Closing CerimonyM. Mogueh Dirir Samatar, Minister of Wakfs Good and Muslim Affairs, Djibouti

CLOSING CEREMONY

M. Mogueh Dirir Samatar, Minister of Wakfs Good and Muslim Affairs, Djibouti

The conference in Djibouti held in 2 and 3 February 2005

In the name of God, most grateful and merciful,

dear brother and sisters, we are here at this plenary session and we have spent here, in this room, two days. Here we had tough discussions, and much discussion, and we have examined the different presentations made by the different researchers and intellectuals, we looked at the opinions of the doctors and after a very tough discussion, that took place during these two days, we concluded that this issue of female circumcision is very harmful as it will appear in the final statement. There is no doubt that what we reached is a very successful step, we were all like one man and this is of course thanks to God because the participants, men and woman, have real known and are aware of this issue. So we concluded this conference with what God wanted and we hope that God will very helpful and preserve and safeguard the health of our daughters, women, wives and sisters and if there is a little diversion on the opinion of the ulemas, I think that this is something that we could really overcome and now there is no problem. So I can really tell you I agree with the final statement.

Final statement

"The conference held in Djibouti on the 2 ?3 February 2005 under the sponsorship of H.E. the First Lady after the various and multiple sessions and discussions that took place, this conference went to the following decisions:

1)the practice of female circumcision existing today in the form we witness now is very harmful and it really harms all their life as the doctors showed. The Islamic Sharia prohibits any harm direct to the soul or the body and the female circumcision that is taking place in this kind of form is not acceptable.

2)the conference recommends to the ulemas, preachers, guides and educators as well as media people and other people concerned with religious, cultural and social issues to play the role in raising awareness amongst the members of societies concerning the outcome of this conference.

There is a final request we received from the ulemas who ask us -and of course I will speak very frankly and sincerely- to include the Sunni female circumcision in this, but we said that there is a condition: we should find specialists, specialized surgeons available and this kind of circumcision would be acceptable.

Peace of God be with you.