By Barkhad
Mahomed Omar -- Somaliland
The peaceful capital of Somaliland,
has become a new centre for the Somali Diaspora
wanting to perform female genital
mutilation (FGM) on their daughters. Most live in
countries where FGM is strictly
forbidden, including when this is done abroad.
A team from the Norwegian public
broadcaster 'NRK' last week visited Hargeysa, where it
easily found practitioners of the
outlawed practice of FGM (also referred to as "female
circumcision" or "female cutting"),
which is widely condemned as strongly harmful to
women and girls, also by many Muslim
religious leaders.
The Somalilander women performing
FGM did so privately or in open cooperation with
public health facilities in Hargeysa,
where most worked as midwifes. Among Somalis,
female genital mutilation is very
widespread and the UN estimates that 98 percent of
women in Somaliland and Somalia have
been subjected to the harmful practice.
In most countries where the large
Somali Diaspora is represented, however, FGM is
strictly outlawed. Research
nevertheless shows that a majority of Somali parents living
abroad ignore the laws of their host
country and continue exposing their daughters to this
culturally based practice.
And as southern Somalia remains an
unsafe destination, peaceful Somaliland has
emerged a safe haven for Somalis
wanting to visit friends and family. Or wanting to stick
to traditions.
The 'NRK' team met with ten FGM
practitioners in Hargeysa saying they had performed
the cut on at least 185 Somali girls
living in Norway. The practitioners further confirmed
that Norway-based parents were
popular clients as they paid "well", typically euro 20
each girl. European summer holidays
were seen as the top season for these women
performing FGM.
Based on these data, it is estimated
that thousands of young girls are brought to
Hargeysa each year from Europe alone
to undergo the mutilation. Somali women rights
organizations all over Europe and
North America have for years tried to address this
practice, knowing that each summer
holiday, hundreds of young girls are taken to
Hargeysa for just this reason.
In Norway, this revelation caused a
public outcry and fuelled the debate about how to
better enforce national legislation
outlawing FGM. Politicians have proposed anything
from information campaigns targeting
Somalis in Norway, to obliging medics to report
cases they come over to the police
and introducing obligatory health tests for girls
returning from summer holidays in
Somalia.
While Somali parents living abroad
can be taken to court for child abuse after having
taken their daughters to Somaliland
to undergo FGM, the Hargeysa practitioners operate
in full legality. Attempts to outlaw
FGM in Somaliland have so far failed.
But there are an increasing number
of Somalilander voices calling for government action
against FGM. Poet and journalist
Bashir Goth recently protested against the "physical
torture and mutilation of women's
God-given sexual organs," adding the "practice should
be banned and Somaliland should join
other pioneer African countries including
neighboring Djibouti in ratifying
the Maputo Protocol that seeks to outlaw FGM."
Also among Somalilander health
workers, there is an increased discussion about the
harmful practice. Hargeysa midwife
Safia Dualleh Farah, who guided the 'NRK' team,
strongly objected the practices but
said she understood her colleagues performing
FGM. "They are cutting the girls on
their spare time because they earn too little working
in hospitals or health centers. They
say they cannot afford to stop," she told 'NRK'.
A few women groups in Hargeysa have
started to raise awareness on the harms and
dangers of FGM, but little has been
achieved so far. As Somaliland remains a non-
recognized country, little
international effort is put into fighting FGM here, contrary to for
example neighboring Ethiopia, where
a majority of young mothers now reject the
practice following intensive
information campaigns.
The UN children agency UNICEF
together with the Senegal-based women rights
organization Tostan until know have
been able to arrange a few sensitizing seminars in
Somaliland, focusing on "human
rights to ensure human dignity," according to Tostan
Somaliland supervisor Suleiman Mahdi
Sh Hassan. The Hargeysa government so far
however has shown little interest in
supporting this work.