UN Population Fund (UNFPA) on Friday called on female citizens in Somalia to say no to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the country and called for global collaboration to protect millions at risk from FGM every year.
The UN sexual and reproductive health agency made the appeal ahead of the commemoration of the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, marked globally on Feb. 6.
In Somalia, over 90 per cent or more of girls and women, have been subjected to FGM.
Despite the practice having devastating health ramifications for women and girls – including pain, bleeding, permanent disability and even death – discussion over how to end the harmful tradition, remains taboo.
As the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation is marked UNFPA continues to lead the UN effort to end FGM.
In 2020, and in collaboration with the Ifrah Foundation, the UN agency launched the “Dear Daughter” campaign, as part of the effort to end FGM once and for all.
The idea is to get individual parents not to cut their daughters. Through letter-writing, they pledge instead, to protect them, and support their right to govern their own bodies.
‘Dear Daughter’ works toward ending FGM in Somalia, which has one of the highest prevalence rates of the practice in the world. To date, 100 Somali mothers have signed the pledge.
By targeting rural and urban individuals and communities, that are making an extraordinary commitment, to change the FGM narrative.
For Nkiru Igbokwe, a gender-based violence specialist at UNFPA in Somalia, it is “accelerating the voices of women and men alike, to end FGM in the country”.
As part of the campaign, women living in an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp on the outskirts of the capital Mogadishu, home to 280 households that fled Danunay village nearly 250 kilometres away due to insurgent violence, have been learning about the harmful effects of FGM.
Halima, 50, a mother of five daughters and five sons, was among them.
As a camp gatekeeper and a community member with influence, she was identified as someone who could advocate to help end the harmful practice that she and her first daughter had also endured.
Like so many other women in her community, Halima underwent FGM as a child, subjecting her to lifelong health problems.
“The procedure was painful, with no anesthesia. I bled for days.
“I was in bed for more than three months and urinating was a problem,” she recalled.
When Halima reached adolescence, passing menstrual blood was also difficult, and as a newlywed, sex with her husband was a painful experience.
When she became an expectant mother, childbirth was excruciating with labour lasting for days, putting her life at risk.
Inspite of her suffering, Halima allowed her first daughter to be cut, just like her mother had done.
“My daughter underwent the Sunna type of FGM (removal of part or all of the clitoris), and she felt the pain I have been through,” Halima said.
Because it was not the more severe ‘pharaonic’ procedure (stitching the opening closed), people insulted them, she said, saying her daughter was unclean.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is opposed to all types of FGM and is opposed to health care providers performing FGM.
“Throughout the training course, I had flashback memories of how the practice has badly impacted my life,” she said.
Three years ago, a young girl in the same camp died as a result of FGM, and Halima started galvanising the community, to try and make sure the tragedy is never repeated.
The Ifrah Foundation, together with the Global Media Campaign to End FGM, distributed UNFPA-supplied radio transmitters to 100 households so residents could listen to awareness campaigns and information.
“It has been a long-standing dream of mine to work to save girls from the unnecessary pain and suffering I endured as a result of FGM,” said survivor Ifrah Ahmed, founder of the foundation that bears her name. “Halima is an example of how we can change the future for all Somali girls,” she added.
Halima’s advocacy has expanded beyond FGM. She encourages pregnant and lactating mothers to visit health centres and raises awareness over sexual and gender-based violence.
She also notes that community members used to stay silent about rape due to fear of stigmatisation, but now they seek help.
According to UNFPA, because of her leadership, almost 100 mothers have pledged not to practice female genital mutilation, sparing about 200 girls in the settlement.
“I don’t want my other daughters and other young girls to go through the pain we have gone through,” Halima said.
According to WHO, more than 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone FGM in 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, where FGM is practiced.
Only in Somalia, based on the 2020 Somali Health and Demographic Survey, 99 per cent of women aged 15 to 49 in Somalia, have been subjected to FGM, the majority between ages five and nine. (NAN)
