KENYA: Female circumcision or FGM (female genital mutilation) remains widespread in Africa and outside

Record ID: 362029

  • Title: KENYA: Female circumcision or FGM (female genital mutilation) remains widespread in Africa and outside
  • Date: 12th February 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARGIE DE MONCHI, UNICEF REGIONAL ADVISOR, CHILD PROTECTION, SPEAKING AT HER HOME, SAYING: "I think, for infibulation, there is actually a cutting off of the clitoris and also they cut off the labia which is the skin around that protects all the sexual organs of the woman. And that is cut off and then stitched together leaving a very tiny hole for eve
  • Embargoed: 27th February 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Health
  • Reuters ID: LVA3T5PBX29F6ZBQAJ7RJBHICME9
  • Story Text: Female circumcision, or FGM (female genital mutilation) remains a highly contentious issue in Africa, where traditionalists often clash with activists calling for an end to the custom that affects millions of girls, not only in Africa but world-wide. Even in countries where the practice is banned, it continues; often, in full view of authorities.
    In a town in western Kenya, community members have travelled from around the region to attend what is regarded as one of the most important events of the years' calendar: a female circumcision ceremony.
    A tradition circumciser is present for the ceremony.
    Mothers hold girls on the ground, keeping their legs open as the public ceremony takes place.
    Mothers whoop and clap in celebration as the the operation is completed.
    While the operation in this circumcision ceremony is fairly simple, Unicef's Margie De Monchi says that the operation can be far more complex, involving practices that would appall people in most developed nations.
    The most severe form is referred to as infibulation.
    "For infibulation, there is actually a cutting off of the clitoris and also they cut off the labia which is the skin around that protects all the sexual organs of the woman. And that is cut off and then stitched together leaving a very tiny hole for everything: for urinating menstruation, so it's quite severe," de Monchi explains.
    The practice of FGM sparked a passionate debate across Africa and further abroad in November 2006 when an Ethiopian was jailed in the United States for circumcising his daughter with scissors
    In what is believed to be the first such case in the United States, Khalid Adem was sentenced to 10 years in prison for removing his 2-year-old daughter's clitoris in 2001.
    According to Unicef and the World Health Organisation, the most common type of female genital mutilation is excision of the clitoris and the labia minora, accounting for up to 80% of all cases, while infibulation constitutes about 15% of all procedures.
    In the case of this village in the procedure appeared to be the former, but any form of female circumcision is banned in Kenya.
    Nonetheless, the custom is regularly practised openly. In this case, cameramen from Kenya's top broadcasters were given full access to the ceremony surrounding the circumcisions and even the circumcision itself. The practice is so fully entrenched into societal customs that the girls being circumcised do not resist.
    An estimated 3 million girls and women are mutilated or cut each year on the African continent, the United Nations' children's agency UNICEF says, in a custom viewed in many traditional cultures as a necessary rite of passage.
    Circumcision is also used to control or reduce women's sexual desire to lessen the chance of promiscuity in marriage.
    Opponents say it disfigures and sometimes kills, causes psychological harm, complicates childbirth later in life and reduces sexual pleasure for women.
    "There are so many complications and you can imagine in child birth but also time there is complications in terms of constant infections, even these can lead to a serious infection and death and know there is a lot of women who live with that and don't have a serious problem which is why it is perpertuated you know. Otherwise. I think if masses died they would probably stop the practice," said De Monchi.
    It is often carried out by an older woman with no medical training, using anything from scissors to pieces of glass under no anaesthetic or antiseptic treatment.
    As populations move West, the custom has followed in immigrant communities.
    In Kenya, it is known to be still common among traditional communities like the Maasai.
    In some Muslim countries of west Africa, considered among the continent's most conservative cultures, mutilation is common. Nine of 10 Malian women have undergone mutilation, for example, a European parliamentarian said this year.
    Laws, as seen in the footage shot in Kenya, are not enough to stop the practice, according to De Monchi.
    "Legislative frameworks and legal intervention aren't enough, it a cultural practise that has been ingrained in many cultures for years ,mostly Islamic and it really requires a collective abandonment approach and so what we talk about nowadays is community empowerment for collective abandonment", she said.
    The number of girls and women who have been undergone female genital mutilation is estimated at between 100 and 140 million.
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