Issues – Why FGM Should Be Outlawed in Nation!

Concord Times (Freetown)

Moses A. Kargbo

11 May 2011

Freetown — Sierra Leonean authorities have ceased to take a position on the dreaded practice of Female Genital Mutilation or FGM in the country despite moves by many African nations to outlaw a practice believed to expose girls to diseases due to the re-use of unsanitary razor blades; the practice is also said to have a negative effect on girls’ delivering and even result in death. Parliamentarians from all over Africa are pushing for a continent-wide ban on Female Genital Mutilation and are calling on the UN to pass a General Assembly resolution appealing for a global FGM ban, which they believe violates human rights.

Some 15 African states have banned the practice. MPs from the continent met in Dakar from May 3 to 4 this year to exchange lessons learned and actions to take to achieve the ban and resolution. While national human rights laws and regional treaties such as the 2003 Africa Union Maputo Declaration refer directly or indirectly to FGM, separate laws must be passed to address it head-on, said delegates. But the disparity here is that some countries have passed laws, others have none; and some have laws that are not applied.

Sierra Leone was ably represented at the Dakar conference but despite the commitment made by other African MPs attending the meeting, the country’s parliamentarians seem less interested in pushing for a ban on the practice, despite the threat it continues to pose on the well-being of young aspiring Sierra Leonean girls.

The sad part of it all is that the Government of Sierra Leone has failed – both legally and otherwise – in providing protection for girls who loathe the practice and may not wish to undergo the barbaric female genital mutilation. Some bitter lessons of the past should spur our authorities into taking action to ensure the future of our girls is protected.

Most Sierra Leoneans could still recall the ugly incident that took place a little over a month ago in a small village in Bonthe district, southern Sierra Leone where a 12-year-old girl was secretly taken from her parents by one of her aunts and given to ‘Soweis’ (FGM initiators) to be initiated into the female Bondo secret society. The girl suffered excessive bleeding after the initiation ceremony; and despite all kinds of ‘native’ medication in the Bondo bush, she failed to recover and eventually died few days later. After days of searching for the ‘missing girl’ by her parents, a relative later informed the parents that the girl was last seen in the company of her aunt, a revelation that led them to the Bondo bush, where they were told of their daughter’s demise.

This development did not go down well with the family and local authorities in the village. Some family members and youth decided to go on a revenge mission and by the time they could storm the Bondo bush, the ‘Soweis’ and their accomplices had already fled. This led to serious tension in the village and it took the intervention of police personnel from the southern headquarter town of Bo to put the situation under control; but before that time, the Bondo bush had already been set on fire.

So aside the health hazard FGM poses to young girls, the practice is also a security issue as the situation in Bonthe clearly demonstrated.

Children in the southern region of the country are particularly vulnerable to the practice of FGM as parents – who had themselves gone through the initiation rites while in their teens – most often find it difficult to keep their kids off the rituals; believed to be a tradition left behind by their ancestors.

It could also be recalled that Concord Times, on February 28, 2011, published a story about a dedicated health care worker in the Moyamba district, southern Sierra Leone, who had come under severe threats from a group of Bondo secret society women due to his advocacy against the FGM practice. Mama Fanny has been relentless in advocating and encouraging women to avoid initiating their little girls into the Bondo society, citing long-term health complication and the general well-being of women. Such advocacy had angered especially the initiators (Soweis’), thus the repeated threats to harm her if she continued with her campaign.

In January this year, a group of Bondo secret society women in Shenge village in the Moyamba district, who still believe and rely on this practice for their survival, had waged a persecution war against Mama Fanny. “They are threatening her with death, harassment and exile from the village,” a family friend in Shenge who preferred anonymity, had told Concord Times. He said several reports had been made to the police but that action was yet to be taken “due to political interference or pressure”. Some politicians, he alleged, are providing funding and support for initiation into the Bondo secret society as a political move to win votes.

Several rights groups across the country have been advocating for an end to FGM practice but government is too shy to take a position on the issue for fear of losing political sympathy from Sierra Leonean women who still believe in the practice.

According to the United Nations Population Fund, FGM is practiced in about 28 African countries, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Tanzania. It has only been outlawed in 15 of these countries and the World Health Organization estimates that as many as 130 million girls and women have undergone the procedure. Although there are different types of FGM, in Sierra Leone it mostly means the removal of the clitoris and the labia minora.

As dreadful as it is, every level of Sierra Leonean society seems to have accepted FGM as a reality that we must live with. And it has become highly politicised, making it much more difficult for human rights activists to openly criticize it. It is said that more than 90% of Sierra Leonean women have undergone the procedure and despite international calls for criminalising it, many of our country’s politicians continue to secretly support it.

The unfortunate aspect of the FGM threat in the country is the fact that the police have been dragging their feet over the cry of little girls that are often forced into initiation. Certainly, security is necessary for people who think FGM is an abuse and should not be practiced. But why do politicians want to make capital out of this age-old pattern of mutilation? Contemporary world despises such an act which is threatening the well-being of our little girls. When are we going to abolish such an act as a state? It is but necessary that we give chance to our girls to enjoy their human rights, instead of living under the constant threat of FGM.

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