FRANCE: Female Genital Mutilation, A Social Reality In France

Its a little-known fact that in Europe there are almost 7 million circumcised women. In France there are at least 60,000 adults and several thousand minors who have been circumcised.

Female circumcision is also carried out on babies just a few days old, too young to be able remember it. Few survive.

The practice has been widely reported in the media and happens less often today in France, but it hasn't been completely eradicated. Despite efforts to stop the practice, every year around 20,000 young women risk circumcision in France.

In France, all children have to have medical tests until the age of six, after which its impossible to check the physical integrity of a child.

So now, some parents wait until a young girl turns six before taking them on holiday to their country of origin and circumcising them.

TANZANIA: Bringing Hope To Tanzanian Village

Mara Huber spent some time during Christmas in 2006 chatting with the Immaculate Heart Sisters of Africa while they were visiting her mother-in-law.

   Huber, director of UB's Center for Educational Research, learned a lot during this conservation. She learned of the desperate plight of women and young girls in Africa, specifically in Tanzania, who are denied education and subjected to violence on an almost daily basis.

   In Tanzania, violence against women and girls, including domestic violence, rape, sexual harassment, female genital mutilation and sex trafficking, is a considerable problem. Females are harshly limited in what they can do day-to-day.

   School and social life ultimately do not exist for females in Tanzania. Rather than a school, girls are taught in a log in the middle of a field.

   Upon learning of the conditions that they were living in, Huber knew that she had to take action.

GAMBIA: 24 Communities Pledge To Abandon the Practice of FGC, Early / Forced Marriages

Through the intervention of Tostan International to end the practice of female genital cutting Africa, over 24 communities in both Wuli and Sandu pledged to stop both the cultural practice of FGC(FGM), early marriage and forced marriage at a ceremony held at Sandu Dasilameh.

In his welcoming remarks, the Alkalo of Dasilameh Kajali Danso expressed happiness over what he called historic in the history of his village. He pointed out that the Tostan intervention in his village has brought about significant changes. He thanked the participating communities for their large turnout and urged them to unite as one family.

Mr. Bakakry Fofana a community development assistant CDA resident in the village who is also the chairman of the steering committee underscored the importance of the day for the participating communities, Tostan Unicef and the Gambia government as twenty four communities pledged to abandon the practice of female genital cutting, early marriage and force marriage. This according to the steering committee chairman is one of the greatest achievements registered so far by the rural communities; noting that it materialised after an intensive three year community empowerment program jointly implemented by Unicef, Tostan and the Gambia government, on issues of democracy and good governance, human rights and responsibilities, problem solving, health and hygeine. He pointed out that the weekly cleaning exercise initiated by the Tostan intervention and adopted communities is complementing the effort of the department of state for health. Mr. Fofana while urging communities to sustain the project activities thanked Unicef for their generous support over the years making it possible to witness such a very important ceremony in the history of The Gambia and URR in particular. He also commended the executive director of Tostan International Madam Molly including popularly called Sukaina Njie in Senegal, for her unflinching support and dedication to the empowerment of African countries which he said cannot go unrecognized.

GAMBIA: Reaching The FGM/C Tipping Point

"In politics and sociology you reach a tipping point and once you've reached it, things change," says Min-whee Kang of the UN Children's Fund. "This is what we're aiming at to stop female genital mutilation and cutting in The Gambia."

Tales Of Struggle And Strengh: Human Rights Watch Fest Marks 20 Years

Empathy and Rage: Female Genital Mutilation in African Literature

EMPATHY AND RAGE:
Co-Edited by Tobe Levin and Augustine H. Asaah

This collection is a first - scholars analyse this subject as a theme in literature.

In an unusual symbiosis, activism and scholarship join hands to hasten the end of this egregious
human rights abuse.

The collection examines representations in creative writing by African and African-Americans including Nura Abdi, Mariama Barry, Calixthe Beyala, Osman Conteh, Waris Dirie,
Nuruddin Farah, Fatou Keita, Fadumo Korn, Ahmadou Kourouma, Christian Mambou, Nawal El Saadawi, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Awa Thiam and Alice Walker. et al.

In their efforts to end FGM, the governments of Germany, the UK, Italy and the European Union (Brussels) have drawn on the expertise of Tobe Levin who has written many articles and chapters for
books on FGM.

Empathy and Rage - these words bracket a spectrum of feelings people confront when they think about the millions of women and girls who have undergone bolokoli, takhoundi, tukore, or gudni’in - names in local languages for a procedure that mutilates women’s private parts or Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

Contributors to the collection include: Anne V. Adams, Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana, Muthoni Mathai, Marianne Sarkis and a translation from the French of contributor Herzberger-Fofana’s obituary placing it in the context of the work as a dedication to Sembene Ousmane, a true African pioneer of the exposure of this practice through film.

Tobe Levin is a Professor at the University of Maryland College in Europe, an adjunct to the University of Frankfurt, and non-resident Fellow, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute, Harvard University. Levin became an activist against FGM in 1977 and co-founded FORWARD - Germany, a registered charity modelled on FORWARD
UK, in 1998.

Augustine H. Asaah is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Ghana where he teaches African Francophone Literature and has pioneered research into African feminist literature and gender-based violence in African fiction.

Published by AYEBIA CLARKE PUBLISHING LTD, 7 Syringa Walk, Banbury, Oxfordshire, OX16 1FR, UK

T: +44 (0)1295 709228 F: +44 (0)1295 267681 E: becky@ayebia.co.uk W: www.ayebia.co.uk

Study Guide for "Born in the Big Rains" by Fadumo Korn

To view the reading guide, click on this link To purchase the book, click on the book image in the next column

Reading Group Choices, an online reading group has provided a reading guide for BORN IN THE BIG RAINS: A Memoir of Somalia and Survival by Fadumo Korn. This autobiographical book traces Fadumo's life from Somalia as a child where she was subjected to FGM, to her arrival in Germany, and eventual campaign against FGM. It's a gripping book, full of sadness, tears, and many laughters as Korn shares her rebellious antics with readers, and demonstrates that although she was victimized as a child, she is much more than just a victim.

BOOK REVIEW: “Civilizing Women: British Crusades in Colonial Sudan” by Janice Boddy

September 24, 2007 Wendy McElroy iFeminists.com Civilizing Women: British Crusades in Colonial Sudan is the latest book by Janice Boddy, Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto. The book is a self-conscious attempt to alter the terms of debate on an explosive issue: female genital mutilation (FGM). The issue is so explosive that fierce arguments surround the very question of what to call it. Those who defend or remain neutral on the practice tend to prefer the label ‘female genital cutting’ (FGC). In “Civilizing Women,” the index entry for ‘female genital mutilation’ reads “see female genital cutting.” In this review, when presenting my critique, I use the acronym FGM because nothing in Boddy’s book has softened my conviction that the practice is brutal child abuse. Out of respect for the author, however, I use FGC or other neutral terms when presenting her views. Boddy’s purpose in “Civilizing Women” is two-fold. First, she constructs a broad historical context through which to understand FGC as it was practiced between the years 1920 to 1946 in northern Sudan; these were years of British imperialism. Boddy asks the intensely interesting question, how did British colonialism and the practice of FGC affect each other?