|
11:03
2001-07-14
FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION BANNED BUT STILL PRACTISED The drama which is female genital mutilation (FGM) continues to be a reality for millions of African women caught in a world in which outdated traditions wrestle with basic human rights. The government of Tanzania has allowed mass FGM ceremonies to take place despite a law banning the practice. It is extremely difficult to enforce such a law because any attempt to do so provokes vehement opposition from traditionalists and the conservative elements in the countryside. Local traditions are strictly enforced by village elders who do not want to give up practices which have been part of their culture for thousands of years. 20 out of Tanzania's 130 ethnic groups practise FGM, which is the surgical removal of the clitoris, a painful operation which can take up to 20 minutes, without anaesthetic and which often provokes death by bleeding or infection. The purpose of the operation is to prevent the girl, when a woman, from having an orgasm, since it is believed that women who feel sexual pleasure are impolite and unladylike. This nightmare affects 18% of Tanzania's girls. The Tanzanian Sexual Offences Special Provisions Act was passed in 1998, prohibiting FGM specifically, stipulating that anybody who performs or causes this act on children under 18 years of age shall be liable to fifteen years' imprisonment. FGM practice is also illegal under international human rights treaties. However, the practice is frequent and widespread. Mass ceremonies, in which thousands of girls are "circumcised", generally in December, take place. In December 1996, 5,000 girls were mutilated and 20 died from complications. No legal action was taken against the organisers of the ceremony nor against the people performing the acts of surgery, or better, butchery. Action groups such as the Nairobi/New York based Equality Now group complain that local officials are too half-hearted in the application of this law for fear of antagonising traditional vested interests. Equality Now turns to the government to apply pressure to uphold what is the law and a basic human right. However, tradition and superstition are powerful enemies of social change in Africa. In one case, three girls ran away from home to avoid being mutilated. They took refuge in a church and the pastor took them to the police station. There, he was charged with kidnapping, was beaten and was forced to admit rape. Medical examinations on the girls proved that this had never happened and they were sent back to their father, to be mutilated the next day. An elderly lady circumciser stated that the activity was a "rite of passage for girls into womanhood, grooming and training of cultural values that maintain domestic stability within the community". She considers that women who have not had their clitoris surgically removed are "not polite and over-sexed". Equality now takes the matter up with the government in Dar-es-Salaam "to take more effective action to end the practice of FMG in Tanzania through education as well as enforcement of the law". Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru LISBON PORTUGAL |
