Deutsche Welle, 7 February 2013
STOPPING
FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION
- The fight against female genital mutilation
- It happens at night: Genital mutilation in Egypt
- Fighting female genital mutilation in Africa
- Classrooms in London schools tackle genital mutilation
- Mali: Women feel caught between modernity and tradition
- Film director raises awareness about female genital mutilation
Today (06.02.2013) is the International Day of Zero Tolerance on Female Genital
Mutilation. Every eleven seconds, a girl is subjected to the brutal practice.
But Togo has outlawed the practice.
Some two
million girls around the world every year become victims of female genital
mutilation (FGM). It is an extremely painful experience. Knives are used to
remove their external sexual organs, either partially or completely. This
frequently leads to painful inflammation - some girls bleed to death. Those who
survive suffer pain for the rest of their lives, both physical and mental.
The
international community has been struggling to curb down the practice since
1997. But the UN General Assembly didn't accept a resolution on the elimination
of FGM until December 2012.
The battle
to end this brutal tradition, which is widespread in Africa, Asia and parts of
Latin America, is long and complicated. NGOs estimate that between 130 and 150
million of the world's female population have been subjected to FGM. Exact
figures are hard to come by as it remains a taboo subject in many countries.
But now the
opponents of this tradition are celebrating a major success. Togo has
officially ended the practice.
This young girl waits for the physical wounds to heal |
Contact is
the key
Eight years
ago, the NGO (I)ntact began its work in Togo. Shortly afterwards, the anti-FGM
activists were able to register progress in neighbouring Benin when a ceremony
was held to mark the end of female genital mutilation there. Today, the number
of girls subjected to FGM in Benin is close to zero, according to figures from
the Demographic and Health Survey.
In Togo,
the situation was as difficult as it once was in Benin. According to a study
conducted in the 1990s, the rate of female genital mutilation among certain
ethnic groups was as high as 90 percent. But the human rights activists
succeeded in persuading people to abandon the practice. "The real success
lay in the fact that we included FGM's main participants, the female circumcisers
and traditionalists, in the project," (I)ntact's deputy chairman Detmer
Hönle told DW.
The term
"traditionalists" applies above all to the village elders. They have
the greatest influence on their communities and lay down what is right and what
is wrong. It was not easy for the NGO
activists to get close to them. First they had to explain who they were and
what they wanted. That was the task of Fati Gnon, a Togolese woman responsible
for coordinating the work of local NGOs which work together with (I)ntact.
"We established contact by going from
house to house. That way we could increase awareness of the topic and build up
an atmosphere of trust," Gnon said.
Jawahir Cumar offers counselling to FGM victims in Germany |
Fourteen years ago Togo passed a law criminalizing FGM but it had little effect. In fact, it brought about just one conviction. "In Africa, tradition is an unwritten law that is older than the laws passed by today's governments," said (I)ntact's Detmer Hönle. That is why it was so important to get the village elders and circumcisers on board. Former mutilators receive a small loan from the organization to help them find new sources of income. In this way, they retain the social status which they formerly enjoyed as a result of their traditional occupation. According to a survey carried out in Togo by (I)ntact, FGM is no longer regarded as a social norm, although it cannot be ruled out that individual cases still occur.
Lifelong
pain
Worldwide,
the battle against FGM is far from over. It is also being fought by Jawahir
Cumar from her new home in Germany. She
became a victim of FGM at the age of five in her homeland, Somalia. Today, in the German city of Düsseldorf, she
counsels women who have suffered a similar fate. "These women suffer pain
during sexual intercourse, while urinating, during menstruation; they endure
pain every single day."
Jawahir
Cumar's organization is called "Stop Mutilation" and offers women
victims a gynaecological examination free of charge. Cumar also works to
increase public awareness of the negative effects of FGM. In 2011 she was
awarded Germany's highest honour, the Federal Order of Merit. Every year some
two million women and girls still become victims of this brutal tradition. As
long as this is so, there is a need for organizations such as "Stop
Mutilation" and (I)ntact to continue their work.
Related Articles:
UN hails drop in female genital mutilation
UN committee calls for ban on female genital mutilation
Dutch doctors: circumcision should be stopped
UN hails drop in female genital mutilation
UN committee calls for ban on female genital mutilation
Dutch doctors: circumcision should be stopped
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