MP claims nurses performing FGM

A Tanzanian MP claimed on Monday that nurses in the county were continuing to perform female genital mutilation (FGM) on baby girls, the independent ‘Guardian’ newspaper’. The MP, Salome Joseph Mbatia, said although many traditional practitioners were no longer working, FGM was still taking place in health centres and hospitals “as soon as a baby girl is born.” Speaking during a debate on the work of the Ministry for Community Development, Women’s Affairs and Children, Mbatia called on the government to “stop this barbaric exercise before many children are affected.” Minister Asha-Rose Migiro was quoted as saying that bringing an end to FGM would require the combined efforts of government, the people and civil society. She said it was the duty of citizens to expose nurses and others who practised FGM, adding that “the government will deal squarely with the culprits.”

At a meeting of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in June, human rights experts said that female genital mutilation [http://www.who.int/frh-whd/FGM/index.htm] was still widely practised in Tanzania despite its prohibition by law, and recommended that the government strengthen its efforts to combat and eradicate it and other traditional practices harmful to the health of girls, such as infanticide and early and forced marriages. Migiro said that FGM had been prohibited in Tanzania but that die-hards would not easily give up the practice, leading the government to extend its awareness campaign about such practices. UNICEF Tanzania told IRIN then that the practise of FGM was still rampant in the northern and central regions of Tanzania, mainly among nomadic societies. This had been attributed to low levels of education among girls as a result of lack of sufficient educational facilities and a ‘rigid’ culture, among other factors, it said. However, there were a lot of ongoing campaigns, including providing education to the girls as well as providing means to alternative livelihood for those carrying out the practice, it added.