female-targeted violence were not explicitly acknowledged by the international community until December 1993, when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women. Until that point, most Governments tended to regard violence against women largely as a private matter between individuals, and not as a pervasive human rights problem requiring State intervention. In view of the alarming growth in the number of cases of violence against women throughout the world, the Commission on Human Rights adopted resolution 1994/45 of 4 March 1994, in which it decided to appoint the Special Reporter on violence against women, including its causes and consequences. As a result of these steps, the problem of violence against women has been drawing increasing political attention. The Special Reporter has a mandate to collect and analyze comprehensive data and to recommend measures aimed at eliminating violence at the international, national and regional levels. The mandate is threefold: ? To collect information on violence against women and its causes and consequences from sources such as Governments, treaty bodies, specialized agencies and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, and to respond effectively to such information; To recommend measures and ways and means, at the national, regional and international levels, to eliminate violence against women and its causes, and to remedy its consequences; To work closely with other special reporters, special representatives, working groups and independent experts of the Commission on Human Rights. Female genital mutilation According to the World Health Organization, 85 million to 115 million girls and women in the population have undergone some form of female genital mutilation and suffer from its adverse health effects. Every year an estimated 2 million young girls undergo this procedure. Most live in Africa and Asia — but an increasing number can be found among immigrant and refugee families in Western Europe and North America. Indeed, the practice has been outlawed in some European countries. In France, a Malian was convicted in a criminal court after his baby girl died of a female circumcision-related infection. The procedure had been performed on the infant at home. In Canada, fear of being forced to undergo circumcision can be grounds for asylum. A Nigerian woman was granted refugee status since she felt that she might be persecuted in her home country because of her refusal to inflict genital mutilation on her baby daughter. There is a growing consensus that the best way to eliminate these practices is through educational campaigns that emphasize their dangerous health consequences. Several Governments have been actively promoting such campaigns in their countries.

40% of Somali & Ethiopian Women in Netherlands Genitally Mutilated

August 29, 2009

THE HAGUE, 30/05/09 - Four out of ten Somali and Ethiopian women who give birth in the Netherlands have been genitally mutilated. This is relatively few, Health State Secretary Jet Bussemaker wrote to the Lower House on Friday.

The figures were recorded by research organisation TNO after questioning midwives. The number of cases of female circumcision is fairly low, since nine out of ten women in the countries of origin have been circumcised, Bussemaker reasoned.

To obtain a better picture of female circumcision, the state secretary previously announced that midwives would be registering this form of mutilation. They will also be trained in how to discuss circumcision with families.

I realise that the populace concerned is small, but the percentages are shocking. Criminal. And dont think this is just Islam. Ethiopia is a Christian nation. Christ, what a mess. But there is hope over to the south of Europe. I quote:

Italy plans to launch a campaign to focus attention on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in a bid to stem its practice in the country, Equal Opportunities Minister Mara Carfagna said on Wednesday. Some 150 million women are victims of the practice world-wide, with an estimated 35-40 thousand cases in Italy by foreigners living in the country, said Carfagna who called FGM "torture, a barbaric action".

The government plans to run a series of ads on state-run television in a bid to convince parents to end the practice.It is also setting up a committee to deal with the problem, which Carfagna said is "an underestimated phenomenon". "I plan to use my ministry's funds to combat and prevent a practice which violates human rights," she told a news conference. The government has already earmarked some 3.5 million euros and plans to add another four million to back 21 projects set up to deal with FGM.

FGM, which is also known as female circumcision, covers a number of different practices, usually involving either removing the clitoris or sewing up the vagina. The most severe form, infibulation, entails both, and accounts for around 15% of all procedures. An estimated 150 million women around the world have undergone genital mutilation, while some 6,000 girls are mutilated every day, according to the London-based human rights organization Amnesty International.

It is practiced in at least 28 African countries, and is also common in some Middle Eastern states, including Egypt, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates. Italy passed a law in January 2006 outlawing FGM. IT lays down jail terms of up to 12 years for those who carry out the procedure on adult women and up to 16 years if it is carried out on a minor or in exchange for money. Doctors caught carrying out FGM are banned from their profession for up to ten years. The law is applicable even if the woman is operated on abroad.

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

African woman defies death threats fighting circumcision

July 17, 2009

Hamburg - Her work has brought her death threats. Rugiatu Turay, 32, helps girls avoid the cruel and internationally condemned ritual of female genital mutilation (FGM).

Speaking about the millennia-old practice, which affects 8,000 girls worldwide daily, is taboo in Turay's homeland Sierra Leone, as it is in many other African countries.

But she refused to remain silent. In 2003, Turay founded the Amazonian Initiative Movement (AIM), a women's rights group that fights FGM.

"It's my heart's desire to spare girls the brutal genital mutilation that I myself experienced," she said.

Turay was 12 years old when she fell victim to female circumcision, a procedure in which the clitoris and labia are removed with knives and razor blades. It happened 10 days after the death of her mother, when Turay was taken to a secluded place along with her sisters and female cousins.

"We were glad. We didn't know what awaited us. We thought it was an outing," she emotionally recalled in the Hamburg office of the children's rights organization Plan International, which backs AIM.

"It was horrible," she said. "My sister lay screaming on the ground. I was blindfolded. I resisted with all my strength because my mother had told me that no one should touch me there."

Turay lost so much blood that she was unable to walk for seven days. She was not taken to hospital and nearly died.

"I fled to my father and showed him my wounds," she said. Her father could not help her, however.

"It's almost impossible to talk about it. They want you to be afraid. But I have no fear," Turay said. By "they" she meant the men of Poro, a powerful secret society in Sierra Leone. The Poro men tried to intimidate Turay by laying supposedly magic objects in front of her house.

But she went to the police and asked the Poro chief, "What would you do if someone wants to kill your child?"

According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), there are 150 million girls and women worldwide whose genitals have been mutilated. Most of them are in African and Arab countries such as Egypt, Ethiopia, Guinea, Mali, Sudan, Somalia and Sierra Leone.

Meant to prepare girls for marriage and motherhood, female circumcision is often associated with Islam. Neither the Koran nor the Bible mention it, however. But girls who have not been circumcised are considered "unclean."

The circumcisers, who are female, are highly respected and well paid. AIM does not try to publicly shame them, but to persuade them that circumcisions are a bad idea.

"We educate them about the consequences of genital mutilation and suggest alternative sources of income," Turay said, adding that she had converted the Poro chief by showing him a video of FGM.

Through Plan International, AIM also offers school seminars informing children of their human rights. Though an increasing number of girls are aware of the dreadful consequences of FGM, many are unable to overcome the power of the authorities and the circumcisers, as well as pressure from their families, and so have no choice but to flee.

"Since 2005, we've had a least three girls a year who ran away from genital mutilation," Turay said. They found shelter at an AIM centre in the African nation of Guinea, and two of the girls live in Turay's house in Lunsar, her home village.

