April 6, 2007
THE REFORMATION ROLLS ON:
Eritrea: Government Outlaws Female Circumcision (AllAfrica, April 5, 2007)
The Eritrean government has banned female genital mutilation (FGM), saying the practice was painful and put women at risk of life-threatening health problems.Posted by Orrin Judd at April 6, 2007 8:58 AMA government proclamation published on Wednesday said it was illegal for anyone to subject a person to FGM or provide tools to anyone who intended to carry out the practice. Failing to inform authorities on intended plans to subject anyone to FGM also constituted an offence, according to the legal notice.
The government and civil society had in February expressed optimism that efforts to combat FGM were bearing fruit, saying the campaign against the practice had gained support in rural areas where it was most common.
"We do not have the statistics yet, but we have seen a positive response, with even village councils coming up with their own provisional laws with the people's consensus to discourage the practice," Dehab Suleiman, the head of information and research at the National Union of Eritrean Women, told IRIN.
Suleiman said FGM prevalence rates in Eritrea were estimated at 94 percent, but the practice was expected to decline in the near future because an increasing number of parents were choosing not to have their daughters subjected to FGM.
94%? Seems pretty popular. Good thing Eritrea isn't a democracy, huh? Otherwise they might not want to implement such transnational concerns.
Posted by: Brandon at April 6, 2007 10:44 AM