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NEWS & LETTERS, DECEMBER 2003Ongoing struggles against mutilationFemale Genital Mutilation (FGM) has dropped out of the news, but it has not dropped out of the lives of women. Teachers notice that girls subjected to FGM don’t do as well in school as their uncut peers. Lifelong health problems sometimes result. Recent reports show, not only how far women have come in eradicating FGM, but also how far we still have to go. News on the FGM front comes from Burkina Faso, Denmark, Egypt, Eritrea, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan and the United States. In Western countries, the immigrant population, which often figures out ways to circumcise their daughters, is subject to arrest if they succeed and are caught. In Burkina Faso, 23 villages have recently made public declarations and celebrations of their abandonment of FGM. The government there reports a decline in the practice after 300 people were fined or imprisoned for breaking a 1996 law forbidding it. In Ghana a seminar to convince people that it is harmful and not required by Islam was held in December 2002. This shows how hard it is to enforce a law against FGM that was passed in 1994. Kenya had some stories of daring attempts to rescue girls from the practice, one of whom was carried off on her pastor’s motorcycle after the cutting was already underway. Another girl’s headmaster risked a death threat by her father as he sheltered the young woman at his house. But testimonials as to how harmful and painful FGM is and its lifetime aftermath are spreading throughout Kenya and there is a lot of political effort now to stop it. The Nigerian government is just now getting around to starting an eradication program, and in Senegal, on May 25, 2003, 122 communities announced together their decision to abandon both FGC (C for Circumcision) and early marriage. Since March Sudan has been arresting doctors for flouting a ban. This brief survey exposes the fact the FGM is still rife in the countries where it has always been practiced. In spite of an eradication campaign covering much more than 20 years, in some places the program has barely begun. --January |
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