"With the help of donations, we want to establish a women's refuge there, too," she said.

Viewing Female Genital Mutilation with the Legal Eye

July 9, 2009

Several domestic and international legislations have been passed outlawing this practice - how far would it go in protecting women from tradition?

As the world generally advances in age, technological breakthroughs are recorded and democratic governance is gradually accepted and deeply ingrained in the fabric of every human society, people everywhere are becoming more enlightened about the need to stop the practice of certain cultural traditions and conventions which were hitherto accepted or at least tolerated. These are practices that have been identified as being detrimental to any human good and brazenly border on barbarism. One of such practices is the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

To help in the fight, governments, legislators, human rights groups, the media and the legal practitioners are raising their voices against this heinous and most socially degrading practice meted on women. But how effective are these voices? Are they being heard?

Human rights activists and groups and the media have been successful in advancing legal arguments against FGM. The international community has taken a stand against this practice, creating international and domestic remedies that would lead to its eventual eradication. Laws that advance the cause for this much needed eradication include Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the African Charter on Human and peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), as well as several domestic statutes. Scores of prominent men and women from countries where FGM is practiced are making a global appeal that governments, international bodies and non-governmental organizations take more concentrated and concerted action to bring this practice to an end.

Silence and inaction concerning FGM are the best allies of this terrible practice that has already claimed the lives of several victims across the world. In February 2003, a conference tagged “Zero Tolerance” for FGM was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where it was observed that an intolerable number of women were mutilated and abused in the name of tradition; therefore the need to take a firm stand against this practice.

The United Nations General Assembly, in January 2002, adopted a resolution on traditional or customary practices affecting the health of women and girls. This resolution characterizes FGM as a serious threat to not only women, but to humanity at large. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and international and local non-governmental organizations often point to this resolution in their work. This resolution is also used by these organizations to hold governments accountable.

The contribution of CEDAW in the fight against FGM is monumental and worthy of note. It focuses on traditional practices which violate women and their human rights. Articles 1 and 5 of CEDAW specifically call for the elimination of discrimination against women based on cultural practices impairing women’s human rights and fundamental freedoms. This includes the need for the elimination of the practice of female circumcision.

In the same vein, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) contains the only codified prohibition of female circumcision in human rights laws. Article 24 (3) of the CRC requires nations to abolish traditional practices that would jeopardize the health of children. The articles’ scope encompasses female circumcision although not specifically mentioned. The term “harmful traditional practices” as used in the Article is widely defined to include FGM.

Article 4 of the African Charter states that, “…human beings are inviolable. Every person shall be entitled to respect for his life and integrity of his person”.

Article 5 of the same Charter further states that “torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment or treatment shall be prohibited”. The purport of Article 16 is to the effect that every African is entitled to the highest level of physical and mental health. Female circumcision is clearly in violation of the terms of these Articles. If women are entitled to the highest level of health maintenance, female circumcision must be considered a violation of such rights.

In addition to the variety of international documents which provide a useful framework for banning female circumcision, a number of countries prohibit the practice. Burkina Faso, Great Britain, Sweden, Switzerland are among the countries that have responded to this abuse against women. Countries such as Canada, France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Australia and Switzerland punish the practice under child abuse laws, while Great Britain and Sweden have explicitly outlawed the procedure. African countries such as Cameroon, Djibouti, Egypt, Ghana and Sudan have also enacted legislations which prohibit female circumcision.

In June 1995, the United States House of Representatives passed the retired-Representative Schroeder’s Resolution, “Urging the president to help end the practice of female (circumcision) Worldwide”. However, it was not until September 30th, 1996 that the US Congress enacted a provision criminalizing the practice of FGM as part of the Illegal Immigration Reform Responsibility Act of 1996.

Nigeria is not left out in the campaign against FGM and the protection of the fundamental rights of women. FGM has been outlawed in four of its states – Edo, Cross-Rivers, Delta and Ogun covering some areas of the country where this practice is especially widespread. Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa States are reported to be close to passing similar laws. Chapter 4 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution guarantees that all citizens are entitled to equal rights, including women. The chapter enshrines fundamental human rights such as right to life, right to dignity of the human person, right to freedom from discrimination and a host of other rights.

The question that must be asked is; how effective are these legislations in curbing this evil and inhuman practice? Legislation serves as a framework by which FGM and other similar abuses will eventually be eliminated through the prescription and enforcement of penalties. But it must be noted that what is commonly known to the international community as FGM is indeed a cultural habit that has been learned over long periods of time, and as a popular saying puts it, “old habits die hard”. In this vein, punishment is not as effective as education and prevention. This cultural habit can be unlearned through proper enlightenment and awareness.

Where undue emphasis is placed on legislation and punishment, the end result can be counter productive as it might force the practice to go further underground. Women who have been battered may not seek medical care later in life because their parents might be charged; parents may be reluctant to take their mutilated children to the hospital if complications arise for fear of being criminally charged with child abuse.

In the 21st century, it is unfortunate that Female Genital Mutilation with its grave consequences on the health of women is still practiced. It is hoped that African governments in collaboration with countries world over will take proactive steps to end this practice. These steps as a matter of necessity and urgency should go beyond enacting legislations to educating people on the dangers of this heinous practice.

Gambian Communities Pledge to Abandon FGM and Forced Marriage

July 2, 2009 Twenty-four communities in Gambia have pledged to end the practices of female genital mutilation and early or forced marriage of young girls. The reform is due in large part to the work of Tostan, an organization facilitating community-led development in East and West Africa. Joined by UNICEF and supported by the Gambian government, the 24 communities commemorated their pledge with a ceremony. With powerful symbolism, Kobaye Nyabally, a native of Dasilameh who said she had been cutting herself for years as part of a cultural practice she had inherited from her parents, “pledged to abandon the practice by dropping her knife in front of the crowd.” Regional health officer Saikouna Sagina commended the communities for their show of support for the health rights of women and girls, adding that “the declaration by the 24 communities is a clear manifestation [of] the knowledge gained…[that] is impacting positively on their lives.” It is the hope of organizations such as Tostan and UNICEF that the momentous commitment of the communities will serve as a regional and international example. Gambia’s practice rate of FGM is among the highest in Africa, 78 percent among women aged 15-49 years, as AllAfrica informs. And her is the rest of it.

