Gender 
Call for worldwide ban of FGM

afrol.com, 18 March - On a conference held in Paris this week, several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and UN agencies appealed for the "total abolition" of the female genital mutilation (FGM) practice, to which an estimated 130 million African women are victims of. Experiences show that anti-FGM legislation is a necessary basis for campaigning against the practice.

Gathered in the Parisian Congress Palace, the NGOs arranged an international colloquium with support of the United Nation's agencies for women (UNIFEM) and for children (UNICEF). Both agencies are involved in the fight against the practice. FGM is widely condemned by international health experts as damaging to both physical and psychological health.

The representative of French committee of UNICEF, Bernadette Puiseux, appealed for the international application of legal frameworks to address the FGM practice, supporting a global ban. According to Mrs. Puiseux, France is involved in several bilateral programmes with African countries that aim to eradicate the FGM practice.

France currently finances four African national programmes concerning women's health, basic women's sexuality rights and reproductive health. These programmes, sponsored with 2,2 billion Francs over to years, primarily address the fight against FGM in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire and Mali, francophone countries where FGM is widespread. In Benin, estimations of the amount of women undergoing FGM range between 5 and 50 percent, the numbers for Burkina Faso being up to 70 percent, Côte d'Ivoire 60 percent and Mali over 90 percent. 

While FGM traditionally not has been practiced in Europe, its prevalence has increased over the last decades due to immigration from countries were it is practiced. Numbers presented at the Paris colloquium suggested that at least 30,000 women living in France have undergone FGM. Female "circumcision", as FGM misleadingly often is called, is outlawed in France, as in several European countries.

Specific laws prohibiting all or some forms of the practice, however, exist only in three European countries - Sweden, Norway and the United Kingdom. In the rest of Europe, there are only general laws prohibiting serious bodily injury without making specific reference to FGM. Sweden introduced the legislation by prohibiting health professionals from performing the operation in 1982. The United Kingdom outlawed the practice in 1985 by passing the Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act. Norway followed the example of these countries in 1998. In Sweden and Norway, those assisting to FGM can also be prosecuted if the "operation" is made abroad. 

Some African nations have introduced legislation to ban FGM. These include Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Djibouti, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Somalia, Togo and Senegal, which banned the practice in 1999. Other countries, such as The Gambia, claim that FGM is "a part of the country's culture" (President Yaya Jammeh, as quoted in February 2000). Although outlawed in many countries, these laws mostly are not enforced, so that in Somalia and Djibouti, still some 98% of girls aging 7 years or older have undergone FGM.

Anti-FGM legislation however proves a useful tool for NGOs fighting to curb the practice in the African field. Rana Badri, who has worked actively against FGM in Sudan, told afrol.com that there is a need for legislation to protect campaigners and to support the content of anti-FGM campaigns if these are to succeed. "I support passing legislation against FGM to protect young girls and campaigners, not - only to prosecute parents (as many of the opposers of the legislations against FGM argue)," Badri said.

- In The Gambia, campaigners life was under attack by the president and there were no laws to protect them or support their cause, Badri said. "When I was campaigning in Sudan, some of my friends heading awareness raising campaigns in rural Sudan were detained/sent away/threatened by authorities in local communities because they were aware that these campaigns will touch on the issue of FGM. The police were not able to protect them because there were no laws against the practice." 

In Europe, the countries having specific legislation against FGM note significant success in campaigning against the practice. This week, the Norwegian Somali Council (an NGO promoting Somali immigrants/refugees in Norway), gave its support to the launch of a new campaign promoting surgery to "re-open" mutilated female genitals. The Norwegian Somali society had been under subsistent pressure to enter into an open dialogue on the practice, after the Norwegian press reported on the high incidence of the illegal practice among people of Somali origin. 

- It is ok to recommend the re-opening of darned women, said Saeed Hersi, vice-president of the Norwegian Somali Council on 15 March. "But they must be given the opportunity to choose themselves and other must not put pressure on them." Courageous 22-years-old Saynab Mohamud, a Somali girl living in Norway, has been publicly promoting the re-opening of mutilated female genitals, which she did herself some years ago. Frequently, she experiences being called "prostitute" from fellow, male African immigrants, but increasingly she is met by girls of African origin, praising her for her courage. 

Source: afrol archives, RDP and Aftenposten

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