Nigeria has banned FGM.
According to UNICEF:
"More than 130 million girls and women have experienced FGM/C in 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East where the practice is most common." With the help of community activism, campaigns and numbers of organizational efforts to end this practice, UNICEF reported that teenage girls were now one-third less likely to undergo FGM/C today than 30 years ago. Now with the new law criminalizing this procedure, the hope is the ban will fully eliminate this practice and be strongly enforced to combat any existing societal pressures.The World Health Organization cites immediate harmful effects of FCM/C that include hemorrhage (bleeding), bacterial infection, open sores, and long-term consequences that include infertility, childbirth complications and recurring bladder infections. In another UNICEF report, communities who practice FGM often do so to reduce sexual desire in women and to initiate girls to womanhood, among other purposes. According to "The Guardian's" analysis of 2014 UN data, a quarter of the women in Nigeria have undergone FGM.Stella Mukasa, director of Gender, Violence and Rights at the International Center for Research on Women, explains the complexity of the implementation of the new law banning FGM/C. "It is crucial that we scale up efforts to change traditional cultural views that underpin violence against women," she wrote in an article for "The Guardian." "Only then will this harmful practice be eliminated.”
The Guardian:
As the most populous country in Africa, Nigeria’s decision carries significant weight, but it would need to be implemented effectively, said Mary Wandia, FGM programme manager of Equality Now. “With such a huge population, Nigeria’s vote in favour of women and girls is hugely important,” she said. “We hope, too, that the other African countries which have yet to ban FGM – including Liberia, Sudan and Mali, among others – do so immediately to give all girls a basic level of protection.”
Others stressed that the battle to end FGM in a generation was far from over, saying it was crucial that attitudes, as well as laws, were changed.“It is crucial that we scale up efforts to change traditional cultural views that underpin violence against women. Only then will this harmful practice be eliminated,” said Stella Mukasa, director of gender, violence and rights at the International Center for Research on Women, writing in the Guardian.
Sierra Leone may be next
The Ebola-hit country last week became one of the last West African nations to ratify the Maputo Protocol, which addresses a range of issues including FGM, violence against women, child and forced marriage, and women's economic empowerment. The treaty, which was first adopted by Mozambique in July 2003 and has been ratified by 37 African states to date, should compel Sierra Leone to introduce a law banning FGM nationwide, according to rights group Equality Now.
Sierra Leone, along with West African neighbors Liberia and Mali, are among a handful of FGM-affected countries in the continent which have not yet banned the practice. Campaigners say FGM is particularly difficult to eliminate in Sierra Leone because of the influence of secret women's societies which back the practice and wield significant political clout."This (ratification) is important because it demonstrates a political commitment to protect the rights of girls and women in Sierra Leone, and provides a legal framework for them to access justice," said Equality Now program officer Kavinya Makau
It will obviously continue to take work and intervention to turn a legal ban into an actual change of practice, but this has to be good news. Perhaps with so large a country as Nigeria taking this step, the other remaining countries will act also.
