WUNRN
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The kind of blade commonly used to carry out FGM/C
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SANAA,
1 July 2008 (IRIN) - The Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood (SCMC), a
government body, has drawn up a national action plan to end the practice of
female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) in Yemen.
[Read this report in
Arabic]
As a
first step, the plan - the first of its kind in Yemen - aims to reduce FGM/C
prevalence by 30 percent by 2012.
The plan
has yet to be presented to Cabinet for approval, but was discussed at a
workshop on 24 June, with the 65 participants representing UN agencies, the
government, donors and civil society.
According
to a new, unpublished, study on FGM/C presented at the workshop, FGM/C is
practised in five of Yemen’s 21 governorates, with prevalence rates of 97.3
percent in al-Hudeidah Governorate; 97.3 percent in Hadhramaut; 96.5 percent in
al-Mahrah; 82.2 percent in Aden; and 45.5 percent in Sanaa.
Prepared
jointly by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Sanaa University's Gender
Development Research Centre (GDRSC) and the Yemeni Women’s Union, the study
identified four types of FGM/C, as per the World Health Organization classification.
The most
common was Type 2 - partial or total removal of the clitoris and the labia
minora, with or without excision of the labia majora (excision) - found in 83
percent of the cases studied.
Type 1 -
partial or total removal of the clitoris and/or the prepuce - represented 13
percent of cases.
A 1997
demographic survey found that 23 percent of girls and women had been subjected
to FGM/C, including 69 percent in coastal areas; 15 percent in mountainous
areas; and 5 percent in desert and highland areas.
New policies
According
to the plan, the Health Ministry would introduce bylaws, codes of conduct and
anti-FGM/C policies: all forms of FGM/C would be banned; FGM/C would be covered
in the school curriculum; media and community leaders would spread anti-FGM/C
messages; and religious leaders would de-link FGM/C from religion.
Health
professionals would take an oath not to practice FGM/C; adolescents and
children would participate in spreading awareness of the dangers of FGM/C, and
community leaders would discourage it. Media campaigns would be carried out in
communities still practising FGM/C, and focal points would be established at
governorate level.
Husniah
al-Qaderi, executive director of GDRSC, said FGM/C was attributed to religious
and cultural traditions in most cases. "But FGM/C was not mentioned in the
holy Koran. They think FGM/C will ensure a woman's chastity and keep her from
perversion," she told IRIN.
She said
99 percent of FGM/C cases were carried out 7-10 days after birth - the same for
male circumcision - but that there were often health complications: "FGM/C
leads to bleeding as the genital organs contain many blood vessels. A lot of
women said they had lost their daughters during circumcision. But deaths at home
are not registered.”
In
2001the Ministry of Health banned FGM/C from being carried out in private and
public health facilities.