International day on Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation

ADDIS ABABA,2/4/2004 (IRIN) - Africa is aiming to eradicate harmful
traditional practices like female genital mutilation (FGM) by 2010,
campaigners said on the eve on the International day on Zero Tolerance to
Female Genital Mutilation, to be marked on Friday.

Speaking in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on Tuesday, Berhane
Ras-Work, the president of the Inter-African Committee on Traditional
Practices (IAC), called for a continent-wide zero-tolerance approach to
combat FGM.

"Children in Africa are being mutilated alive in the name of tradition,"
she asserted. "We should not remain indifferent just because these acts
are defined as tradition."

African leaders have already come under pressure to outlaw the
controversial practice. The wives of at least five African presidents have
also thrown their weight behind the campaign to outlaw FGM. The first
ladies, from Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Mali, Djibouti and Guinea, urged
action to stamp out the practice, which affects some 2 million girls each
year.

"Female genital mutilation is the most widespread and deadly of all
violence victimising women and girls in Africa," Chantal Compaore, the
First Lady of Burkina Faso, said recently.

MOVES TO BAN FGM

The EU, for its part, has threatened action such as withdrawing aid from
Third World countries which turn a blind eye to the practice or refuse to
ban it.

In Europe, concern over FGM has mounted due to the influx of refugees and
immigrants. In 2001, the EU passed laws condemning the practice but only
Britain, Norway, Austria and Sweden have outlawed it. It is also banned in
the US and Canada. Britain took a stand against FGM by passing into law
the 1985 Female Circumcision Act, but so far no one has been prosecuted
under it.

In Britain, the growing practice has prompted the British Medical
Association to issue guidelines. Meanwhile, the country's National Health
Service is paying for at least 200 operations a year to reverse FGM.

Some 15,000 girls are believed to be at risk in Britain, where FGM is
officially classed as child abuse. In countries like Austria offenders who
perform the operation can be jailed for five years.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called on governments to impose a ban.
It said governments had committed themselves to eradicate FGM under the
Millennium Development Goals.

Carol Bellamy, the UNICEF executive director, said in a recent speech that
six of the eight major goals adopted by all UN member states in 2000
pertained to children. "The 100 million women who endured female genital
mutilation or cutting as young girls are living proof that the world has
failed to protect them," she noted.

According to statistics, between 100 million and 130 million women have
endured FGM or cutting, often without any anaesthetic or sterilised
instruments. Many suffer serious side effects as a result. Untrained
women, known as excisors, often perform the brutal cutting on children,
leaving them scarred for life, in implementation of a centuries-old
custom. Some will use the same knife on a succession of victims,
regardless of the dangers of spreading infections.

The practice is ubiquitous in the Horn of Africa. In Somalia, about 98
percent of women are estimated as having undergone FGM. It is almost as
widespread in Ethiopia.

In the Horn of Africa, the operation usually begins with the young girl’s
legs being tied to two women sitting on either of her sides. A third, at
her head, will hold down her chest and arms. The cutting will then begin.
Thorns from acacia trees are used to stitch up the wound. A small prayer
is then said, after which the victim is told never to tell anyone what has
happened to her until she marries. Immediately after the operation, she is
taken home, where her legs are strapped together for a month while the
wound heals.

ADVERSE EFFECTS

Some girls, however, never make it into marriage. They either bleed to
death or develop infections like septicaemia which can kill in a matter of
weeks. Others end up infertile or suffering from bladder and kidney
problems for the rest of their lives. The damage done to women as a result
of FGM is epitomised by the fact that in the capital, Addis Ababa, an
entire hospital is devoted to trying to repair such, often irreversible,
damage, particularly fistula.

According to a recent scientific study published in the International
Journal of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, almost one in 10 women will suffer
a stillbirth as the result of FGM.

But the pressure on mothers within Somali communities for their daughters
to undergo FGM is enormous. Three types of circumcision exist. The first,
the Sunnah (Islamic tradition), is the least damaging, involving the
removal of the tip of the clitoris. The second, excision, involves
removing the labia minora as well as the clitoris. The third is
infibulation, where not only the clitoris and the labia minora but also
the labia majora are excised. In this case, a straw is inserted into the
wound and left there temporarily to facilitate the passage of urine, after
which the wound is stitched up.

Infibulation, the most extreme form of FGM is also the most popular in
Somalia. The aim of the process is believed to be to ensure the woman will
be faithful to her future husband. Some communities consider uncircumcised
girls ineligible for marriage circumcised.

FGM AND HIV/AIDS

The IAC, which is combating the practice in 26 countries, said FGM was now
becoming a major vehicle for the transmission of HIV/AIDS. Berhane
described FGM as a "gruesome and heinous". In Ethiopia it is estimated
that 60 percent of its population of 65 million are victims of harmful
traditional practices and five-sixths of these are women. Four out of five
women aged between 15 and 49 have been circumcised.

