More Communities in Senegal Disavow Female Genital

Mutilation and Cutting

PATA, Senegal — As Senegal edges closer to becoming the first African country to fully abandon female genital mutilation/cutting, younger women are supporting campaigns to change social norms surrounding the practice.

In Pata, a village in the Kolda region of southeastern Senegal near the Gambian border, a celebration in November drew a huge crowd to formally announce the decision of 69 communities in Kolda to stop cutting.

The ceremony was organized by Tostan with support from the UNFPA/UNICEF Joint Programme on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting. Tostan is a non-governmental organization that pioneered the human rights-based approach to community development that is one of the key strategies of the joint programme.

Teenage mothers at the celebration, many of whom have been cut, expressed their determination that their own young daughters would not have to endure the tradition, which can entail incredible suffering not only during the cutting process – done usually between the ages of two and five in Senegal — but also during childbirth and later, taking its toll both emotionally and physically.

Mothers take a stand

“I know I would not want my daughter to be circumcised [FGM/C is sometimes referred to as female circumcision], if I had one,” said Khardiata, a young mother of an infant boy, at the event in Pata’s public square. Khardiata admitted that going against the wishes of the elder in her village in Gambia, where FGM/C is still widely practised, would be difficult. But she thinks her village should follow the example of Pata. She believes that greater understanding of the dangers of the practice at all levels, especially among older generations, will bear fruit and that more communities will eventually disavow the traditional practice.

Mariama, a 17-year-old born in Pata, agrees wholeheartedly. She is the mother of a two-year-old girl, and swore she would ‘never accept’ that her daughter, Penda, would suffer as she did. “I had great difficulty at the time to have my first sex but also giving birth to my child,” she said.

Working from the grass roots

Up to 5,300 villages have reported ending FGM/C in Senegal, according to Tostan, whose advocacy work has gone beyond Senegal to the greater West African region, resulting in thousands of communities abandoning the pr. Its holistic approach involves working in villages to promote literacy and foster projects on hygiene, child welfare, human rights and democracy, the environment and economic development. An emphasis on the rights of women and children often leads into community discussions of FGM/C.

Changing marriageability standards

Tostan’s work in the village of Malicounda Bambara in the Thiès region of Senegal led to the first declaration to end cutting in the country in 1997. The women decided to stop the practice to protect the human rights and health of their daughters, and they went so far to announce their collective decision—a breakthrough for Senegal, where cutting was always considered mandatory for girls to marry. But neighbouring villages were not on board, so a local imam traveled by foot long distances to persuade people that cutting was not in their best interests.

Tostan’s method of gradually changing attitudes and behaviour through human-rights platform became the model of change in Senegal, which is committed to abandoning cutting by 2015 with the help of the UNFPA/UNICEF joint programme.

A new map to track where FGM/C is still being practiced in Senegal is revealing stubborn pockets, however, notably in the Kolda region, despite the declaration in Pata. There is also concern about border regions along Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Guinea, where the tradition still dominates and could spur recurrences in Senegal, given that the areas share ethnic groups and family networks.

But the mothers in Pata feel confident that the next generation of girls will never suffer through cutting. As their statement in the November ceremony declared, “We have been circumcised and have excised our daughters, but our granddaughters . . . will never know the pain of circumcision.”

– Aminata Toure Sagna

Puntland takes stand against Female Genital Mutilation

“An estimated 100 to 140 million girls and women worldwide are currently living with the consequences of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). In Africa an estimated 92 million girls 10 and older have undergone FGM. FGM is internationally recognized as a violation of the human rights of girls and women.” - World Health Organization

Two decades of civil war have contributed to the negligence of women’s rights across the Somali region. Women continue to suffer from the tragedies of the war as well as from practices including FGM.

However, the government of Puntland enacted laws against Female Genital Mutilation in November 2011, a development that has been welcomed by human rights activists across the world. The new law came into effect after long discussions and eventual support by the traditional and religious leaders in addition to various scholars.

