Female Genital Cutting in Ethiopia

Posted April 1st, 2008 by speakafrica

By- Behailu Shiferaw

As we promised in the last issue of Lambadina, we have tried to see Female Genital Cutting (FGC) from a local context. However, experiences of other countries may be found in the writing when there is a need to compare ours with theirs.

Even though we believe that you have read the last December issue of Lambadina on FGC, we will try to give an overview of what FGC is again so that those of our readers who have not read the previous issue would catch up.

What is FGC?

FGC is tissue removal (cutting) of any part of the female genitalia for cultural, religious or other non-medical reasons.

Predating both Islam and Christianity, there is no clear understanding of where or why the practice of FGC came into existence. A Greek papyrus from 163 B.C. mentions girls in Egypt undergoing circumcision (FGC) and it is widely accepted to have originated in Egypt and the Nile valley at the time of the Pharaohs. Evidence from mummies has shown both Type I and Type III FGC present.

Depending on severity i.e., the amount of genital tissue that is cut away, World Health Organization (WHO) has categorized FGC into four major types. Please refer to the December issue of Lambadina for deep description of each.

Type I, often called the "sunna circumcision" in Ethiopia, is commonly practiced among the Amharas, Tigrayans and the Jeberti Muslims living in Tigray.

Type II, Is common amongThe Gurages, some Tigrayans, Oromos and the Beni Shangul.

Type III, the most drastic and harmful form, is common among the Afar, the Somali and the Harari.

Type IV, called "Mariam Girz", is practiced mainly in Gojam in the Amhara region.

A number of other population groups do not practice any of these forms. These are Gambella, the Bengas of Wellega, the Azezo, the Dorze, the Bonke, the Shama and some population groups in Godole, Konso and Gojam. Source: Report on FGC Prepared by the Office of the Senior Coordinator for International Women's Issues, Office of the Under Secretary for Global Affairs, U.S. Department of State

Regional prevalence:

Afar 94.5%, Harari 81.2%, Amhara 81.1%, Oromia 79.8%, Addis Ababa 70.2%, Somali 69.7%, Beni Shangul 52.9%, Tigray 48.1%, SNNPR 46.3 and Gambella 0%. Source: Female Genital Cutting by National Committee on Traditional Practices of Ethiopia, 1999.

Attitudes and Beliefs:
Cultural practice encourages women to want to undergo one of these procedures. It is often associated with positive attributes such as gaining respect within the village and becoming a woman. Most importantly, girls who have not undergone one of the procedures are considered more likely to be promiscuous (loose towards having multiple sex partners) and, therefore, unworthy of marriage. The belief also exists that external female genitals are unclean.

Some use religion as the basis for their justification in performing these procedures, despite the fact they are not required by neither the Qoran nor the Bible.

The type of procedure and the stage in a woman or girl's life when it is performed vary according to regions of the country. It may take place eight days after birth, at any time between the age of seven and the onset of puberty, or just before marriage. For example, some women Lambadina talked to in Afar responded that the usual age for FGC practice is after the child reaches the age of five. Women practitioners perform the procedure. It is generally performed without the aid of anesthesia, hence causing a lot of pain and shock at times resulting in death (as in international experience- we do not have record of death registered due to this in Ethiopia).

Who should do what?

Government should enact even stricter Laws? But how far can laws help combat it?

If laws had the ability to stop misbehaviors, the Ten Commandments (aren’t they laws?) could have made heaven out of earth. People often associate the high prevalence of FGC in Ethiopia with lack of enough legislative framework and law enforcement in the country. Of course, it does have a lot to do with it. However, experiences of other countries with stronger law enforcement history pertaining to FGC show that laws alone did not stop the practice.