"Africa has the highest maternal mortality rates and the root causes for
this sad reality lie squarely on social attitudes and practices that go
unchallenged," Berhane said. "We need to take up the challenge and give
priority [to] and focus on the eradication of FGM, early marriage,
nutritional taboos, repeated and uncontrolled pregnancies, and rape," she
stressed.

She went on to point out that women were often subjected to harmful
practices due to their ignorance and "economic vulnerability", stressing
the importance of women being empowered to reject such practices. "Women
accept in silence the partial sacrifice of their body with all the
attendant consequences and paralysing effects. Women have been hurt for so
long and have been victims for too long," she concluded.

Quote: "Children in Africa are being mutilated alive in the name of tradition," she asserted. "We should not remain indifferent just because these acts are defined as tradition."

شكرا رودا، وهذا هو بيان العفو الدولية أيضا... من المهم أن يتخذ النضال ضد هذه العملية منحي من أسفل الهرم تماما كما هو مهم وأساسي أن تلتزم الدول بعدم السكوت وغض الطرف عن الممارسة التعذيبية للفتيات.

News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty
International

AI INDEX: ACT 77/018/2004 6 February 2004

International Zero Tolerance to FGM Day: Effective measures
needed to protect girls from female genital mutilation


As the world observes the first International Zero Tolerance to
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Day, Amnesty International is
appealing to all governments to ensure effective protection of
girls from female genital mutilation (FGM).

"Governments are responsible for protecting women and girls'
physical and mental integrity. Moving against FGM should be part
of a comprehensive approach to protect women from violence and
assert their equal status in society," Amnesty International
said.

During its last meeting in February 2003, the Inter-African
Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women
and Children (IAC) adopted a "Declaration of Zero Tolerance to
FGM on the African Continent". The Declaration stresses that the
"zero tolerance forum will be an initiative which will bring all
[our] efforts to celebrate, reflect and deliberate on FGM and to
renew [our] commitment to protect African women from cultural
and traditional belief systems that are inimical to the sexual
and reproductive rights of women in the continent".

The February 2003 meeting also adopted a Common Agenda to
provide a common framework for all organizations and actors to
intensify and coordinate activities at different levels while
respecting their diversity.

"The Declaration and the Common Agenda are welcome signs of
determination to eliminate FGM. The IAC should act decisively to
spur governments, NGOs and other stakeholders to coordinate
efforts to eradicate FGM and other harmful traditional practices
which contribute to the perpetuation of violence against women".

So far, only 14 African countries have adopted laws banning the
practice. Despite the fact that enforcement of the laws is made
difficult by social pressure to undergo the ritual, Amnesty
International believes that legislation is an important tool in
creating a protective environment for girls and women affected
by this practice and asks African governments to accompany
legislative efforts with measures that will promote the status
of women with regards to their internationally protected human
rights, especially, the right to life and physical integrity and
the right to health.

On this first international day, Amnesty International urges
African governments to comply with the obligations they have
contracted by ratifying international instruments such as the
Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention for the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the
African Charter on Human and People's Rights.

Amnesty International also calls on all African governments to
ratify the Additional Protocol on Women Rights in Africa adopted
at the African Union Summit in Maputo in July 2003. The Protocol
is the first international instrument which explicitly protects
women's reproductive rights including an explicit call for the
legal prohibition of female genital mutilation.


Background

Female Genital Mutilation comprises all procedures involving
partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or
other injury to the female genital organs whether for cultural,
religious or other non-therapeutic reasons.

The immediate and long-term health consequences of female
genital mutilation vary according to the type and severity of
the procedure performed. Immediate complications include severe
pain, shock, haemorrhage, urine retention, ulceration of the
genital region and injury to adjacent tissue. Long-term
complications include, recurring urinary tract infections,
pelvic infections, infertility (from deep infections), scarring,
difficulties in menstruation, fistulae (holes or tunnels between
the vagina and the bladder or rectum), painful intercourse,
sexual dysfunction, and problems in pregnancy and childbirth
(the need to cut the vagina to allow delivery and the trauma
that results, often compounded by re-stitching).

Female Genital Mutilation is practiced in 28 African countries
as well as in Asia (Indonesia) and the Middle-East (Yemen). It
is increasingly found in Europe, Australia, Canada and the USA,
primarily among immigrants from these countries.

Today, the number of girls and women who have undergone female
genital mutilation is estimated at between 100 and 140 million.
It is estimated that each year, a further 2 million girls are at
risk of undergoing FGM.


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Thanks Roada and Iman,

in January I attended the launch of a new video THE BROKEN SILENCE, produced as a collaboration between Research Action and Information Netowrk for the Bodily Integrity of Women (RAINBO), which was founded by Dr. Nahid Toubia, and the Foundation for Women's Health Research and Development (FORWARD). The film is very unconcentional and addresses the issue in seven themes. Below are the websites of both organisations

http://www.rainbo.org


http://www.forward.dircon.co.uk

best regards
nada

العزيزه رودا
كل عيد حب وانت اجمل