Photo Credit: PDRC

To encourage these positive developments, Interpeace local partner Puntland Development Research Center (PDRC) hosted a two-day conference with leading women’s rights activists from across the region – Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya as well as from Somali Region: Somaliland, Puntland and South-Central Somalia.

The conference was organized by Puntland Ministry of Women Development and Family Affairs (MOWDAFA) and was held at PDRC’s Main conference hall in Garowe, Puntland. The conference focused on how to best approach policies around FGM.

Over 150 women and other concerned Somalis participated in the conference. They traveled from across Puntland, Somaliland, and South-Central Somalia. Those from the Somali diaspora in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Djibouti also attended.

Photo Credit: PDRC

As a persistent activist for women’s rights and family development, Ms. Asha Gelle Dirie, Puntland’s Minister of Women and Family Affairs organized the conference. The Transitional Federal Government’s Minister of Women Development, Ms. Maryan Aweys, officially opened the conference.

Research highlights Psychological Trauma of FGM/C

FGM not merely an African problem; high rates in the Middle East

BEIRUT, 18 JANUARY 2012, The first conference ever on female genital mutilation (FGM) in the Middle East is currently taking place in Beirut, Lebanon, with participants from Iraqi Kurdistan, Central Iraq and Yemen with input from experts from Indonesia and Egypt. The groundbreaking event, organized by the non-governmental organizations Wadi and Hivos, is serving as a first common platform for experts and activists fighting FGM in the Middle East. Its purpose is to learn from each other, create a network and cooperation structure, and develop a coherent transnational strategy to eradicate FGM.

Until recently FGM was considered to be practiced mostly in African countries. Not much information is available about this practice in the Middle East. However, research, publications and various other evidence indicate that it is also practiced in Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Oman and Saudi Arabia. FGM is still very much a taboo issue in the Middle East. It is high time to break the silence about this gross violation of human and women’s rights.

No side issue

Politicians, the media, international organisations, most notably the UN, have since long recognized FGM in Africa and treated it as merely an African issue. Considering the astonishingly high FGM rates in the Middle East it is striking that the above mentioned actors are still treating the problem in the Middle East much as a side issue. The Beirut conference was set up in order to draw the world’s attention to this neglected fact and send a strong message that it is time for concerted action.

For instance, in the Beirut conference a physician from Southern Iraq presented evidence (interview recordings) in public which indicates FGM is also practiced in Central and South Iraq. The practice is a complete taboo for Iraqis and flatly denied by the Iraqi Central Government.

Muslim World

Most of the heavily affected countries in Asia are part of the Muslim World. Many Muslim religious leaders are playing a considerable role in the justification of the practice, however participants agreed that it should not be labeled a religious practice. In each country, religion, politics, the media and of course local communities themselves must be won for the cause to play a positive role in the eradication of FGM. Public awareness is as important as pressure on the respective governments to act.

The Beirut conference calls upon the people and governments of the countries in the Middle East and the international community to start addressing FGM, and notably:

- Request civil society organizations to provide data about FGM in their respective countries;

- Pressure governments of countries in the Middle East to take up FGM as gross human rights violation;

- Pressure governments from the Middle East to collect credible data and statistics about prevalence of FGM;

- Set up a regional network addressing FGM in the Middle East;

- Make FGM a core issue within UN policies active in countries in the Middle East where FGM is practiced;

- Request EU, UN and US to address FGM as a core issue within their foreign policies towards countries in the Middle East.

Background information on FGM (source: WHO):

FGM is recognized internationally as a violation of the human rights of girls and women. It reflects deep-rooted inequality between the sexes, and constitutes an extreme form of discrimination against women. It is often carried out on minors and is a violation of the rights of children. The practice also violates a person’s rights to health, security and physical integrity, the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and the right to life when the procedure results in death. FGM comprises all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons and is mostly carried out by traditional circumcisers.

