Pan African Network Trust - Circumcision

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CIRCUMCISION
- WHOSE DECISION?

Almost forty percent of Women circumcised reportedly get infected or die. No wonder there is an international outcry particularly from Women’s groups calling for an immediate halt to the circumcision of their kin.

A campaign by human rights groups is underway in East and North Africa - where circumcision of women is prevalent - for a ban on the practice but so far there seems to be no outcry against the circumcision of men - regarded by some African ethnic groups such as the Xosa in South Africa, in East and North Africa as a symbol of manhood and hygiene. Teresa Chilangwa a Human Rights Worker in Zambia argues that the circumcision of women is foreign and therefore disrupts African village tradition.

Zambian Men Turn To Circumcision To Avoid Sexually Transmitted Diseases

With the advent of the AIDS pandemic, more Zambian men are reportedly opting for circumcision which is said to lower the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases.
Culturally, only a few Zambian ethnic groups, mainly in the north-western region, are known to practise circumcision which many Zambians associate with the foreign Jewish and Muslim communities.
According to social experts, this view has now changed with more people said to be taking their male children for "surgery" to have the foreskin removed as a protective measure against contracting AIDS.

The UNICEF has cited Zambian youths as being some of the most sexually active groups with most said to engage in the practice as early as 14 years of age. The age group is also reportedly among the most infected with the HIV/AIDS.
The UNICEF estimates that about 27 percent of the youth in the urban areas and 14 percent in the rural areas within the 15-39 age group were HIV-infected.
Still the danger lies in the fact that in some traditional forms of circumcision no anaesthesia is used during operation and in the use of un-sterilised instruments.
This is dangerous because it results in infection and too much bleeding.
This operation is normally undertaken at an earlier age and to avoid penile cancer.
Penile cancer is described as a hygiene-related infection which affects uncircumcised males and found to be related to "cervical cancer" suffered by women.
According to medical experts, circumcised people experience less fungal infection of the genitals, including urethra strictures and urinary tract infections.
A research conducted by medical experts said that uncircumcised male children had a ten times higher rate of "urinary tract infection" in their first year compared to their circumcised counterparts.

LETIGATION AGAINST CIRCUMCISION

Mariatou Koita, aged 23, was only eight years old when she got the painful "cut" on her genitals but she vividly remembers "who did it."
Born in France in 1975 of Malian parents, Mariatou was therefore angered when in 1994 at the age of 18, she saw the same Malian woman who she claims circumcised her, 52-year-old Hawa Greou, come back to her home to perform the same exercise of female circumcision to her younger sister, Mariam.
For Mariatou, it was time to act.
Her decision to seek court justice at the time is the preamble to the case in a Paris court which saw Greou in the dock to face charges of committing "voluntary violence on minors that led to mutilation."

Mariatou’s decision may have helped other girls to come out in the open with claims of being circumcised by Greou who was charged with circumcising 50 young girls. A French lawyer, however, claimed the figure is higher.
"Greou was tried for some 50 (acts of) circumcisions but she has performed many more," says Lawyer Linda Weil-Curiel of the Commission for the Abolition of Female Genital Mutilation and a party to the case.
Investigators in the case tracked down the other defendants through Greou’s telephone records and addresses in her diary.

For Mariatou’s parents, the behaviour of their daughter is an abomination and an embarrassment to the family, according to a press report quoting the mother.
But Mariatou, living in France where freedom of expression and rights of gays and lesbians are relatively respected, her course of action was in line with the thinking that her rights had been abused unwittingly by her parents in the name of Malian culture and tradition.
Mariatou, therefore, has taken advantage of this right to free expression.
Female circumcision became a crime in France in 1984 but it was not until 1991 that the first conviction was handed down.
Greou’s lawyer Jean Chavais did not contest the facts of the case. He, however, claimed that female circumcision is a deep-rooted `"African" custom that the French justice system is ill-equipped to fight.
The case, heard by a female judge, Martine Varin, is said to be the first of it’s kind pitting French law against a long time tradition.

Millions of girls in 26 African countries have reportedly undergone circumcision even though the pressure for the practice to stop is still on-going.
Some African countries such as Senegal are leading the way to reverse the cruel practice. That country’s recent decision to legally ban female circumcision was no doubt a boost to campaigners across the continent out to stop the practice.
Rarely has the voice of the "girl victim" of circumcision been heard as issues of her plight continue to generate concern at the various international fora on population issues and the rights of women.
But times may be changing and instead of the issue of female genital mutilation being raised by non-governmental organisations and other bodies, the 21st century may be the beginning of seeing the girl child speak her mind on an issue that only she understands the full impact the exercise has on her life.

If convicted, Greou faces up to 15 years in prison in a case where parents of the victims-including Mariatou’s parents-also face lesser charges as accomplices.

In new York, a n appeal court has ruled in favour of a Ghanaian woman fighting deportation on the grounds that she feared female circumcision if she returned home.
The court said the fears of the woman, Adelaide Abankwah, aged 29, were grounded in reality, and she should be granted asylum in the United States.
The court said although female circumcision had been outlawed for five years in Ghana, the number of prosecutions of those who carried it out had been insignificant.
The court heard there had been only seven arrests for the crime since 1994.

In detention

The ruling reverses a decision by the immigration courts that Miss Abankwah was not eligible for asylum.
She has been held in detention since she arrived in the United States in March 1997.
After her mother died in 1996, Miss Abankwah was chosen by tribe elders to become the next queen mother.
However, she turned down the position and refused to perform rituals intended to determine if she was a virgin or enter into an arranged marriage.
She fled Ghana when genital circumcision was threatened as a punishment.

‘Genital mutilation’

Many human rights and health activists believe that female circumcision endangers the lives of women and increases dangers in childbirth.
Critics say the term female circumcision is misleading.
They point out male circumcision is a fairly straightforward and safe operation and say the female equivalent should be described as genital mutilation.
The operation comes in three forms:

The removal of the tip of the clitoris

The removal of the entire clitoris and labia

Infibulation, which leaves women with only a tiny passage to pass water through
While one of the major arguments of anti-circumcision activists has been the performance of the practice under un-hygienic conditions hence the infection or death rate. In Egypt, however where circumcision can be performed under clinical conditions in the hospital, Doctors usually consult the parents whether they want their new-born baby, boy or girl circumcised or not. This applies to Egypt’s three prevalent religions, Islam, Jews and even Christians.
Perhaps this should be the fresh start.
The United Nations which is campaigning to have government legislate and observe the "Rights of the Child" with emphasis on the Girl Child should perhaps encourage Parents to leave decisions on such issues as circumcision to the Child who can then decide on their own at age of 18 or 21 depending on the country’s majority age.
But then again legislating on how parents should raise their children borders on changing, belief or religion, culture and tradition. Definitely not an easy task.

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