In Egypt, laws banning FGC date as far back as December 1997 when the Court of Cassation (Egypt’s highest appeals court) endorsed a government ban on the practice of FGC. However, Egypt is still the leading FGC practicing country in Africa with a prevalence of 95.8 percent (2005 Demographic Health Survey-DHS). In Guinea the punishment for practicing FGC range from hard labor for life to death if death results within 40 days after the crime (FGC). However, with 95.6 percent of its female population cut, no cases regarding this practice have ever been brought to trial at least until June 2001 (when sources used in this writing are published).

This shows us that no matter how strong laws we have against Harmful traditional practices, we can not bring about lasting changes so long as we do not educate the people it victimizes.

What do the Ethiopian laws say on FGC?

In Ethiopia, Article 35, Section 4 of the Constitution states that “Women have the right to protection by the state from harmful customs. Laws, customs and practices that oppress women or cause bodily or mental harm to them are prohibited.”

The Government’s Population Policy, Health Policy and Women's Policy all promote eradication of harmful traditional practices, including FGC. The 1993 national policy on Ethiopian women states that “Ethiopian women are victims of circumcision and other harmful practices...such harmful customs and practices must be eliminated, for they stand in the way of progress and endanger lives. They should not be allowed to perpetuate.” The policy further describes strategies: “The Government, with cooperation from the peoples of Ethiopia, shall facilitate conditions conducive to the informing and education of concerned communities about such harmful practice as female circumcision.”

The new Criminal code of Ethiopia on FGC

And lately FGC has been included in the new criminal code of Ethiopia. This new law has come out with notable provisions that greatly help the move against the practice.

Even if the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association (EWLA) admits that laws cannot be sole remedies to the abandonment of such age-old traditions, it strongly believes that enactment of laws and their gradual implementation will have significant impact in the fight against HTPs like FGC. Thus the criminal code has come up with the following articles.

Article 565- Female Genital Cutting says,

“Whoever circumcises a woman of any age, is punishable with simple imprisonment for not less than three months, or fine of not less than five hundred Birr.”

Article 566- Infibulations of the Female Genitalia

1) Whoever infibulates the genitalia of a woman, is punishable with rigorous imprisonment from three years to five years

2) Where injury to body or health has resulted due to the act prescribed in sub-article (1) above, subject to the provision of the Criminal Code which provides for a more sever penalty, the punishment shall be rigorous imprisonment from five years to ten years.

The above provisions cover persons who are directly responsible for the crime. In addition, article 569 provides that the persons who are accomplices (cooperated) to the crime as parents, guardians or in any other capacity are punishable with simple imprisonment not exceeding Birr 500.00.

According to EWLA, the enactment of the laws is a positive development although the penalty looks fairly light in view of the high prevalence rate of FGM. But when we compare it with other international experiences, the penalty for FGC resulting in death of the victim is not clearly set there. The experience of other countries like Guinea clearly state that if death results in with in forty days of the crime, the penalty may reach death sentence.

Moreover, Ethiopia is a signatory of the following international commitments regarding human beings and women in particular.

The 1948 United Nations (UN) Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
The 1966 UN International Covenant On Economic, Social And Cultural Rights (ICESCR)
The 1966 UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
The 1979 UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
The 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
The 1990 OAU charter on human and peoples rights
The 1990 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC)

For example, Article 7(1) of ICCPR says, “no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” and furthermore Article 2(f) of CEDAW calls up on each signing nation to “… take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to modify or abolish existing laws, regulations, customs and practices which constitute discrimination against women…”

In Ethiopia, DHS 2005 show that over 74.3 of women are cut. This, like all the above mentioned examples, shows that proclamations and illegalization of the practice alone do not help stop the practice.

So If not law alone, what should be done?

The 1993 national policy on Ethiopian women seems to have understood the fact that law can not do anything without participation of the people it binds as it said, with cooperation from the peoples of Ethiopia… So if we need to bring about lasting change, let us teach our people. Let us teach our people that the practice is dangerous, that the practice is not a religious rite or necessity, that the practice is not a way of maintaining cleanliness, that the practice is not a better way to reduce promiscuity, that the practice is not a better way of preserving virginity, that the practice does not serve any medical purpose etc. Let us talk about it openly so that people would bring forward their myths and professionals would act on them. But in the mean time, let us make sure that the laws would specifically be designed to address the issue. The combination of public awareness creation and effective legal framework would eventually bring about FGC free mothers, children and sisters in the future.