For more information please contact:

Thomas Von der Osten-Sacken (Wadi) +49-15156906002 or thomasvdo yahoo.de

Jessie Hexspoor (Hivos) +31-641969050 or jhexspoor hivos.nl

Read the story as published by New Zealand online magazine:

Migrant girls ‘at risk’ of mutilation

An international study says “a growing number” of girls and young women living in immigrant communities in New Zealand are at risk of genital mutilation.

The practice – which involves the partial or complete removal of the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons – is banned in New Zealand.

Any person who carries out the procedure, or orders it to be done to a dependant, may be imprisoned for up to seven years.

The Ministry of Health last year funded a series of workshops on the practice, with those present being told there was no evidence that the controversial female circumcision operations occurred in New Zealand.

It is a stance that is also shared by the NZ Female Genital Mutilation Education Programme – a community-based initiative partly set up in response to the rising number of women settling in New Zealand from countries that practise the procedure.

But a newly released United Nations report on a hoped-for global end to female genital mutilation states: “The practice is prevalent in 28 countries in Africa and in some countries in Asia and the Middle East.

“In addition, a growing number of women and girls among immigrant communities have been subjected to or are at risk of female genital mutilation in Australia and New Zealand.”

Under New Zealand law, it is illegal to send or make any arrangement for a child to be sent out of the country to have the practice performed, to assist or encourage any person in New Zealand to perform the procedure on a New Zealand citizen or a resident outside of the country and to convince or encourage any other New Zealand citizen or resident to go outside of New Zealand to have the procedure performed. The law was passed in 1996 and to date there have been no prosecutions.

The New Zealand FGM organisation says some female migrants from Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan and Indonesian Muslims had undergone female circumcision before arriving in the country.

Somalia is among the countries that the procedure is most practised in. Thousands of Somalis have sought refuge in New Zealand since the early 1990s after the African nation was wracked by civil war.

Here you can read the story about FGM from Isabella Humphrey from her current travels in Indonesia:

http://warisdirie.wordpress.com/category/announcements-and-news/

First of all, I would like to thank all supporters of the Desert Flower Foundation and my Team. In 2011, we received a total of 11.249 emails, more than ever before. Victims of FGM, girls threatened by FGM, but also many many people offering their support and wanting to help contacted us this year.

The Desert Flower Foundation has supported 815 students from all over the world who gave presentations, wrote papers and theses on FGM. It is very important to me that students discuss FGM in their schools and universities. It is this generation of young people that will succeed in eradicating FGM for good.

More than 460 media outlets such as newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations, websites and bloggers have requested and received information from the Desert Flower Foundation in 2011.

The release of „Desert Flower“ in Japan took place in the beginning of 2011. . In January 2011, the biggest women’s magazine in Slovakia, Eva Magazine published an interview as well as pictures that were taken during my stay in Bratislava. I am very happy with the pictures and I would like to thank my Slovakian publishers for the 50.000 sold copies of my books and the 100.000 movie tickets to Desert Flower that were sold! I would also like to thank the many many Slovakian supporters that came to see me during my stay in Bratislava.

January 2011 also saw the start of my campaign „Together for African Women“, together with the German company Mey Bodywear. This was my first shoot in underwear, and it certainly paid off – for the women in Africa: The campaign raised a total of 60.000 € for the projects of the Desert Flower Foundation in Ethiopia and Kenya. This money will be invested in job-related training, medical assistance and the development of the long-term cooperation with companies that provide qualified jobs for women in Africa. We will report on these projects regularly on our website and blog.

In 2011, the project with mey bodywear already secured jobs in Africa as we ordered handmade scarves from Ethiopia which were sold in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In 2012, the Desert Flower Foundation will cooperate with designers to produce our own collection of fair trade and ecologically sustainable scarves, bookmarks, T-shirts, and belts in Africa. From February 2012 on, you will hear more about this project on our website!

