Promise to our women
Posted June 6th, 2008 by marta
By Natan Tilahun
Beruk Mengestu
Over 73% of Ethiopian women are believed to have undergone some form of circumcision. But Ethiopia is not the only African country where this practice is widespread. Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Egypt, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.
The prevalence of this malpractice is different from country to country, with 5-10% in Uganda, 25-30% in Ghana and 80% in the Sudan.
Ethiopia has witnessed only 5% overall decline in the practice over the past five years, but there has been a significant decline amongst younger women.
Unicef believes that one of the effective way of combating these types of practices is through community dialogues. Community dialogues have long been used by communities across the globe to resolve conflicts, elect representatives and to bring the community to a consensus with regards to different pressing issues. In short these dialogues were the first forms of a citizen’s direct representation.
We traveled to Cheha, a small village located some 200km south west from the Ethiopian Capital Addis Ababa, to observe one of their ongoing community dialogues on the issues of Female Genital Cutting.
This particular dialogue took place in the compound of the Ferezeye school, and was facilitated by UNICEF in collaboration with the Guraghe Zone administration.
Post new comment