UNICEF Representative in Ethiopia Björn Ljungqvist once said, “We are learning that it is very dangerous to go only through a legal process, because if people are not convinced, they will hide away, we have to make sure that the legal provisions are there, but also that people talk about it.” (Taken from an article on FGC by Indrias Getachew entitled Battling an ancient tradition.)

Few strategies have been tried to bring the issue to the concern of the people. And community and youth dialogues were proved to be essential parts of the fight against the practice. In some areas faith based organizations (FBOs) and their leaders as well as community elders were used to set the agenda to the discussion table of people at community level.

But these efforts do not seem concerted enough. Let one region or locale learn from others. To do this, for example, establishing an information pool where local and international best practices can be documented and shared can help.

Kembata Ment’e Gezuma – Tope (Kembata Women’s Self Help Center) has, for example, been a great inspiration for other parts of the country. The center has registered an 85-90% reduction of FGC in Kembata Tembaro Zone. To do this, the center has mainly used Community Capacity Enhancement through Community Conversations (CCE-CC).

In the northern part of our country, Semien Gondar’s Department of Labor and Social Affairs and the Save the Children Norway collaborated to bring about a lasting change. In the project areas like Chilga and Lay Armachiho woredas, a total of 1,290 practitioners of all kinds of Harmful Traditional Practices (HTPs) have totally stopped the practice. Recent documents from Save the Children Norway - Ethiopia showed that, the organization has used education, sensitization and information as tools to the abandonment of the practice. According to the organization’s publication, For Their Own Good-Ending Harmful Traditional Practices in Ethiopia, 1050 out of 1291 harmful traditional practitioners have put down their tools. And as a result, out of 5258 girls born, only 79 have been circumcised (which is1.5%)

Ye Ethiopia Goji Limadawi Dirgitoch Aswegaj Mahber (National Committee on Traditional Practices of Ethiopia), which has been spearheading movements against such HTPs, has been trying to come up with important information on these practices. The committee has conducted valuable baseline surveys to measure the prevalence rate in the country and the attitudinal changes registered as a result of the various activities undertaken to combat the practice nationally. Moreover, the committee has tried to sensitize the public about the harmful traditional practices that affect the healthy development of individuals by involving religious and opinion leaders and professionals in the field of medical and social sciences. The committee has also been repeatedly publishing booklets that elaborated the hazards of the HTPs to the public. In addition to its crucial role during the crafting of the new criminal code of Ethiopia, it has also been known for being an open-door for media professionals whenever they sought qualified information.

Save the children Norway and the royal Norwegian Embassy have also been working jointly with governmental and non governmental partners in bringing the practice to a stop. The Royal Norwegian Embassy and Save the children Norway-Ethiopia jointly organized a special occasion entitled, “It Is Possible To Stop Female Genital Cutting And Other Harmful Traditional Practices” on February 5, 2008 at the Hilton, Addis Ababa. It has been noted that the occasion was organized in connection with the international day of zero tolerance to female genital mutilation the 6^th of February. Various institutions including the above stated ones had presented their best practices and lessons they learned in their way. All the partners underlined the fact that such age-old practices need a concerted effort and partnership if we need them to vanish.

These are the kinds of best practices which other stakeholders should also learn from, adapt to their socio-cultural realities and use.

February 6 (Tir 28- for those wondering why it has been included in January issue) is the international day for zero tolerance towards FGC. This year’s theme of the international day of zero tolerance is “Partnering with the Media to Make Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation a Reality.” Lambadina is, as always; open to entertain activities of individuals and organizations working on such harmful traditional practices. Credit to those who are working very hard against FGC and who have not been mentioned in this piece of writing.