Genital Mutilation

FGM Asylum Cases Forge New Legal Standing

By Zainab Zakari ● Commentary ● November 25, 2008

Women have been winning U.S. asylum to avoid female genital mutilation in their homelands. But in 2007 three denials challenged that trend. One of those cases now under review could clarify their legal standing.

Latest in Genital Mutilation

Sudanese Bachelors Share Questions About FGM

By Meghan Sapp ● Arts & Culture ● March 11, 2008

On a recent trip to Khartoum, Meghan Sapp found herself in the middle of a frank discussion about female genital mutilation with a group of male bachelors. A couple of them knew little about the practice and were often afraid to ask.

U.N. Tackles FGM; Rapes in Japan Fan Flames

By Soguel & Matthews ● Arts & Culture ● February 16, 2008

(WOMENSENEWS)–

Cheers

The United Nations has launched a $44 million program to reduce female genital mutilation by 40 percent by 2015, the Inter Press Service reported Feb. 12.

Ghana, Uganda, Morocco and Eritrea have passed laws banning female genital mutilation. In Nigeria, 11 of 36 states have introduced legislation against it. Egypt and Yemen have banned health-care professionals from performing the procedure.

FGM Practitioners Sway Elections in Sierra Leone

By Emily Bowers ● Crime & Law ● September 7, 2007

Fighting female genital mutilation is tough in Sierra Leone, where 90 percent of women have been cut and the current election season has shown the political clout of practitioners. Second in a series on African women and the rule of law.

Health Activists Link Spread of HIV-AIDS to FGM

By Mary Katherine Keown ● Crime & Law ● August 10, 2007

Female genital mutilation and the feminization of HIV-AIDS are slowly being linked, especially in the three African countries–Somalia, Djibouti and Sudan–where the most extreme FGM is predominant.

Guinea Woman Savors Victory in Hard-Won FGM Case

By Theresa Braine ● Crime & Law ● July 29, 2007

Oumou Toure narrowly escaped deportation from Canada to her native Guinea because of the threat of genital mutilation that loomed over her 2-year-old daughter. The case illustrates difficulties women fleeing violence face when they seek asylum.

Fight to End Mutilation Hits Gritty Juncture

By Meghan Sapp ● Crime & Law ● February 20, 2006

The international fight against female genital mutilation pushes African activists to a new juncture. After the ratification of an important African Union protocol, gritty local politics lie ahead.

FGM Leads Nigerian to Plea for Daughters’ Asylum

By Meghan Sapp ● Crime & Law ● January 27, 2006

Pamela Izevbekhai fled her native Nigeria for Ireland, hoping to save her two daughters from sexual mutilation, which killed a third daughter. Now she is struggling for asylum.

FGM in Kenya: Outlawed, Not Eradicated

By Ochieng Ogodo ● Crime & Law ● February 8, 2005

Djibouti has just ratified the African Union’s Maputo Protocol banning female genital mutilation. But activists in Kenya, which outlawed FGM in 2001, warn that the engrained cultural practice is easier to outlaw than to eradicate.

In Africa, FGM Checks into Hospitals

By Fredrick Nzwili ● Crime & Law ● December 5, 2004

Traditional practitioners of FGM in Africa have begun to back out of the business. That doesn’t mean it is over. Now many female teens are checked into hospitals under the pretext of an illness and a doctor performs the illegal procedure.