By Amin Kef-Ranger
As we fast approach International Women’s Day, which is March 8, efforts are been made to make the abolition of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) feature prominently in observance of the Day. The Amazonian Initiative Movement headed by its Founder and Lead Campaigner, Rugiatu Neneh Turay, is poised to take the campaign to another level through accelerated sensitization and awareness raising on the evils of FGM, especially its negative effects on the victims.
It could be recalled that over the years the campaign to end FGM has been raised at national and international levels. Treaties and conventions have been signed by countries where FGM is practiced including Sierra Leone.
FGM/C poses serious physical and mental health risks for women and young girls. According to a 2006 WHO study, FGM/C can be linked to increased complications in childbirth and even maternal deaths. Other side effects include severe pain, hemorrhage, tetanus, infection, infertility, cysts and abscesses, urinary incontinence, and psychological and sexual problems. Since the early 1990s, FGM/C has gained recognition as a health and human rights issue.
According to the Head of the Amazonian Initiative Movement, on February 6, 2003, the First Lady of Nigeria, Mrs. Stella Obasanjo, made the official declaration on “Zero Tolerance to FGM” in Africa during a conference organized by the Inter-African Committee (IAC) on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children attended by First Ladies and other stakeholders in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Henceforth, the 6th of February has been recognized worldwide as the “Zero Tolerance Day on FGM.”
She furthered how these First Ladies believed that culture and traditions change over time in the interest of the women and girls they represent. They made a stand to educate the high number of ignorant women in Africa.
“The campaign has gained momentum in the whole World of which Sierra Leone is no exception,” she underscored adding how the African Union of which Sierra Leone is a member developed the “Maputo Protocol,” an African document, and made it clear for all member States to end the practice of FGM amongst women and girls.
In Sierra Leone, based on what Rugiatu Neneh Turay stated, FGM is practiced within the Bondo culture, a female secret society that was meant to train young women transiting into womanhood, a cultural “Rite of Passage” for marriage purposes.
She continued that, however, over the years, the once-revered Bondo culture has changed from the training of young women in a Rite of Passage by a select few highly experienced women to prevalence in the practice which just focuses on the cutting of the genitalia of women, girls, and little children as young as five years.
“The Bondo society, like other male secret societies such as Poro, which work very closely were secret societies meant to train women and men for the same purposes,” she explained saying, however, the Poro society remains to be one of the most respected male societies even with a lot of changes seen outside. Men no longer take years or months in the Poro bush to become members yet it still has a sense of belonging. All male secret societies have rules, regulations, and discipline that their members are obliged to abide by. Their signs and languages are only understood by members. When members of the same society meet whether it is Ojeh, Gbamgbani, Poro, or Wonde, they have signs that they can easily communicate without non-members knowing. They are not easily identified in public gatherings, unlike the powers that are easily identified by their red and white head ties on their heads wherever they are invited.
She informed that in a bid to maintain the outdated practice, the leaders of FGM practitioners, the Soweis, have resorted to extraordinary methods to maintain their legitimacy which includes allowing non-members to be part of a process to elect a leader and forming a “Sowei Council” to influence or gain access to politics.
Rugiatu claimed that none of those are practiced by their male counterparts adding how the leadership hierarchy of any secret society should only be known by its members in their secret bush pointing out that for the Soweis, one can identify their leaders at any time.
She argued that Bondo is not FGM maintaining how in all the male secret societies in Sierra Leone, no society has taken harvesting of the male parts as part of the society.
“Had this been part of the process where men would have lost their manhood, action would have been taken a long time ago,” she firmly asserted stating that men know how important their genital is to them so no secret society will take them away.
She bemoaned that for women, the clitoris, labia minora, and Majora are taken away revealing situations where women and girls have died and still dying in the name of culture.
According to her such should stop and Action should be taken.
“ If we continue to practice FGM in the Bondo society, then anti-FGM campaigners will continue to speak about it,” she expressed determination.
Rugiatu said FGM is not only done by Soweis but the action is also done by unscrupulous medical personnel who flout all scientific adverse health effects for financial gains maintaining that where ever FGM is performed for nonmedical reasons that action is wrong and must stop.
She lamented that women have lost respect because their focus is no longer on respect for the initial rationale of their culture which is the “Rite of Passage” but rather love of money.
“Every Sowei wants a Bondo hut not bush anywhere to perform the cutting for a mere week often inflicting pain and exacting a culture of silence even when death occurs as in the case of several others including Maseray Sei who died as a result of excessive bleeding after being cut within twenty-four hours after entering the Bondo house,” she explained with suppressed anger.
She stated that Culture and Tradition are subject to change.
“We must work to change our women’s secret society for the better. Make it safe with regulations and rules to instill discipline. Let us as women learn from the male secret societies. They will inform you that somebody died but we have never seen that. Those are part of their strategies to make their society very fearful and respectful. Soweis should dismantle the Sowers Council because no other secret society has allowed themselves to be used and misused as the Soweis. This is demeaning and disrespectful. There is nothing secret about an openly flouting electable council that projects to represent a secret society whose practices of FGM have been condemned in advanced countries on scientifically proven evidence,” she called for change.
She concluded by stating that as we are about to commemorate yet another International Women’s Day they are calling on all stakeholders to work assiduously to enact laws to ban and criminalize FGM.
Rugiatu also called on all to join the Fight to Stop FGM in order to protect women and the Girl Child
