Female genital mutilation declining, says Minister

Twelve years after Burkina Faso launched a campaign that outlawed female genital mutilation (FGM) in 1996 and imposed heavy penalties on circumcisers, the number of women undergoing the harmful practise is declining, officials said. Mariam Lamizana, the Burkinabe Minister for Social Welfare and Solidarity told IRIN that surveys done over three years among different age groups in various regions, indicated that FGM prevalence had dropped from the 1996 national average of 66.35 percent to between 16-43 percent. It however remained high in some towns. In Boromo in the western Bale province, 150 km from Ouagadougou, 87 percent of the women were found to have undergone FGM. The town had the highest prevalence in the country. "We have reached a point when the female circumcision is discussed in the community and demystified," Lamizana told IRIN in an interview on 19 May. To raise awareness, she added, FGM was being treated as a health, human rights and violence issue in a campaign involving religious leaders and female circumcisers. FGM [female circumcision] is a procedure where a woman's external genital organs are removed or injured for cultural, religious or other non-therapeutic reasons. It has serious consequences including pain, hemorrhage, infection, ulceration, damage to the urethra and difficulties in birth. It could also lead to HIV/AIDS transmission. In Burkina Faso, it is a deep-rooted cultural practice in 14 provinces where it is believed to "cleanse" women as part of their initiation. It involves cutting off the clitoris of girls of the same age in the community, usually by a traditional practitioner with crude instruments and without anesthesia. The Burkina parliament outlawed FGM as part of a campaign led by a National Committee against Circumcision Practice (CNLPE). It set prison terms of upto five years and fines of upto US $1,500, for people found circumcising women. So far 300 people have been arrested. Fifteen were sentenced to jail for three to twelve months and others fined $85-$1,500. On 17 May the CNLPE organised activities at Boromo to mark the country's national day against FGM. Lamizana said during the function: "We are confirming on this day our firm determination to fight a non-stop battle so that no single Burkina girl will be threatened by this practice of another age." According to the World Health Organisation, most girls and women who have undergone FGM live in 28 African countries, including Burkina Faso. Some live in Asia and the Middle East; and increasingly among immigrants in Europe, Australia, Canada and the USA. Between 100-140 girls and women worldwide have undergone it. Another 2 million are at risk of undergoing it each year.