Female Genital Mutilation Still Widespread

by Emad Mekay

(IPS) WASHINGTON -- The practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) is still widespread in many African countries despite intensified efforts to fight the procedure, said U.S. officials and women's rights activists.

They were meeting in Washington to review progress in ending the practice, also known as female genital cutting (FGC), and to mark the first anniversary of the International Day of Zero Tolerance against FGC.

On Feb. 6, 2003 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and officials from Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali vowed to wipe out FGC.

But except for some patchy successes, lack of money to finance their efforts means the practice continues as before, activists reported Friday.

The procedure, which some experts say dates back 5,000 years, can cause massive and fatal bleeding to women. It can also lead to future chronic infections, sterility and serious complications in childbirth.

Performed mainly in Africa but also in some Asian and Middle Eastern nations, FGC is often practiced without anaesthetic on infants and girls by medically unqualified persons.

According to a report distributed to journalists here, parents are increasingly subjecting infants and young girls -- "from the first few weeks of life to age two or three" -- to genital cutting.

Activists say those parents believe the practice prevents their daughters from being unfaithful to their future husbands and, in some communities, guarantees that women will find husbands.

Even though some governments have widely agreed to abolish FGC, it is still widespread, according to the report, which was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and carried out by research group Macro International Inc.

Some two million girls face the practice every year, while an estimated 130 million girls and women worldwide have undergone genital cutting.

The report, the highlights of which were distributed at a press conference, says that more than 7 in 10 women have undergone the procedure in African countries like Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea, Mali, Egypt and Guinea.

In those countries that supplied data, such as Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Eritrea and Mali, prevalence has gone down only marginally, if at all, during the 1990s.

The prevalence of FGC in Egypt, for example, stayed roughly the same -- about 97 percent -- between 1994 and 2003, while it rose in Cote d'Ivoire from 43 percent to 45 percent, slipped back from 95 percent to 89 percent in Eritrea and to 34 percent from 38 percent in Kenya, in the same time period.

The report says that in some countries where the practice is deeply rooted, like Eritrea and Sudan, many women are subjected to infibulation, an extreme form of circumcision that involves cutting more of the genitalia than just the clitoris, and then sewing the two sides of the vulva almost completely closed.

USAID says it is helping several African countries adopt a "zero tolerance" stance against the procedure. Senegal, Benin, Chad, Guinea and Kenya have reportedly adopted laws outlawing the practice, while Egypt has prohibited FGC in a decree.

The U.S. agency says it is also funding NGOs that carry out activities to fight the practice.

USAID official Abdelhadi Eltahir said the agency spends $1.3 million to fight the practice, mostly in African countries, but that much more money aimed at ending FGC is provided through bilateral aid.

But activists said money is slow to come.

"The investments are still actually minuscule. There's lots of talk about FGM but the money that goes into FGM is actually very very little," said Nahid Toubia from RAINBO, a group based in London.

The group is seeking funding from the World Bank, the European Commission and national governments, she added.

"We are also starting to look at African philanthropy in Africa."

Groups represented at the conference said they work to fight the practice through education programs targeted to religious and traditional leaders and young adults, which discourage female circumcision.

They also warned the procedure is becoming a domestic issues in many western countries. Through immigrant populations FGC is presenting a dilemma in the United States, Europe and Australia, in particular.

"Evidence is mounting that parents are taking their daughters back to Africa to be circumcised," said Nawal Nour, director of the African Women's Health Centre at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

"We must review current legislation and work along with the African community to find a way to stop it," said Nour, a Sudanese-born gynaecologist who has become one of the leading figures in the United States in the treatment of immigrant women who have undergone female circumcision.