A Mother's Nightmare: A Senegalese Woman Struggles to Save Her Daughters

By Karen Yi From the June 26, 2009 issue Having survived female genital mutilation when she was three years old in Senegal, Fatoumata does not want her four U.S.-born daughters to face the same violence. But as an undocumented immigrant at risk of deportation, the past Fatoumata fought to leave behind might be catching up to her children. Fatoumata, who requested that her last name be withheld, is fighting her case in U.S. immigration courts. If her application for political asylum is denied, then she faces the unenviable dilemma of either separating from her children, who have U.S. citizenship, or moving them back to Senegal where her family is demanding her daughters undergo the traditional genital cutting. “What we see is that the U.S. asylum system at present is widely inconsistent in resolving gender-based claims,” said Jeanne Smoot, director of public policy at the Tahirih Justice Center, a nongovernmental organization that works to protect women and girls from gender-based violence. “There really is a lack of recognition, a lack of clear compassion for the fact that obviously a fear of persecution to one’s children really is a fear of persecution to oneself.” More than 14 years ago, Fatoumata arrived in the United States with her husband and settled in New York City. Her husband immediately applied for political asylum, listing her for “derivative status,” a provision that helps protect spouses and children. His application was denied. Fatoumata’s lawyer could not comment on the case. Fatoumata and her husband, however, remained in the United States illegally and began a family. Thirteen years and six children later, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested Fatoumata’s husband on July 20, 2007. She said that ICE arrived at their home in the middle of the night, taking Fatoumata and her children by surprise. “My children were in the bed that time,” Fatoumata said. “They were shaking,” because of “the way ICE was acting, yelling, screaming. They have flashlights, they carry the guns, they were going all over the house.” The house raid, and subsequent deportation of her husband four months later, left Fatoumata struggling as a single mom with six kids. Without legal status to work, Fatoumata has no means of earning a steady income and has recently moved into the New York City shelter system, relying on $731 in food stamps a month to feed her family. “We came so we can make a family and a better place, that’s our dream,” Fatoumata said, “but I don’t know. It’s getting worse for us.” Although female genital mutilation is illegal in Senegal, enforcement is very weak, explains Taina Bien-Aimé, executive director of Equality Now, an international human rights organization dedicated to women’s rights. “It is such a strong cultural tradition and it’s also very difficult for the child to go and complain,” Bien-Aimé said. Although the procedure varies in each country and village, Bien-Aimé described a typical scenario of female genital mutilation: “A number of women hold the girl down — one at her head, one at each arm. They open her legs and then they just take whatever they have available — a razor, a sharp knife, sometimes a stone — and they start slicing. It is generally done without anesthesia and in very unsanitary conditions.” The procedure involves the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia. This scene could await Fatoumata’s four daughters, 6, 9, 11 and 13 years old. Facing heavy pressure from her family back in Senegal to have her daughters subjected to the cutting, Fatoumata fears the worst. “If I go back [to Senegal] I don’t have any power to stop them,” she said. Female genital mutilation is most commonly performed between the ages of four and eight, but it can take place from infancy to adolescence. It is considered one of the worst violations listed in the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. Amnesty International estimates that, as of 2005, more than 136 million women worldwide have been affected by some form of genital cutting. If Fatoumata is not granted political asylum, she could be deported back to Senegal. Rather than leave her six children in foster care, Fatoumata says she’ll take them with her. But with the safety of her kids on the line, Fatoumata is fighting for a way to stay here, and she is not alone. A coalition of immigrant rights and faithbased groups have formed a defense committee for Fatoumata, providing advocacy and resources and promoting public awareness. Two years ago Fatoumata filed a motion to reopen her asylum case. The motion was denied by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) and is currently waiting to be heard in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Joshua Bardavid, Fatoumata’s pro-bono immigration attorney, said he expects her case to be denied based on a procedural hurdle established by the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. Under the 1996 laws, a person cannot reopen his or her case more than 90 days after the case is decided. Bardavid, however, is working on a new motion to reopen her case based on evidence that asylum status is needed in order to protect her daughters. While the 1996 case of Fauziya Kasinga established female genital mutilation as a reason for political asylum, Smoot said, “The law at present doesn’t provide a clear means for parents seeking to protect their children to be granted asylum.” “Fatoumata’s case is really emblematic of what’s wrong with the system,” said Janis Rosheuvel, director of Families for Freedom, an immigrant rights organization. “To make the impossible choice between those two terrible extremes — either to place their daughters at risk but keep their families together or remove that risk only by surrendering those girls to grow a world apart from them, in our opinion, effectively threatens to create a foster class of girls who are left behind here and families that are separated in order to secure the girls’ protection,” Smoot said. Since the United States approves the applications of just over 20 percent of the political asylum cases each year, Fatoumata faces an uphill battle. According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Executive Office of Immigration Review, the Immigration Courts granted about 10,700 of about 47,400 asylum cases in fiscal year 2008. “When I think about why Fatoumata not deserves, but needs, to stay here, I can just count to six … her six kids who are all U.S. citizens,” Rosheuvel said.

Islam and Female Genital Mutilation

June 27, 2009

Women have been circumcised for thousands of years, and the custom has become deeply ingrained in human thought. Tradition demands that women be circumcised, and it is often the women themselves who wish to continue this ritual, partly to prevent sexual desire in girls. Indeed, an uncircumcised girl is considered worthless on the marriage market in many places because she is perceived as being "impure" and "loose."

Although circumcision is often justified for supposedly religious reasons, there is no religious justification for the practice in either Christianity or Islam.

Sharp condemnation by religious and moral leaders is needed to ban this horrific practice. But movement does appear to be afoot -- at least if an event that took place in Cairo two weeks ago is any indication. It bordered on a minor revolution.

Muslim scholars and academics from Germany, Africa and the Middle East spent two days discussing female genital mutilation. The goal of the conference was to declare this form of circumcision to be incompatible with the ethics of Islam as a global religion.

It was a German who organized and funded the conference. In 2000 Rüdiger Nehberg, 71, a man known for adventurous exploits that have included crossing the Atlantic in a pedal boat, founded Target, a human rights organization dedicated to fighting female genital mutilation. Since then Nehberg, accompanied by his life partner Annette Weber, has been traveling throughout Africa with his video camera, documenting the inhuman practice and attempting to win over political and religious leaders for his cause. Wherever he goes, Nehberg says: "This custom can only be brought to an end with the power of Islam." In organizing the conference, which was held at Cairo's Al-Azhar University under the patronage of Egyptian Grand Mufti Ali Jumaa, Nehberg has come one step closer to his goal. Many important Muslim scholars attended the event. The Egyptian minister for religious charities, Mahmoud Hamdi Saksuk, condemned the practice, as did the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar University, Mohammed Sayyid Tantawi. Even the renowned and notorious Egyptian religious scholar and journalist Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who enjoys great popularity in the Middle East as a result of his commentary on the Aljazeera television network, attended the Cairo conference.

Qaradawi did full justice to his reputation as a hardliner by initially criticizing the fact that the conference was paid for by a foreign institution, and not the practice of mutilation. He also complained that the title, "The Prohibition of Violation of the Female Body through Circumcision" was biased and presumptuous.

But after plenty of hemming and hawing, even Qaradawi managed to agree that the Koran states that it is forbidden to mutilate God's creation. "We are on the side of those who ban this practice," he said, but added that doctors ought to have the last word.

