I recently completed a two day training for Gender and Development with Peace Corps volunteers and their Gambian counterparts whom they had invited to the training. This was a program that explored gender roles in the Gambia with an emphasis on empowering girls. Most of it was pretty much what I expected with a couple of exceptions. One man told us that girls were not allowed to ride horses, climb trees or ride bicycles because of biological reasons. I was wondering what planet he lived on when he clarified his meaning -- girls could suffer an injury that could cause them to lose their virginity. Even that was leaving me thunderstruck, but was told by fellow volunteers that when a girl is married she is examined by women in the village to ensure that she is still a virgin. Apparently, at that point, a broken hymen is a broken hymen and you are not a virgin if it is broken since you could be lying about how it was broken. I did not offer my two cents but I certainly thought them.
The other exception to the discussion was FGC, female genital cutting and FGM, female genital mutilation. I knew that it was still being practiced in some places in The Gambia, but I had not realized that it was practiced by so many. About 72% of girls have some form of FGC or FGM. The large majority are only FGC where the prepuce of the clitoris is removed. But some tribes go farther and remove the lips of the labia. A small percentage go even further and after removal sew everything together leaving only a small opening for urine to pass. When a girl is married who had this procedure, she needs to be cut open for her wedding night because the tissues will have grown together. Then she has to have sex every day for at least 10 days because the tissues will grow back together unless they are kept open.
FGM/FGC is illegal in Senegal, there is a 5 year jail sentence. But Senegal has a large Wolof population. FGM/FGC have never been part of the Wolof culture. However it is not illegal in The Gambia, but the medical clinics do their best to educate people and prevent it. It is built into the culture of the remote rural villages and tribes will intermarry. Our instructor told about a Wolof woman who married a Fula. She had not been circumcised and that was acceptable to her husband. But the women in the village would not accept her -- they would hold their noses when they saw her, implying that she smelled. She asked her husband for permission to be circumcised and had the procedure done -- but not in a health center, they will not perform FGC. There can be many bad side effects including keloid scarring and the procedure endangers the woman's health so they will not perform the procedure even for a consenting adult woman.
So who performs the procedures? Women do and men are not involved in the ceremony in any way. There are women who will travel to villages and do the procedures. One of the volunteers was invited by her host mother to witness the event. After much soul searching and consultation with Peace Corps PCVs and LCFs, she decided there was nothing she could do to prevent it so she would witness it. In the ceremony 4 girls were circumcised and each brought a new razor blade for her circumcision. This is not always the case. Some cutters have knives that have been passed down through generations and not under sterile conditions. There is no washing of the knife between children. So obviously infection is a huge risk in these procedures. The grandmothers of the girls where there and the sisters of the fathers. The mothers of the girls waited outside -- even though they supported the ritual they could not watch their children be hurt. 3 of the 4 girls were up and about quickly but one of them, the oldest, ran a fever and took longer to recover.
The Gambian man who gave the presentation is part of a Spanish NGO that is working to stop this in The Gambia. I might see if there is something I can do with them as a secondary project. I have 3 little girls who live next door to me but thankfully they are Senegali Wolofs so I don't think there is any chance of being invited to a ceremony -- a fact for which I am very grateful.
The rational for female circumcision is religious reasons but there is nothing in the Koran about fit and it is not practiced in Saudi Arabia, home of Mecca. Circumcision for boys is in the Koran but not for girls. If you looked on a a map of Africa and marked the countries that are continuing the practice today, there is a band that stretches right through sub Saharan Africa, the travel route route of the nomadic people. The Gambia will slowly change. Gambia supports female education. Many schools now have more girls than boys. NGOs will continue to work on this issue. As the country modernizes this practice will fade -- I am just sorry that it will take time. Ndanka, ndanka (slowly, slowly in Wolof).
No comments:
Post a Comment