In March, Desert Flower was released in the US and received much praise from the US media. In the United States, an estimated 200.000 girls (mainly immigrants from Africa) are affected by FGM every year, as the US TV station ABC news reports. I received numerous invitations from US universities to attend screenings of the movie, and I am planning to go on a tour to different universities in 2012.
Several screenings took place in Africa, too. In March, Desert Flower was released in Nigeria and in Ghana. The African Union hosted a screening of the movie for the 300 delegates at the anti-FGM conference in Addis Abeba / Ethiopia. UN Women screened the movie at universities, and several other NGOs organised screenings at project sites throughout Africa.
NGOs, Universities and schools screened the movie as charity activities for the Desert Flower Foundation.

In Poland, I was able to discuss issues related to women‘s rights with 800 female activists at the Zielona Gora Filmfestival . At the One Young World Meeting in Zurich / Switzerland I was able to not only meet old friends such as Bob Geldof, Jamie Oliver and Bishop Desmond Tutu, but was also able to speak in front of young delegates from all over the world on women’s rights and my view of the situation of women in Africa at the discussion round Africa Rising. In Zurich, I also learned a lot about the importance of social media for grassroot movements and met brave and interesting activists from Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Tunisia.

Did you know that there is no universal logo for human rights, a logo that could be used in demonstrations, on posters, websites, flags and walls? Together with Mikail Gorbatchev, Ai Wei Wei and numerous other prominent activists and artists, I decided to support the initiative of Guido Westerwelle, foreign minister of Germany, to establish such a logo and travelled to Berlin to attend the start of the contest. By September 2011, more than 15.000 participants had submitted their designs, and the winning logo was presented at the UN General Assembly in New York.

I am very happy to see more and more young African women join my fight against female genital mutilation. I am a firm believer in actions that comes from those who are affected, and so the Desert Flower Foundation supported a number of projects by young girls this year, for example this projects from London. A group of young immigrants shot their own Anti-FGM movie which will now be shown in schools around the UK.

There are many more interesting stories to tell, but I invite you to read all about the work of the Desert Flower Foundation here on this website and on Facebook! I think you all so much for your support and wish you all the best for 2012!

I am looking forward to the many interesting project lying ahead of me in 2012. The fight continues!

LOVE
Waris

Medical students in Pakistan learn about the prevalence of FGM in their own country, a practice many of them did not know was practiced around them.
“Recently, we examined a woman who complained of pain in her genital region. We were shocked to see when we examined her that she had suffered some mutilation of her private parts. I have read about these practices, but I didn’t know they took place here,” said Zeba Khan, a fourth year medical student.
Though female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) takes place, the practice is hidden, hardly ever spoken of, barely known about. The country, for instance, is considered to be “free” of FGM/C, like a number of other Muslim majority countries in the region. Indeed, this view is widely held. “No such thing happens here,” said Saadia Ahmed, a gynecologist.

FGM is widespread among the Bohra Community, a muslim religious group, and some other religious groups in Pakistan. Within these groups, an estimated 50 to 60 percent of women and girls is mutilated.

Shershah Syed, a former president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists who devotes his practice to serving deprived women, said he had come across cases in urban Pakistan where women have undergone the procedure.

“The impact is not just on health, it is psychological, too. Such practices leave deep scars, and in our country these have not been studied at all, because so little is known about the mutilation of women in this way,” said Aliya Rizvi, a psychologist.

Read the entire article here.

Please find enclosed the interview from Waris Dirie with the Brazilian Newspaper JORNAL O TEMPO / INTERNACIONAL published on their „SPECIAL 15th-YEAR EDITION“ and at their online magazine:

http://www.otempo.com.br/noticias/ultimas/?IdNoticia=188388,OTE&busca=waris&pagina=1

FGM is still big in Kenya!

Please read the following stories.

Article 1:

Hundreds of girls are believed to have crossed over to neighbouring Tanzania for fear of being forced to undergo FGM.

Article 2:

Pokot Girls being circumcised secretly.