This wasn't enough for women's rights activists. Mushira Chattab, the Egyptian first lady's special ambassador and chairwoman of the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood, called upon the legal scholars at the meeting to take a clear position against female circumcision. Then she turned to Qaradawi and said: "You should not leave it up to doctors to condemn this practice."

Every doctor at the conference agreed that there is no medical justification for female genital mutilation. Heribert Kentenich, physician-in-chief of the women's clinic at the DRK Hospitals in Berlin expressed a "complete lack of understanding" for the fact that 75 percent of circumcisions are now performed by doctors in Egypt. "I find it almost more horrifying that doctors are enriching themselves by doing this," he added.

The drop in the estimated incidents of female circumcision has dropped significantly -- some believe as much as from 97 percent to approximately 50 percent -- but it is impossible to obtain precise figures. Even at 50 percent, that would still represent roughly 400,000 girls a year. Kentenich believes that the "medicalization of female genital mutilation makes it seem more acceptable."

The direct consequences include hemorrhaging, as well as severe pain and anxiety that can lead to trauma. Besides, the practice can also cause infections in the urinary tract, the uterus, the fallopian tube and the ovaries. Other consequences such as tetanus infections, gangrene and blood poisoning can be fatal.

Besides, women who are subjected to pharaonic mutilation experience increased pain during menstruation, when blood accumulates in the vagina because the opening is too small to permit normal flow. Mutilated women are also at greater risk for becoming infected with HIV.

Intercourse is painful for circumcised women. To be able to penetrate, men must often force themselves into their wives' vaginas. Those whose penises are incapable of doing the job use a knife to enlarge the opening.

Circumcised women can face complications during pregnancy, and both the mother and child are at greater risk of dying in childbirth.

There is no religious justification for this practice. All three major monotheistic world religions define man as a perfect creation of the Almighty, and condemn doing any harm to God's creation.

In Sura 95, Verse 4, the Koran states: "We have created man in our most perfect image." Besides, in Islam men and women are meant to experience sexual fulfillment, and it is considered the husband's matrimonial duty to satisfy his wife -- a near impossible task when a woman is circumcised.

Although the conference's attendees were generally in agreement over these facts, men repeatedly insisted on defending circumcision as an established custom. "Our women have been circumcised for thousands of years, and they have never complained," said an agitated elderly man in the audience. The conference, he said, was a Western conspiracy, and showing pictures of circumcisions was a crime.

But the academics and scholars in attendance declared genital circumcision to be a deplorable custom without any basis in religious texts. They called upon the parliaments in the countries where the practice is common to pass laws making genital mutilation a crime.

The Grand Mufti of Egypt signed the resolution the next day. Ali Jumaa declared that he firmly believed that the fight against this terrible custom would succeed. Muslims base much of their behavior on legal opinions issued by religious scholars.

For Rüdiger Nehberg, the adventurer on a crusade for women, the conference represented the fulfillment of a dream. He now plans to "print a small book containing the recommendation and the scholars' comments and distribute 4 million copies worldwide."

Communities in URR Vow to Stop FGC

June 24, 2009 As many as 24 villages in the Upper River Region recently converged to celebrate what is called Darsilameh Mandinka public declaration for the abandonment of Female Genital Cutting (FGC) of children and forced-marriage, at a colourful ceremony held at Darsilameh Village in Sandu District. The celebration characterised with a series of cultural activities was organised by the communities and supported by TOSTAN-UNICEF and the government of the Gambia. Speaking at the programme, Mr. Bakary Fofana, the Chairman of the steering committee in Darsilameh, who doubles as the Community Development Assistant (CDA) welcomed the crowd for attending this important ceremony which, he said, is a history for UNICEF, TOSTAN, and the government of the Gambia. Mr. Fofana noted that over twenty-four (24) community in Sandu and Wuli District (including adopted communities have united together to openly declare to abandon the practices of Female Genital Cutting and forced-marriage. He noted that this decision does not just occur, but happened after an intensive three years community programme, led by facilitators with social mobilisation and sensitisation activities by the team, communities and the C.M.C. members on issues affecting health and personal well-being as well violating fundamental rights. According to him, after evaluating both the positive and negative effects of the practices often with careful observation, discussion and dialogue with the community members and local and influential leaders, the 24 communities have decided to openly and voluntarily declare to abandon the cultural practices of (FGC) child and forced-marriage. Mr. Fofana further asserted that it is important to note that the TOSTAN Community Empowerment Programme is not only focusing on Female Genital Cutting, but the programme is a holistic approach to community led sustainable development, covering issues such as democracy, good governance, human rights, problem-solving, health, hygiene and literacy. He added that, the community and the TOSTAN Programme cannot achieve this major success without the crucial support of the National Women’s Bureau through the Gambia government in promoting an enabling environment. Mr. Fofana added that the impersonation of any development project depends on the availability of resources. “We acknowledge and thank UNICEF for providing the funding and support over the years making it possible for us to witness this very important ceremony. It is evidence that the brain behind all this is the initiator of the community empowerment of the African Community and women, in particular which cannot go unrecognised”. For his part, Mr. Saikuna Sanyang, Head of Regional Health Team in the Upper River Region expressed delight to be associated with the event. He noted that the health sector has recognised TOSTAN as their key partners in the region. “We see this mass open declaration of abandoning Female Genital Cutting as a positive move,” he stated. Other speakers included female genital cutters, all of whom, promised to drop the knife with immediate effect. Mr. Momodou S. Kah, the Deputy Governor of URR expressed similar sentiments and urged the community to maintain their promise that they will drop the knife. He also applauded TOSTAN and UNICEF for bringing such a development project to their door-steps. For his part, Mr. Bakary Tamba, TOSTAN Gambia’s National Co-ordinator said TOSTAN aims to complement the Gambia government, and UNICEF’s efforts in empowering the Gambian communities for sustainable development in positive social transformation, based on respect for human rights and democratic principles. He concluded that TOSTAN Gambia works in partnership with UNICEF and the Women’s Bureau. Author: Abdoulie Nyockeh

A public pledge to end Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting in Gambia

