I had big plans for this weekend. You might remember, Olaf and I were going to ride our bicycles to Dar city center and then hop on the ferry to the beach. I was really looking forward to it. Sunday had lent me his bike and brought it by Friday evening so we were all set. You can imagine my chagrin when I suddenly fell ill on Saturday. It actually began on Friday but I put on a brave face because Olaf was actually not feeling well on Friday and I so wanted to make it into Dar (finally) and to the beach of course. Luckily I took great care of him on Friday, cooking him my world famous tacos, because the next day it was his turn! I'm guessing it was all the new foods I tried last week, either that or it was my cooking. I refuse to believe that it was my cooking (although more than likely, it was :) Although yesterday was certainly an improvement on Saturday I was still not 100% (probably not even 50%!). Since Olaf was also not feeling well we decided to rest up for the work week and save our beach trip for next weekend. So I’m sorry to say, I don’t have much to report and just hope that the coming week will give me more fun fodder for this blog.
Having been told that many of you read my blog with your morning coffee, I felt like I should at least include a little something for your reading pleasure and so you'd have something to mull over during your day. Instead of fun filled facts about my weekend (which, trust me, you do not want!) I will copy and paste parts of the brochure on FGM I created instead. Please be aware that it is a first draft and that the intent is to have it translated into Kiswahili to make it accessible to everyone. I hope you enjoy it.
I cannot copy and paste the brochure as is, but below is the majority of the text that will appear in the brochure.
Tanzania has ratified many international conventions that are designed to protect women and children from violations of their human rights. Amongst these conventions, most notable are the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC). In addition to having ratified these international treaties, Tanzania has also adopted several regional conventions that contain provisions that are designed to protect women, and more specifically girls, from Female Genital Mutilation. These include the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC), the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Banjul) (ACHPR) and, more specifically, the Protocol to this Charter on the Rights of Women (Protocol) Each of these treaties contains at least one clause that can be applied to limit the practice of FGM and from this it can be determined that by ratifying these conventions Tanzania has agreed that this practice violates the basic human rights of its victims.
By ratifying these treaties, Tanzania has agreed to abide by these rules. In November of 2009, Tanzania took a big step in the right direction when it adopted the Law of the Child Act, which makes it an offence punishable by a fine not exceeding five million shillings and/or imprisonment for a term less than six (6) months to perform or cause to be performed FGM (Article 158 of the Law of the Child Act). Furthermore, the Sexual Offence Special Provision Act (SOSPA) of 1998 specifically outlaws FGM (Article 169) and provides for a punishment of at least five years, but no more than fifteen years of imprisonment and/or a fine of three hundred thousand shillings.
The hurdle to overcome at this point is not the creation of legislation to protect women and girls from this practice, but implementing existing law and actually holding offenders accountable for their actions. Breaking the silence associated with FGM is an important step in the fight towards eradication of FGM as a cultural practice. Article 95 of the Law of the Child Act addresses this issue and places an affirmative duty on community members to report any information they have that a child’s rights are being infringed upon. This is important because the Article makes it a punishable offense should one not report the information. However, reporting alone is not sufficient since fear of being punished will only exacerbate the secrecy in which the practice takes place. What is necessary is education and awareness which will lead to discussions and eventually the reporting of violations so that the offenders may be held accountable.
Changing the law to meet the requirements of the international conventions to which Tanzania has avowed to adhere is merely one step in the process of eradicating a practice such as FGM. Clearly, the law in Tanzania makes it a punishable offense to participate in and perform FGM, however, the practice is still common and actual implementation of the law is lacking. It appears that the tools are there but they are not being used. In order to be able to use these laws to protect women and girls from the practice of FGM, communities must be educated and informed of the consequences of FGM both to the victim and to the offender. Only by informing the community, the victims and the perpetrators can we move towards a future where women and girls are not subjected to FGM.
Memorable Quotes:
“I refused to go through FGM because I knew other friends who were mutilated and had bled heavily and one had died, so I was scared that if I went through the ritual I might die and dreaded the fact that the bodies of those who die during FGM are just thrown away.”
“My father brought a “ngariba” at home and asked the brothers to hold me down. One of the brothers sat on my chest while the others held my legs apart so that the “ngariba” can cut me. They told me that if I screamed the father would have to pay the “ngariba” one cow, as she was asked to come to do the cutting at home. So I had to keep very silent despite all the pain I felt."
Female genital mutilation (FGM) encompasses “all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injuries to the female genital organs for cultural or other non-therapeutic reasons.” (WHO, 1995). The negative effects on the victim’s health both physically and psychologically are profound and the practice certainly rises to the level of being cruel and inhumane and violates the human rights of victims of FGM.
WHO Classification of FGM types:
Type 1: Excision of the prepuce with or without the excision of part or the entire clitoris.
Type 2: Excision of the clitoris with partial or total excision of the labia minora.
Type3: Excision of part or all of the external genitalia and a stitching or narrowing of the vaginal opening. “Sealing” is a variation of Type 3, where there is no stitching but the vagina is ‘sealed’ by allowing blood to coagulate in the opening, creating an additional hymen to detect the loss of virginity.
Type 4 (unclassified): Includes all the other procedures that are carried out on the genitalia of women and girls. These include cauterizing the clitoris and surrounding tissue; scraping the tissue surrounding the vaginal orifice (angurya cuts); cutting into the vagina (gishiri cuts); introducing corrosive herbs and substances into the vagina to cause bleeding or to tighten or narrow it; and any other procedure which falls into the definition of FGM as defined by the WHO.
