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First ladies vow to fight 'barbaric' genital mutilation in West Africa
First ladies vow to fight 'barbaric' genital mutilation in West Africa
Emma Batha, Rome, Thomson Reuters Foundation, 30 Jan 2017
The first ladies of Niger, Burkina Faso and Benin promised on Monday to "end the scourge of female genital mutilation" (FGM) in their countries amid warnings the practice had gone underground in Benin. "FGM is a barbaric practice," Niger's Lalla Malika Issoufou told an international conference on FGM in Rome.
She said Niger's president, Mahamadou Issoufou, was fully behind efforts to eradicate the ritual and that the country was looking at bolstering its law. Worldwide, an estimated 200 million girls and women have been subjected to the ancient ritual which usually involves the partial or total removal of the external genitalia. It is often carried out by traditional cutters.
The internationally condemned practice is rooted in the wish to control female sexuality, but beliefs around it vary. Some communities see it as a prerequisite for marriage.