By Alison Parker DARSILAMI, Gambia, 22 June 2009 – The festive atmosphere in this village in the Upper River Region was reminiscent of a wedding. But the singing and dancing was, in fact, part of celebration at which 24 neighbouring villages publicly declared the end of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) practises in their communities. Kobaie Nyabaly a former FGM/C practitioner walked briskly to the podium and boldly gave her testimony before the crowd of more than 600 onlookers, including religious leaders, village chiefs, and youth groups. “There were times when the children collapsed and some even went into a coma,” she recalled of her time practicing FGM/C. “The parents would bring various items to be sacrificed to save their children. We told the parents to go and see the sorcerers, they were told that it was the work of witchcraft. I never knew that my knife was the witch.” Catalyst for change The ceremony, which consisted of many testimonies like Ms. Nyabaly’s, was the second such event and a landmark in the UNICEF-supported Community Development and Empowerment Programme. The programme has been introduced in 80 communities throughout the Upper River Region to give communities an innovative and holistic approach towards social change. Implemented by the non-governmental organization Tostan, the programme focuses on themes of democracy and good governance, human rights and responsibilities, problem solving, hygiene, health, literacy and management skills. The programme uses methods based on African oral traditions such as stories, poetry, theatre and song. Practical literacy skills reinforce these themes, enabling participants to review and share new knowledge with neighbours and relatives. A harmful tradition FGM/C is practiced in about 28 countries in Africa and Western Asia. Gambia is among the worst offenders, with a 78 per cent practice rate among women 15 – 49 years. The practice rate is even higher in the Upper River Region. FGM/C has been linked to serious physical and mental health risks for girls and women – including complications at child birth, maternal deaths, infertility, urinary incontinence, infection and tetanus, amongst others. The 2005 Children’s Act provides a legal frame work to address harmful traditional practices such as early marriage and FGM/C. But the persistence of the practice and the cultural sensitivities surrounding the tradition makes dialogue, evidence-based advocacy and community empowerment the best interventions. Public advocates Public platforms like the one in Darsilami are going a long way towards ending this harmful tradition, as respected practitioners encourage a change in mindset. “When I look back, I cannot undo what I have done,” said Ms. Nyabaly. “The only thing I can do to make up for my past deeds is to become an advocate and call upon all women to come together and collectively bring an end to this practice as the responsibility starts with us.”

Parliament Tackles Genital Mutilation

June 22, 2009 A parliamentary committee has drawn up a proposal to strengthen the law against female genital mutilation. The draft of a new code would specifically punish the practice, even if the acts were committed in a foreign country where they’re not illegal. Those convicted of the act would be sentenced to up to10 years in prison. Parliamentarians were mostly in support of the measure, although some said it doesn’t go far enough. Women’s rights NGO Alliance F is also calling for more education to prevent the practice in the first place.

Gambia: Reaching the FGM/C Tipping Point

June 18, 2009 BANJUL, 18 June 2009 (IRIN) - "In politics and sociology you reach a tipping point and once you've reached it, things change," says Min-whee Kang of the UN Children's Fund. "This is what we're aiming at to stop female genital mutilation and cutting in The Gambia." But a strong attachment to the practice in the country means anti-FGM activists must combat the custom indirectly through focusing on improving girls' and women's health and education. Twenty-four community represenatives in Gambia's Upper River Region on 12 June signed a public declaration abandoning female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C), in the presence of government officials, village chiefs, women's groups and international development agencies. They were the first of 80 villages in the region – all of them from the Mandinka or Fula ethnic groups – where West African NGO Tostan, supported by UNICEF, are working to eliminate FGM/C. "We are using an 'organized diffusion model': we start with just a few villages, targeting everyone – girls, women, men, chiefs, Imams [religious leaders], and as the word spreads, they spread the message to other villages," UNICEF's Gambia head, Kang told IRIN. "It's a people-to-people approach." The Upper River Region has the country's highest FGM/C rates, with 90 percent of women and girls undergoing cutting, as opposed to 78 percent countrywide, according to 2006 government figures. FGM/C poses numerous physical and mental health risks, including birth complications, maternal death, infertility, urinary incontinence and tetanus, says a Tostan and UNICEF communiqué. Despite several decades of NGO attempts to curtail FGM/C in The Gambia, rates have not fallen. Indeed the average age of girls being cut is dropping, according to Kang. "People do not really understand the health implications [of FGM/C]," Kang said. "There are myths about where it originates from and why it is done." But some Gambians resent what they see as interference. Ma Hawa Conteh, 55, mother of three girls from Upper River Region, told IRIN: "There is a lot of noise made by people that [female] circumcision is not good, but I have never seen someone who had died as a result of it. Instead I think women have been healthier." Binta Balajoh, 22, from the Serekunda area, 12km from the capital Banjul, told IRIN she was cut when she was nine years old: "The prophet said Muslim males and females should be circumcised…When I was young I used to feel pain, but now that I have children the pain is gone." Both are dismayed at what they see as the interference of outsiders in their traditional customs. "We should not question what used to happen in the past - we must do as tradition dictates," Conteh told IRIN. "Some women have been paid to come and confuse us so that we will abandon what our ancestors have been practicing. Who are these people to raise their voice? I am a devout Muslim and I will follow the teachings of the prophet…I think they [anti-FGM/C campaigners] are misguided." Indirect approach Facing such strong attachment to the custom, Tostan staff realized they had to take an indirect approach to change. Some anti-FGM/C campaigners have in the past used shock tactics including displaying pictures of the cutting process to villagers, but these have backfired, instead pushing the practice underground, UNICEF's Kang said. "We must be sensitive. From many women's perspective it is out of genuine care for their daughters' social status and ability to marry that they perpetuate the practice." Working in Upper River Region, where half of the adults are illiterate, and most have not undergone formal schooling, Tostan instead incorporates FGM/C messages into a wider education programme addressing human rights, democracy and citizenship, nutrition, and health issues. "We do not talk directly about FGM/C…We discuss how girls are pulled out of school to undergo child marriages; we talk about participation in society; we look at some of the health problems women may face when delivering babies," said Bakary Tamba, Tostan's Programme Coordinator. "Then we address FGM/C through this." The hope is that once participants starting making links between FGM/C and some of these social issues, they will pass on their learning to other families, villagers and religious leaders, and eventually on to other villages, Tamba said. Threatening Islam is not the point, he stressed: "These discussions do not have to mean they are letting down the Islamic religion." Indeed some NGOs encourage villagers to retain a female initiation ceremony – just without the cutting. Changing attitudes to traditional practices that villagers hold dear is challenging, but practitioners must not shy away, said Kang. "Take foot-binding in in China – it was once a social norm, but social norms are man-made constructs that we agree among ourselves…We need to emancipate people to rethink such social norms when they cause people harm." President Yahya Jammeh backs a ban on FGM/C and supports the campaign, but is not yet ready to pass a law banning the practice, Tamba said. "We have to go slowly, knowing the people who are involved in it. Banning FGM/C now could create problems…but one day a law could be passed," he said. aj/as/np © IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.IRINnews.org Source: IRIN Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.

