WUNRN
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While Aridjetou Oumorou, 65, in Togo has abandoned FGM/C,
other cutters in West Africa continue despite the risk of imprisonment and
fines (file photo) |
OUAGADOUGOU, 27 January 2009 (IRIN) - Women
performing excisions in Burkina Faso are cutting babies instead of young girls
to escape increased scrutiny, according to the government and organisations
fighting female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C).
FGM/C has been outlawed in Burkina Faso since 1996 and
is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and US$1500 in fines. In the years
following the law the number of FGM/C victims younger than five years old
increased from 20 percent in 1998 to 31 percent in 2003, according to the
government.
At least 70 newborns nationwide were admitted for
hospital emergency care after botched cuttings in the first three months of
2008, according to the government.
Drowned-out cries
Babies’ screams are often hidden from unsuspecting
neighbours during noisy cutting ceremonies, according to the government’s
National Committee Against FGM/C, known as CNLPE.
FGM/C is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO)
as any injury to female genital organs for cultural, religious or other
non-therapeutic reasons.
WHO has stated that consequences can include lifelong
debilitating psychological and physical trauma – such as extreme pain during
childbirth, sexual relations and urination. Some three million girls, the
majority under 15 years old, are cut every year.
“It is a perverse effect of our denunciation and
awareness campaign that to avoid being caught they [circumcisers] turn to
babies who can undergo FGM/C unnoticed,” said CNLPE’s permanent secretary Marie
Rose Sawadogo.
Baby cuttings
The fact that people have “developed strategies to
violate the [1996] law” means some communities still do not understand why they
need to abandon FGM/C, said Brigitte Yameogo with the non-profit Mwangaza
Action. (Mwangaza means “light” in Swahili.)
In a 2008 survey the NGO conducted in the capital
Ouagadougou, a majority of the 140 residents surveyed reported returning to
their villages or finding remote areas to have their babies cut.
Pascaline Sebgo, an adviser in charge of FGM/C control
for the German aid agency GTZ, told IRIN newborn victims are even more
vulnerable at the hands of aging cutters.
“Most of the circumcisers are old, cannot see well and just
cut what they feel in their hands,” Sebgo told IRIN. She added that the average
age of cutters has not changed much since a 1996 government survey reported 58
as the average age, with some cutters working into their 80s.
The new fight
Prevalence of FGM/C in Burkina Faso had dropped from 77
percent in the 1990s to less than 50 percent among women 15 to 49 years old in
2005, according to CNLPE.
But some leaders are still resisting pressure to wipe
out FGM/C, said Mwangaza Action’s Yameogo.
“FGM/C is still a reality in Burkina Faso and
populations strongly believe that the practice is rooted in their traditional
values,” she told IRIN. “Though some traditional chiefs publicly denounce
FGM/C, they still favour the practice in private.”
Yameogo said anti-FGM/C messages can get lost in
nationwide “massive campaigns” and that FGM/C supporters may better “understand
the heart of the [cutting] problem” if they are approached in smaller settings.
The government’s Sawadogo told IRIN the increase in
newborn FGM/C victims [since adoption of 1996 law] does not cancel out previous
gains made in the fight against FGM/C, but that new strategies are needed to
stop those who “thwart the law” by cutting younger and younger girls.
But she said that since 2004 the government has not had
funds to run anti-FGM/C campaigns.
GTZ's technical adviser Sebgo said CNLPE has lacked
“clear objectives” and is working from an outdated action plan.
Sebgo said GTZ will work with partners to increase
funding as soon as the government adopts a new anti-FGM/C action plan, which is
being finalised.
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