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20 Dec 2011 - NPWJ News Digest on FGM & women's rights
Articles
Even in Puntland the tide is turning against barbarism masquerading as culture
By Mark T Jones, Somaliland Press, 16 Dec 2011
As we look around the world today we become aware of how many states are actively involved in the suppression of others. Many a nation seeks to persecute those it fears, whilst others formulate laws designed to disadvantage those not of the same ethnic make-up, religion or clan. Whilst the world occasionally takes an interest in state sponsored violence when it comes to physical or psychological abuse that has been shaped by culture and tradition there is a marked reluctance to speak out and act in a robust and co-ordinated manner.
Cultural sensitivities, taboos and the charge of cultural imperialism help silence many who might otherwise raise their voice. As a consequence human wrongs are perpetrated, especially against women and girls and excused as culture.
Uganda: Rights Activists Push for FGM End
By David Mafabi, AllAfrica, 15 Dec 2011
Human rights activists have called upon the East Africa bloc to honour the commitment to end female genital mutilation, describing it as a discriminatory and a harmful practice to girls.
While addressing delegates from Kenya and Uganda and traditionalists at the 12th Sebei Culture Day celebrations on Monday held at Sebei College Tegeres, the Speaker of Parliament, Ms Rebecca Kadaga, said ending FGM is crucial to the success of two of the Millennium Development Goals: Improving maternal health and promoting gender equality.
First Ladies call for an end to Sexual and Gender-Based Violence
Lakasatimes.com, 15 Dec 2011
The Zambian First Lady, Dr Christine Mwela Kaseba Sata, in her key note address, said as medicaldoctor specialising in reproductive health she has witnessed the painful effects of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV)
“I have seen the anguish and pain both physically and emotionally that women, girls and children undergo,” Dr Kaseba remarked. “I look forward to the day when every woman will be empowered to fight this,” she added.
Speaking at a meeting of First Ladies of the Great Lakes region Dr Kaseba said one in every three women in the great lakes region has been beaten, coerced into sex and abused. “You can’t claim development when peace is absent. We have every reason to be concerned,” she emphasised. She called for the domestication of all international protocols that banish SGBV.
La loi interdisant l’excision expliquée aux populations de Dabakala
News Abidjan, 15 Dec 2011
Le Fonds des Nations unies pour la population (UNFPA), en campagne de sensibilisation contre l’excision dans le département de Dabakala, a explicité mercredi la loi réprimant les mutilations génitales féminines (MGF) aux populations de la localité, où sévissent depuis le mois d'octobre l’excision, de façon endémique.
Présidée par le préfet de DabakalaBarro Abdul Karim, la campagne de vulgarisation et d’explication portant sur le thème "la loi ivoirienne et les MGF" a permis au commandant de brigade de gendarmerie de Dabakala, Adama Fanny, de donner les détails sur la loi numéro 98-6757 du 23 décembre 1998, portant répression de certaines formes de violence à l’égard des femmes en Côte d’Ivoire.
Kenya: Mbeere District Schoolgirls Circumcised Secretely
By Reuben Githinji, AllAfrica, 15 Dec 2011
Human rights lobby groups in Embu have raised concern over the violation of the rights of school-going children in Embu by their parents and grandparents in secretly circumcising them.
The human rights groups asked the government through the provincial administration to ensure secret Female Genital Mutilation is stamped out. They said the worst hit area is Mbeere North and South districts where girls are usually circumcised during holidays.
Forced marriage is inhumane, unacceptable – and not illegal in the UK
By Sayeeda Warsi, The Guardian, 14 Dec 2011
A 15-year-old girl is midway through her GCSEs when she is taken out of school. Little do her classmates know, she has been packed off abroad to marry a man she has never met, a man to whom she has been "promised" since birth. They never see her again.
This sounds like the stuff of a bygone era, of faraway places, even fiction. But, in 2011, here in Britain, the forcing of women or girls into marriage is a sad reality for thousands of people.
I have met some of the victims. They speak about wedlock being used as a weapon and the horrors to which this can lead, such as rape, abuse and unwanted pregnancy.