Fight Against FGM boosted - As 24 communities drop the knife in URR

Thursday, June 18, 2009 In what could be described as yet another victory in the fight against female genital mutilation (FGM), about 24 communities in the Upper River Region on Sunday the 14th June, solemnly declared publicly that they will no longer circumcise their girls. In a well attended declaration ceremony held in Darsilami Mandinka, Sandu District, prominent circumcisers in the area pledged to discard the practice, which according to the World Health Organisation has left millions of women’s rights violated. The declaration ceremony, which was attended by thousands of women and children, was organised by the 24 communities in partnership with Tostan, an International NGO operating in the URR, with the support of UNICEF. In his welcome address at the occasion, the deputy governor of the URR, Momodou S Kah reiterated the government’s commitment to bringing health care and education to the people, which he said Tostan had been complementing. He urged Tostan and the 24 communities to work harder and continue their good job, assuring them of his office’s support at all times. Bakary Tamba, Tostan’s country co-ordinator, explained to the gathering that Tostan’s mission is to empower African communities to bring about sustainable development and positive social transformation based on respect for human rights. According to Tamba, in 2006, Tostan established a partnership with The Gambia Women’s Bureau and UNICEF to facilitate non-formal education in The Gambia. Co-ordinator Tamba further stated that the declaration that the women were making, will go a long way in maintaining good maternal health. He urged the women to continue advocating and sensitising their relatives and fellows. He finally thanked the government of The Gambia through the deputy governor for providing the conducive environment for them to execute their roles. Also speaking during the declaration ceremony, Bakary Fofana, a community development worker in Darsilami, said the 24 communities in Sandu and Wuli have united to openly abandon the practices of female genital cuttig or mutilation (FGC/M), and forced marriage. “After evaluating both the positive and the negative effects of the practice, often with careful observations, discussions and dialogue with the community members and local and influential leaders, the 24 communities have decided openly and willingly to abandon the cultural practice of FGC/M and child forced marriage,” he said. Reading the declaration on behalf of the 24 communities who were all paraded before the gathering, Mansata Kanteh said they had came to the decision after having gone through the Tostan community empowerment programme where they learnt about health, hygiene, democracy, human rights and problem solving. She further stated that their decision was historic, and aims at reinforcing the national movement for the promotion of human rights in The Gambia, in Africa and the rest of the world. She also expressed gratitude to the government, under the leadership of Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh. The UNICEF country director/representative, Min Whee Khang paid tribute to the 24 communities for choosing to abandon and forget FGC/M. The Unicef country representative also said that she was indeed delighted with The Gambia’s leadership for strengthening and fostering the partnership with UNICEF in the development of the rural communities. Author: by Alieu Jamanka in Basse URR

