Female Genital Mutilation or Genital Cutting

[Paul]

Yes Paul, e2c was right it was not surprising us anymore because all of us know that, that was really a sin. We should be contented to what God gave to us. We can develop it and improve, but we can never have the right to change it totally, especially, on that matter. We should respect and take care of what God Almighty had been given to us. So that, we have a law about that states against the lesbianism and the womanish man.

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[e2c]

From today's New York Times, and article about the success of anti-SGM/C campaigns in Sensegal:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/world ... wanted=all

Here are a few 'graphs from the article -

SARE HAROUNA, Senegal — When Aissatou Kande was a little girl, her family followed a tradition considered essential to her suitability to marry. Her clitoris was sliced off with nothing to dull the pain.

But on her wedding day, Ms. Kande, her head modestly covered in a plain white shawl, vowed to protect her own daughters from the same ancient custom. Days later, her village declared it would abandon female genital cutting for good.

Across the continent, an estimated 92 million girls and women have undergone it. But like more than 5,000 other Senegalese villages, Sare Harouna has joined a growing movement to end the practice.

The change has not yet reached Ms. Kande’s new home in her husband’s village, but if elders there pressured her to cut the baby girl she is taking into the marriage, she said, “I would resist them.” Her parents back her up.

“They would never dare do that to my granddaughter, and we would never allow it,” said Ms. Kande’s mother, Marietou Diamank.

The movement to end genital cutting is spreading in Senegal at a quickening pace through the very ties of family and ethnicity that used to entrench it. And a practice once seen as an immutable part of a girl’s life in many ethnic groups and African nations is ebbing, though rarely at the pace or with the organized drive found in Senegal.

The change is happening without the billions of dollars that have poured into other global health priorities throughout the developing world in recent years. Even after campaigning against genital cutting for years, the United Nations has raised less than half the $44 million it set as the goal.

But here in Senegal, Tostan, a group whose name means “breakthrough” in Wolof, Senegal’s dominant language, has had a major impact with an education program that seeks to build consensus, African-style, on the dangers of the practice, while being careful not to denounce it as barbaric as Western activists have been prone to do. Senegal’s Parliament officially banned the practice over a decade ago, and the government has been very supportive of Tostan’s efforts.

“Before you would never even dare to discuss this,” said Mamadou Dia, governor of the Kolda region where this village is located. “It was taboo. Now you have thousands of people coming to abandon it.”...

http://www.tostan.org/

[rachelnguyen]

I read the article this morning and there were a few very salient points that struck me. First, Tostan discouraged the use of the term 'genital mutilation' when trying to get the Senegalese villagers on board. It was much more effective to be respectful of the culture rather than vilifying it. It was also important to have an Imam supporting the movement to abandon the practice. The NYTimes article also made the point that this effort took quite a long time, but that was time well spent because the whole-hearted acceptance of the change will insure that it is a permanent one.

[e2c]

I think you're right on those salient points, Rachel.... and it will not happen overnight.

but it can happen. (I have to admit that the word "cutting" still makes me cringe, though... if only because I can picture - all too well - being in the position those girls were/still are in.)

* One other important thing - that was mentioned in the photo captions, but not in the main article - is that people of different religions are involved in this practice, not just Muslims. (The latter being a distortion that I've encountered in the past.)

To be fully effective in Senegal, it seems that this campaign needs the support of some Christian ministers, not just imams.

And I really am impressed that Tostan is involved in helping establish educational programs (basic and advanced literacy and beyond) in Senegal and elsewhere. That it's not a single-issue organization is (imo) very important.