FGM is used as a rite of passage for one to move from one stage of life to another. The community considers it as a rite of transition from childhood to womanhood. Once the girl has been through FGM, she is considered to be ready for marriage. This enables her family to receive a dowry from a potential husband. The younger and harder worker the girl is, th emore the dowry will be. FGM is now practiced on children from the age of 10.
Health Consequences of FGM
· Extreme pain and shock
· Severe blood loss, possible hemorrhage
· Possible injury to adjacent tissue
· Infection of the wound
· Possible HIV infection
· Infections may spread causing problems with the uterus, fallopian tubes and ovaries
· Chronic pelvic pain
· Infertility
· The retention of urine and menstrual products
· Incontinence
· Permanent damage to the reproductive organs
· Vulval abscesses due to infected cysts
· Obstetric fistula
· Painful sexual intercourse
· Psychological problems
· Difficulties in passing menstrual blood
· Death
By ratifying these treaties, Tanzania has agreed to abide by these rules. In November of 2009, Tanzania took a big step in the right direction when it adopted the Law of the Child Act, which makes it an offence punishable by a fine not exceeding five million shillings and/or imprisonment for a term less than six (6) months to perform or cause to be performed FGM (Article 158 of the Law of the Child Act). Furthermore, the Sexual Offence Special Provision Act (SOSPA) of 1998 specifically outlaws FGM (Article 169) and provides for a punishment of at least five years, but no more than fifteen years of imprisonment and/or a fine of three hundred thousand shillings.
The hurdle to overcome at this point is not the creation of legislation to protect women and girls from this practice, but implementing existing law and actually holding offenders accountable for their actions. Breaking the silence associated with FGM is an important step in the fight towards eradication of FGM as a cultural practice. Article 95 of the Law of the Child Act addresses this issue and places an affirmative duty on community members to report any information they have that a child’s rights are being infringed upon. This is important because the Article makes it a punishable offense should one not report the information. However, reporting alone is not sufficient since fear of being punished will only exacerbate the secrecy in which the practice takes place. What is necessary is education and awareness which will lead to discussions and eventually the reporting of violations so that the offenders may be held accountable.
Changing the law to meet the requirements of the international conventions to which Tanzania has avowed to adhere is merely one step in the process of eradicating a practice such as FGM. Clearly, the law in Tanzania makes it a punishable offense to participate in and perform FGM, however, the practice is still common and actual implementation of the law is lacking. It appears that the tools are there but they are not being used. In order to be able to use these laws to protect women and girls from the practice of FGM, communities must be educated and informed of the consequences of FGM both to the victim and to the offender. Only by informing the community, the victims and the perpetrators can we move towards a future where women and girls are not subjected to FGM.
Memorable Quotes:
“I refused to go through FGM because I knew other friends who were mutilated and had bled heavily and one had died, so I was scared that if I went through the ritual I might die and dreaded the fact that the bodies of those who die during FGM are just thrown away.”
“My father brought a “ngariba” at home and asked the brothers to hold me down. One of the brothers sat on my chest while the others held my legs apart so that the “ngariba” can cut me. They told me that if I screamed the father would have to pay the “ngariba” one cow, as she was asked to come to do the cutting at home. So I had to keep very silent despite all the pain I felt."
Female genital mutilation (FGM) encompasses “all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injuries to the female genital organs for cultural or other non-therapeutic reasons.” (WHO, 1995). The negative effects on the victim’s health both physically and psychologically are profound and the practice certainly rises to the level of being cruel and inhumane and violates the human rights of victims of FGM.
WHO Classification of FGM types:
Type 1: Excision of the prepuce with or without the excision of part or the entire clitoris.
Type 2: Excision of the clitoris with partial or total excision of the labia minora.
Type3: Excision of part or all of the external genitalia and a stitching or narrowing of the vaginal opening. “Sealing” is a variation of Type 3, where there is no stitching but the vagina is ‘sealed’ by allowing blood to coagulate in the opening, creating an additional hymen to detect the loss of virginity.
Type 4 (unclassified): Includes all the other procedures that are carried out on the genitalia of women and girls. These include cauterizing the clitoris and surrounding tissue; scraping the tissue surrounding the vaginal orifice (angurya cuts); cutting into the vagina (gishiri cuts); introducing corrosive herbs and substances into the vagina to cause bleeding or to tighten or narrow it; and any other procedure which falls into the definition of FGM as defined by the WHO.
FGM is used as a rite of passage for one to move from one stage of life to another. The community considers it as a rite of transition from childhood to womanhood. Once the girl has been through FGM, she is considered to be ready for marriage. This enables her family to receive a dowry from a potential husband. The younger and harder worker the girl is, th emore the dowry will be. FGM is now practiced on children from the age of 10.
Health Consequences of FGM
· Extreme pain and shock
· Severe blood loss, possible hemorrhage
· Possible injury to adjacent tissue
· Infection of the wound
· Possible HIV infection
· Infections may spread causing problems with the uterus, fallopian tubes and ovaries
· Chronic pelvic pain
· Infertility
· The retention of urine and menstrual products
· Incontinence
· Permanent damage to the reproductive organs
· Vulval abscesses due to infected cysts
· Obstetric fistula
· Painful sexual intercourse
· Psychological problems
· Difficulties in passing menstrual blood
· Death
Reasons for the practice of FGM
· Belief that girls who undergo FGM have a higher chance of getting married
· It is a rite of passage into womanhood
· To reduce women’s sexual desire and thus to protect against promiscuity
· To prevent stigma from peers
· Fear of repercussions within the family
· To receive a higher bride price
· Tradition
· Belief that girls who undergo FGM have a higher chance of getting married
· It is a rite of passage into womanhood
· To reduce women’s sexual desire and thus to protect against promiscuity
· To prevent stigma from peers
· Fear of repercussions within the family
· To receive a higher bride price
· Tradition
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