Daughters of Charity empower young girls to say no to mutilation

June 15, 2009 Systemic change is urgently needed when 130 million girls and women worldwide are currently living with the consequences of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) according to the World Health Organization. In Africa, about three million girls are at risk for FGM annually (WHO, 2008). Girls are usually not given a choice whether to engage in this practice; sometimes even being taken against their will or the wishes of their parents. It is not uncommon for these young girls to end up requiring emergency medical treatment, if it is available. However, in 2008, in the rural community of Masanga in the far north of Tanzania, the Daughters of Charity mobilized mothers and concerned community citizens to take a stand against mandatory imposing of FGM on young girls. Since FGM is a highly sensitive issue often embedded in traditional cultures, opposition to this harmful practice is sometimes restrained. In December 2008 the Daughters and collaborators organized and implemented a camp that literally provided a safe haven for girls who chose not to be forced to participate in this brutal practice. Inside St. Catherine’s School, the camp became home and security for 53 young girls who dealt with a mixture of pride, conviction and fear during the several weeks of cutting ceremonies. Due to threats, extra security was added and the parents insisted that the girls not be allowed to be taken by anyone, even family members. One Daughter marveled and explained, “actually it was very impressive to see the confidence that the parents and the girls had in us.” Research confirms that if a community that currently engages in FGM makes a decision to abandon this practice, it can be eliminated fairly quickly. This is the hope of the families of young girls and community leaders who have banded together with the Daughters in Tanzania to fight for the rights of the girls. Facilitating such a dynamic change has required bold and courageous action on the part of the girls, their families, and the program supporters. (The following is the understated yet moving report from the Daughters of Charity International Project Services from which the above was abstracted. It can be downloaded as a Word document dcs-tanzania-fgm-. There is also some video footage of the ceremonies leading up to the “cutting” which can be made available upon request by using the “Contact Us” link on FAMVIN.ORG. IPS also has a FaceBook page.) Daughters in Tanzania empower young girls to “Say NO to FGM!” A project facilitated by Daughters of Charity International Project Services “Even though cultural practices may appear senseless or destructive from the standpoint of others, they have meaning and fulfill a function for those who practice them. However, culture is not static; it is in constant flux, adapting and reforming. People will change their behavior when they understand the hazards and indignity of harmful practices and when they realize that it is possible to give up harmful practices without giving up meaningful aspects of their culture.” - Female Genital Mutilation, A joint WHO/UNICEF/UNFPA statement, World Health Organization, Geneva, 1997. According to the World Health Organization, it is estimated that 130 million girls and women worldwide are currently living with the consequences of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). In Africa, about three million girls are at risk for FGM annually (WHO, 2008). FGM, the non-therapeutic practice of injury or removal of female external genitalia or organs, is a long-standing practice in many cultures. Generally FGM is conducted by non-medical, traditional practitioners known as “cutters,” without benefit of anesthesia or medical interventions. Traumatic results include horrific pain and shock, and often severe blood loss, ulceration and injury to tissues. Sometimes the health risks result in serious consequences such as septic infections, infertility or obstructed labor, or are even life-threatening. Beyond atrocious medical ramifications, FGM is a violation of the rights of women and girls, and often deemed to be gender discrimination. Ellen Gruenbaum, in her 2001 book, The Female Circumcision Controversy, states that “Female circumcision is practiced by people of many ethnicities and various religious backgrounds, including Muslims, Christians and Jews, as well as followers of traditional African religions. For some it is a rite of passage. For others it is not. Some consider it aesthetically pleasing. For others, it is mostly related to morality or sexuality.” Reports cite that ethnicity and little or no level of education often correlate with increased incidence of FGM practices. And in some instances, such as the case in Tanzania, rural regions do appear to have a higher incidence of FGM. In Masanga, Tanzania, where the Daughters of Charity work, the mothers of the Kuria tribe, the largest tribe in the Mara region, explain the ceremony of Female Genital Mutilation, known as Tohara: One of the five clans, the Wairegi, is traditionally responsible for initiating the cutting. With the sacrifice of a white lamb, the elders assure that the signs are in order for the ceremony to begin. Or, if they feel that others are in opposition, it is a black lamb. Generally during the month of December, a grassy area is prepared with fetishes and special woods to receive the young girls. Each day the Ngariba (the traditional cutter) can cut up to 400 girls. In a massive ceremony, the girls are brought to the cutter by boys donned in crowns of ostrich feathers and carrying lances, and accompanied by highly decorated women. Waiting in one of several lines until it is their turn, the girls stand exposed and nearly naked, wearing only a small hat and a short blouse. The price for cutting is fixed by the elders, and paid in full. During the cutting, the girls are told not to cry or move, even if it is very painful. Her sponsor closes the girl’s eyes and sits on her chest. Two others hold her legs. If the young girl cries, it is a big shame upon her and her parents. If she does not cry, then she has honored her family and will certainly make a good wife. After cutting, the elders allow the girls to leave; they bless them and each family takes their girl down the road back to their home, accompanied by people singing. The girl must walk home on her own, where she will lie down on an animal skin. However, by this time, she has usually lost a great deal of blood. The family celebrates with singing, dancing and special cooking preparations. The girl receives ugali and beans as her first food. At five o’clock in the evening, the women invite the girl to the gala (a place for storing food). She is now suffering greatly, but must walk to the gala, where they take hot water and wash her wounds. The women remove a lot of blood which has formed clots, and the girl cries because the process it so very painful. Now those around the girl can cry as well. Accompanied by an assigned younger girl, the newly circumcised girl must walk around for four days, to show people that she is now healed. After staying in the house for three weeks, the elders organize a dance where the girls will attend to show the men that they are now ready to be married. Girls are usually not given a choice whether to engage in this practice; sometimes even being taken against their will or the wishes of their parents. It is not uncommon for these young girls to end up requiring emergency medical treatment, if it is available. Since FGM is a highly sensitive issue often embedded in traditional cultures, opposition to this harmful practice is sometimes restrained. However, in 2008, in the rural community of Masanga in the far north of Tanzania, the Daughters of Charity mobilized mothers and concerned community citizens to take a stand against mandatory imposing of FGM on young girls. Research confirms that if a community that currently engages in FGM makes a decision to abandon this practice, it can be eliminated fairly quickly. This is the hope of the families of young girls and community leaders who have banded together with the Daughters in Tanzania to fight for the rights of the girls. Facilitating such a dynamic change has required bold and courageous action on the part of the girls, their families, and the program supporters. In December of 2008, the Daughters and collaborators organized and implemented a camp that literally provided a safe haven for girls who chose not to be forced to participate in this brutal practice. Inside St. Catherine’s School, the camp became home and security for 53 young girls who dealt with a mixture of pride, conviction and fear during the several weeks of cutting ceremonies. Due to threats, extra security was added and the parents insisted that the girls not be allowed to be taken by anyone, even family members. One Daughter marveled and explained, “actually it was very impressive to see the confidence that the parents and the girls had in us.” Even in light of serious opposition, the Sisters and supporters mounted a campaign to raise awareness among community members regarding the harmful consequences of FGM, and offered an alternative. Weeks before graduation day from the camp program, invitations to the ceremony were sent to the elders and tribal leaders, the bishop, local pastors, priests and sisters, police, journalists, “cutters” and others involved with the FGM practice, as well as an open invitation to the general public. On Graduation Day, each girl formally read her desire and promise to never accept FGM, and was given a T-shirt with these words printed in Kiswahili: “God saw that all creation was good: Say NO to FGM!” In a processional, every girl carried a candle as a sign of her new life and a beacon of hope for others. As mass ended, the parents lit their daughters’ candles and blessed them, symbolizing their solidarity and the historic and systemic changes that were radiating throughout the community. A ceremony transpired after Mass with songs and dances by the young girls, a presentation for guests, and the elders responded with encouragement and support for the girls and their families. They asked the committee to continue their work of education and awareness. Each girl was received by the elders and given an official place in “liga”, which is the equivalent to what the rite of circumcision does for girls in the Kuria tribe. The highest authorities in the community declared that no one could speak badly or endanger these girls because they had chosen not to be cut. Since that time, one girl from the camp has been forcibly taken and cut. However, the committee pursued justice, and the responsible party has been imprisoned. Today, working together with those who were willing to stand against FGM, the Daughters are providing a holistic and community-based program that includes comprehensive education and awareness, and plans for another camp for the young girls during the next ”ceremonial cutting timeframe” that will offer protection, education, and a Christian alternative right of passage. Funds to support this program were facilitated through Daughters of Charity International Project Services (DCIPS), and DCIPS plans to assist the Daughters in securing additional funds to continue this life-changing program. The girls are realizing increased self esteem and empowerment, and their inherent rights, including over their own bodies. Daughters of Charity St. Catherine Laboure School Tanzania Camp for Girls: Nov. - Dec. 2008 Poem about Circumcision Culture, culture, culture, I love you my culture. All over the world People know me by you. Shukas, panga and beads, That’s my dressing. Busara, Ntobeke, gichure, MMM! That’s my food. BUT! One thing, circumcision- It is for the boys. And not for the girls. You hurt, humiliate and destroy me! Please culture, don’t be a monster. Say “NO! NO! NO!” to female circumcision. As for boys, not the old man’s knife But, to the hospital. Thank you! -Poem written by a Standard Two Teacher for the girls of the Camp, who recited it together with gestures. Individuals and organizations interested in becoming supportive partners for this courageous program of change and empowerment, or interested in learning about other projects, can contact Sr. Felicia Mazzola, Director of Daughters of Charity International Project Services at: 22255 Greenfield Road, Suite 232, Southfield, MI 48075-3734 Ph: 248-849-4914 e-mail: srfmazzo@doc-ecp.org website: www.daughtersips.org

Campaigns Against Circumcision Can Have the Reverse Effect

June 11, 2009 International interventions such as the campaigns against female circumcision can pave the way for political Islamism in Egypt. – Contrary to the common Western perception that the operation is on a par with meaningless torture, those who practise circumcision consider it to have moral value, says Maria Malmström in a new doctoral thesis from the University of Gothenburg. In a Western context female circumcision entails the mutilation of healthy parts of the body – with patriarchal control over women’s bodies and sexuality as the underlying purpose. – However, the perception of the people I interviewed differs widely from that prevailing in the West. With the exception of a number of younger women who were critical, they consider circumcision to be a necessary, commonplace and natural part of the life cycle, says Maria Malmström. In her thesis in social anthropology she has studied how a female subject is ’brought into being’, maintained and changed through the interplay between global power structures and the individual experience of female circumcision. The study is based on interviews with women of various ages during a year of field work among the working class in Cairo. A range of actors – including decision-makers, international organisations and activists – are working to abolish female circumcision within the framework of equality and human rights. – However, the voices of those who are affected in practice are often overlooked. The process of implementing change must be based on a more profound understanding of what circumcision represents for the people involved. A contemporary phenomenon How is it possible for parents to justify mutilating their own children and thereby expose them to the pain and risk that can be involved? – To understand the motivation behind circumcising children we first have to grasp why it is regarded as so important in practice - even though understanding does not necessarily entail acceptance. For many people it is not about mutilation but a significant act that is linked to values and female identity. Observations by the historian Herodotus reveal that female circumcision was practised as early as 500 BCE. – However, it is not simply a tradition that is handed down but also a contemporary phenomenon. Circumcision has a meaning – for both women and men – that is being actively negotiated in the present day. Egypt is a good example of how views on female circumcision are in the process of changing as a result of Western campaigns, at the same time as they are leading to popular opposition, says Maria Malmström. They are perceived as infringing upon national identity. This is a region in which the fear of terrorism has led to increased military interventions from the West. In conjunction with national neoliberal policies and secular modernisation processes, it has provoked a political response in Egypt feared by many people in the Western World. – It is paradoxical that the ’globalisation of intimacy’, which is discussed in this thesis, is also resulting in Western interventions in combination with Egypt’s government policies paving the way for political Islamism in Egypt. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Title of the thesis: Just Like Couscous: Gender, Agency and the Politics of Female Circumcision in Cairo Author of the thesis: Maria Malmström E-link: http://gupea.ub.gu.se/dspace/handle/2077/20269 e-mail: maria.malmstrom@globalstudies.gu.se Name of faculty opponent: Professor Aud Talle, Oslo, Norway. Time and venue for the public defence: Friday 29 May 2009, 10.15 in room 220, Annedalsseminariet, Campus Linné, Seminariegatan 1A, Gothenburg. BY: Lena Olson

