Published by participants in the  Certificate in Journalism program

of the African Virtual University-Indiana University of Pennsylvania Partnership.

The African Star

Homepage

Pictures (GAMBIA)
Pictures (Somaliland)

Women launch campaign against female genital  mutilation

Women have launched a campaign against female genital mutilation (FGM) the practice of circumcising women. At a recent  conference women heard that  FGM is dangerous to women’s health. This was after Maryan Guhad Ali an FGM practitioner demonstrated how it is practised.

She said FGM  is painful and scathing. It involves cutting out all parts of the female child’s external genitalia.

“ I used to remove the clitoris and the adjacent labia and join the sides with thorn,”she said.

Maryan who has not practised FGM for the past one year said women or mothers are the ones who are too attached to the ritual and they are the ones who can end it.

Fatuma Adhan a mother who participated in the seminar said she didn’t and will not pass the cross-cultural and across-religious ritual to her 17- year- old daughter.

   But another mother  said she would do it to her daughters saying FGM is required for a proper marriage and the virtue of the girl.

    However, women  launched a campaign against FGM in Somaliland where an estimated 98 percent of women have undergone the ritual.

During the Siad Barre regime the FGM was not that popular.

 Apart from wanting to preserve their physical integrity Somaliland women want to be heard and recognized as liberators of the country.

The women’s wing of  the Somali National Movement (snm)  recently broke their silence. They say they  want to be honoured and remembered along with the men.  Some of them are widows and want the government to compensate them.

 Women's organizations are also preparing women candidates ahead of the  parliamentary elections to be held early next year.

The women who had  been confined them to kitchen by  traditional and cultural beliefs are now prepared for a decision making role  at household and national level in matters that will affect them.