INTERPRESS SERVICE

Africa: Female Genital Mutilation in the Spotlight

InterPress Service [www.ipsnews.net]

( allafrica.com [allafrica.com])

Joyce Mulama | Nairobi: Difficult to speak about and dreadful to endure, female genital mutilation is taking a toll on the women of Africa.
According to the New York-based No Peace Without Justice, about two-million girls and women are subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM) every year - most of them in sub-Saharan Africa and countries in the Arab peninsula.
Emigration from these regions to Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand has also resulted in the practice being exported further afield. No Peace Without Justice comprises parliamentarians, mayors and others who are working for the creation of an international system of justice that includes an effective International Criminal Court.
However, a conference is taking place in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, this week to discuss ways in which FGM can be eradicated.
In particular, the three-day meeting (which ends Sep. 18) is focusing on strategies that will allow the 'Maputo Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa' to be implemented.
Article five of the protocol says that FGM should be banned, and the practice condemned.
Although the protocol was adopted by heads of state of the African Union (AU) at their annual summit in the Mozambican capital, Maputo, in July last year, only three countries have ratified the document (the Comoros, Libya and Rwanda). To enter into force, the protocol needs to be ratified by 15 AU member countries.
"As long as the protocol does not come into force, even the few countries that have signed it have no effect. It is only a piece of paper and this has negative implications on the fight for an FGM-free continent," Faiza Jama Mohamed, Africa director of Equality Now, told IPS at the Nairobi conference.
"It is important that we realize the urgency of this matter and that other countries join in the ratification," she added. Equality Now, which is headquartered in New York, lobbies for the rights of women.
FGM involves the removal of a part of, or all female genitalia. According to the London-based human rights watchdog Amnesty International, the most severe form of FGM - infibulation - accounts for about 15 percent of instances where the practice is carried out.
Infibulation consists of the cutting away of part, or all, of the clitoris - as well as folds of skin around the openings of the urethra and vagina. The wounds are then stitched up, leaving only a small opening for the passage of urine and menstrual blood.
"In some less conventional forms of infibulation," says Amnesty, "less tissue is removed and a larger opening is left."
The group notes that the manner in which FGM is carried out varies widely according to place and economic circumstances - while the age group of girls and women involved may range from new-borns to women who are experiencing their first pregnancy.
Tin lids, scissors - even broken glass - may be used to carry out the procedure, often without anaesthetic.
FGM can lead to a variety of physical complications and infections - even death. The HI-virus can be transmitted between girls and women who are excised with the same instruments, for example. FGM can also cause difficulties during sexual intercourse and birth.
In countries where anti-FGM laws already exist, say delegates in Nairobi, there has been some success in reducing the practice. Uganda, where FGM has been outlawed by the constitution, is a case in point.
Government has backed the constitutional provision by setting aside a day every year to discuss FGM and the dangers associated with it, amongst other things.
"This has shown that the practice can be eliminated without necessarily destroying the actual values associated with it," says Zoe Bakoko Bakoru, Uganda's minister of gender, labour and social development.
In Kapchorwa, in the north-east of the country, the number of FGM cases was reduced from 1,100 in 1998 to 647 in 2002, (FGM is believed to affect four percent of Uganda's 24 million people).
The practice has been linked to initiation into adulthood and the maintenance of hygiene on the part of a woman, while some Muslim leaders also view it as a religious requirement. Many believe that FGM reduces a woman's desire for sex, and thus her capacity for infidelity.
Moushira Khattab, Director of Egypt's National Council for Childhood and Motherhood, says her country has also used a multifaceted approach to reduce cases of FGM, which is carried out on the vast majority of women and girls there.
"It is an integrated approach where we have incorporated religious and traditional leaders, academicians as well as human rights activists," she told IPS. "This involves conducting village profiles and assessing the socio-cultural needs of the particular villages, after which we tailor the intervention."
On a less gentle note, hospitals have also been warned against engaging in the practice. Those found to be doing so may have their licenses withdrawn.
Khattab believes the media can play a key role in this campaign - especially television, which reaches about 97 percent of the population.
Research conducted in 2000 on about 2,400 young people aged 15 to 24 showed that 53 percent of them believed FGM was harmful. Khattab says this indicates a clear shift of values amongst the youth - and that it comes despite the fact that many have been brought up to reject the idea that an "un-cut" woman can be married.
Her views were echoed by Lina Kilimo, Kenya's minister of state for home affairs, who spoke of the challenges involved in altering beliefs about FGM in remote communities.
"We need to intensify education campaigns to these regions. These people need to know that the practice is harmful and life-threatening, and the government is going to be vocal in this campaign," she told IPS.
"Previously the job was left to the civil society. But we are going to take it up from today. Our seriousness has already been exhibited by our organizing this conference," Kilimo added. "It is our hope that we are going to incorporate the subject of FGM into school curricula."
Government statistics indicate that 38 percent of women in Kenya have undergone FGM, although this figure can rise to 90 percent in outlying areas.
Eight MDGs were agreed on by global leaders at the United Nations in 2000 in a renewed bid to reduce poverty and under-development around the world, by 2015. They include reducing maternal mortality by three-quarters.
The conference has attracted more than 700 participants from government, civil society and aid organisations. It is being jointly convened by the Kenyan government and No Peace Without Justice.