Genital Mutilation: Women fight Africa's taboo

They broke the silence from tribal elders and politicians – but paid a high personal price for trying to protect millions of young girls from the knife By Katrina Manson in Sierra Leone Friday, 27 February 2009 The female journalist was snatched by members of a secret society, forcibly stripped and made to parade naked through the streets. It might sound like an atrocity from the time when Sierra Leone was ripped apart by a bloody civil war, but in fact the public humiliation was exacted in the diamond-rich eastern town of Kenema just this month. The woman's alleged crime was reporting on female genital mutilation. While the attack was condemned by media watchdogs as "disgraceful behaviour worthy of a bygone age", one woman who was not surprised was Rugiatu Turay. When she was 12 Ms Turay was stolen away by family members and underwent what some politely refer to as "circumcision". She calls it "torture". For the past six years, she has been waging a war against the practice, which many in Sierra Leone, including senior politicians, see as an initiation rite. Her organisation, the Amazonian Initiative Movement, tries to protect young girls from the knife. "I picked the name because I am trying to talk about strong, powerful women," she says Ms Turay, who works with her 20-strong staff in and around the northern town of Lunsar. So far, she has persuaded about 400 practitioners of female genital mutiliation (FGM), who are often called soweis, to lay down their blades and stop their role in the traditional bondo ceremony. "Silence means consent. But if you say the truth people listen ... We go to the schools, mosques, everywhere." As reward for her tenacious efforts, she has received death threats and been attacked by juju men, sometimes armed with magic, sometimes with machetes. She describes a time when more than a hundred people paraded a symbolic corpse outside her home to suggest her own death: "They came right in front of me sharpening their cutlasses." But so many times has she failed to die, that locals now think she is immune. "Now they believe I have special powers. They do nothing to me." Ms Turay was mutilated at her aunt's house where she was staying with her three sisters and her cousin. "We didn't even know that we were going to be initiated," she says. "They called me to get water and then outside they just grabbed me." She was blindfolded, stripped, and laid on the ground. Heavy women sat on her arms, her chest, her legs. Her mouth was stuffed with a rag. Her clitoris was cut off with a crude knife. Despite profuse bleeding she was forced to walk, was beaten and had hot pepper water poured into her eyes. "My mother had always told me never to let anyone touch me there. I was scared and I tried to fight them off. Nobody talked to me but there was all this clapping, singing, shouting," recalls Ms Turay. "When I tried to walk on the seventh day I could not walk. All they could say is 'Today you have become a woman'." Ms Turay is among the estimated 94 per cent of girls who undergo FGM in Sierra Leone. The practice – which forms part of a ceremony of initiation rites overseen by women-only secret societies such as bondo and sande – can cause severe bleeding, infection, cysts and sometimes death, but is largely ignored. Reasons for the process vary, but many people cite tradition and culture, saying it is essential preparation for marriage and womanhood; binds communities to each other and to their ancestors; and restricts women's sexual behaviour. Last year, UN agencies came out strongly against the practice, labelling it "painful and traumatic", a violation of human rights and demanding it be abandoned within a generation. "It has no health benefits and harms girls and women in many ways," said the UN's World Health Organisation (WHO). "The practice causes severe pain and has several immediate and long-term health consequences, including difficulties in childbirth." Yet many international aid organisations are too scared to do anything about it in public for fear of being labelled cultural imperialists. A recent Sierra Leone child rights bill dropped any mention of FGM at the last minute, and politicians – including President Ernest Bai Koroma – baulk at the mention of the subject. A decade ago, a female politician who later became the minister for social welfare said: "We will sew the mouths up of those preaching against bondo." More recently, politicians are rumoured to have sponsored mass cutting ceremonies, which can be relatively costly affairs in one of the world's poorest countries, in an effort to secure votes in elections. "Secret societies have become intertwined with modern political life in Sierra Leone and retain considerable power and influence," wrote the anthropologist Dr Richard Fanthorpe in a paper commissioned by the UN. When I asked President Koroma – whose country receives more aid per person from Britain than any other donor recipient – about his position on the practice, it was the first time I saw the usually affable leader lost for words. Unable to reach for his usually ubiquitous wide toothy smile, he meandered awkwardly through an answer: "Let people in civil society deal with this issue." That leaves the fight against FGM, which the WHO says has been conducted on 92 million African girls – and rising by up to three million a year – to the odd brave soul such as Ms Turay. The 26-year-old is among a number of anti-FGM campaigners slowly achieving results. In her effort to keep some safe from cutting, Ms Turay has even adopted 14 children from Sierra Leone and Guinea. Girls under 15 regularly undergo the cutting and for the newly initiated, it remains a frightening process shrouded in secrecy. "You should not tell anybody about circumcision or else your stomach will swell and you'll die," one young girl who didn't know her age told me quietly in her local Temne language. Ms Turay hopes her struggle will help break such taboos of talking about the cutting in public, although it may also spur more reactionary moves, such as this month's punishment meted out to the journalist in Kenema. And it is no easy task persuading the practitioners to abandon what they see as a rite of passage. Girls as young as five are trained to become circumcisers and it is an income-generator in a poverty-stricken country, still struggling to shrug off the legacy of the 1991-2002 civil war. "I didn't like it when it happened to me and I worry about the pain of the girl, but I do it because they pay me, and because we met our ancestors doing it," says practitioner Marion Kanu, 35, whose two children are also practitioners. Others have seen the error of their ways. "I regret it now," says another sowei who has vowed to stop. But it is not always easy to hang up the knife. One woman practitioner who said she would stop the cutting was kidnapped by members of the bundu society. Both her and her baby were beaten and taken to the bush for three days without food or water; the mother was raped. Her life was saved only by Ms Turay's intervention.