HEALTH-BURKINA FASO: Activism Clashes With Tradition

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Arsene Kabore

OUAGADOUGOU, Oct 9 2004 (IPS) - Government and civil society representatives from around the world met in Kenya recently to debate how best to end female genital mutilation – a laudable effort. However, a case in Burkina Faso has exposed the limitations of their campaign.

About 700 delegates gathered in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, last month to discuss ways of eradicating female genital mutilation (FGM) in Africa.

Strongly-worded statements were made and speeches delivered about the evils of this practice, and participants left the conference venue with renewed determination to push for entry into force of the Maputo Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. This protocol outlaws female genital mutilation – also known as female circumcision.

Scarcely had the meeting wrapped up, however, than a court case in Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou, provided a striking illustration of the gulf between activism and reality in the matter of FGM.

On Sep. 21, Adama Barry was sentenced to a maximum jail term of three years for having mutilated sixteen girls between the ages of two and ten on Aug. 15 (FGM is banned in Burkina Faso). Prior to the trial, she had received four other prison sentences of between four and six months for carrying out circumcisions.

Hortense Palm, permanent secretary of the National Committee for the Fight Against Excision (Comité national de lutte contre la pratique de l’excision, CNLPE) says the case has left her baffled.

“I extremely shocked and indignant to hear about this. You wonder, after all that’s been done, why there continues to be a problem and what could have possibly pushed these parents to subject their daughters to this practice,” she told IPS. The campaign against FGM got underway in Burkina Faso more than a decade ago, in 1992.

“We’re going to try to understand why, in spite of all the work we’ve done on this issue, pockets of resistance remain,” Palm said.

During an interview with members of the press prior to her trial, Barry insisted she had been coerced into performing the circumcisions.

“I’m not guilty. It was Aoua Sanfo (an accomplice) and the others who forced it on me,” she said. “I told them I had already gone to prison and that the practice was illegal. They insisted that I would not run into any problems.”

Nonetheless, Barry accepted payment for the procedures – although she told reporters that she had only asked for half her normal rate of 94 cents per child.

In its most severe form, FGM involves the removal of a girl’s clitoris and other genitalia – notably the folds of skin surrounding the openings of the urethra and vagina. However, the practice varies widely in different communities, and less tissue may also be cut away.

The wounds created by the excisions are stitched up, and a small opening left to allow for urine and menstrual blood to be passed.

This sets the stage for a host of complications, such as pain during sexual intercourse, eventual sexual dysfunction – and difficulties in childbirth. Circumcised girls and women may also develop an inability to control urination.

In addition, girls who are cut with the same instruments risk contracting the AIDS virus from each other. Infections or haemorrhaging may ensue – both of which can cause death. At the very least, the procedure – often carried out without anaesthetic – can prove traumatic for young girls and women.

The 16 girls circumcised by Barry were taken to hospital after the procedure, where one was diagnosed as having serious injuries.

Speaking to reporters, Barry said she no longer owned the equipment needed to conduct circumcisions: “It’s the parents’ responsibility to buy the blades themselves. With these tools, I just cut a little off the top and leave the rest. I learned how to do it from my aunt.”

Inasmuch as FGM traditions are passed on at community-level, grass roots involvement will play a critical role in eliminating the practice, says Palm: “I think that this incident with the 16 little girls means that provincial anti-genital mutilation committees need to be doubly vigilant and develop initiatives to create neighborhood surveillance committees.”

Adds Ramata Ouedraogo – a resident of Tanghin, the suburb where Barry lived, “It’s the parents themselves who are mainly responsible and they should receive the same sentence as Barry.”

“Having your daughter mutilated right in the middle of Ouagadougou should no longer be possible. It’s great that Barry is going to prison, but it would be a better lesson if the parents went too,” she said.

Ouedraogo would doubtless have been pleased to hear that 12 women – all mothers of the girls mutilated by Barry – received prison sentences of three months for their part in the crime.

More resources are also needed to bolster the anti-FGM campaign.

“What we’re lacking is financial support and training follow-up,” notes Mariam Koala, secretary general of the Wend-Panga (‘Power of God’) non-governmental organisation.

But, she adds “We have no intention of giving up. We’ve already seen some progress and we’re not going to stop because there continue to be a few pockets of resistance.”

Since FGM was banned in Burkina Faso in 1996, those who practice circumcision risk a maximum sentence of three years imprisonment and a fine of about 1,700 dollars. If the victim dies, the maximum sentence increases to 10 years.

In addition, anyone who knows of circumcisions but fails to report them is also liable under the law, and may be fined up to about 190 dollars. In a country where more than 46 percent of the population lives on less than a dollar a day, this is no small matter.

About 100 FGM practitioners and their accomplices were arrested, tried and sentenced last year.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), genital mutilation is practiced for a variety of reasons. These include the belief that removing a girl’s genitalia will reduce sexual desire, and help ensure that she remains virginal until marriage – and faithful thereafter.

The practice is also viewed as providing an initiation into adulthood, or as being necessary for hygiene purposes. Certain Muslim communities believe their religion requires circumcision – although the practice “predates” Islam, according to the WHO.

The New York-based No Peace Without Justice organisation says that about two million girls and women are circumcised annually, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and countries in the Arab peninsula.

The Maputo Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, adopted by heads of state of the African Union (AU) at a summit in Mozambique last year, needs to be ratified by 15 AU member states before it can enter into force.

But to date, only three countries have ratified the document: the Comoros, Libya and Rwanda.