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Genital mutilation

December 9, 2009

All around the world, it happens every ten seconds: a girl is circumcised. In Sudan, until a few years ago, 98 percent of the country's women had had the painful cut. Finally, this tradition is beginning to crumble.

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Sudanese women and girls standing in a line
In Sudan, most women have undergone genital mutilationImage: AP

A group of women come together at the Mosque of Abu Seeid. Nada Awad is one of them. She walks purposefully across the mosque's dusty courtyard, trying to win courage. Nada pulls her veil closer across her face and tries to smile.

"Yes, of course I have had the cut," Nada said. "It was normal in my family. They never really explained what the procedure entailed, or what it was about. On the day, they painted my body in henna, bought me new dresses and jewelry, and then it just happened."

There are about 20 women sitting in the cool, shady annex of the mosque. They sit quietly in a row, lined up like pearls on a string. Nada dares to speak about things which are not spoken about and the women are skeptical.

At 23, Nada is much younger than many of the women in the room. She runs her hand over the torso of a female dummy.

"This is what it looks like when women are circumcised using the Sunna method," she said. "I was cut in this way. Although this is supposed to be the least intense method, I suffer excruciating pain when I get my period."

Traditions supported by the men

Nada and other volunteers have been touring the suburbs of Khartoum for over a year. The information campaign is a project of Ahfad University. Ashraf Bedri is a graduate of Ahfad's medical faculty and is also involved in the project.

Sudanese men standing in a row
Sudanese men need to help stop female circumcisionImage: AP

"That is important because I am a man and many of the women here have the cutting done because men force them to," Bedri said. "Men are told they should only marry a girl who has had the cut because that is the only way they can be sure she is a virgin. We have to chip away at this ridiculous myth."

Bedri said he is convinced the only way the practice of genital mutilation can be stopped is if men also take a stand.

A fresh wind is blowing

"We are much more modern here in Kassala," said Alhasan Adam, a circumciser and midwife. "We had to swear we would never cut another girl."

Alhassan Adam
Alhassan Adam has sworn never to circumcise another girlImage: DW/Stefanie Duckstein

Kassala is one of the provincial capitals in eastern Sudan. Since 2007, it has become the first town to legally ban any form of female circumcision.

"And they really banned it in every form," Adam said. "Now it is not just forbidden to use the Pharao cut - which is the worst one."

Adam has been carrying out female circumcisions in Kassala for 30 years. She uses a sharp blade or a knife and knows of 300 different types of cut.

"Up until a few years ago, almost everyone here believed in the ritual of circumcision," she said. "If someone discovered a girl who hadn't been cut, everybody would say she was a whore. We cut the girls to protect their virtue."

According to Unicef, the share of women cut in Kassala province is around 75 percent.

A crime against women

Every Friday, Sheikh Abdul Al Karouri gives a speech on Sudanese state television.

Two young women sitting at a table
Students at Ahfad University in Khartoum are on their way to self-determinationImage: DW/Stefanie Duckstein

"Basically, female circumcision is only good for the men, not for women," he said. "This is how I understand my religion and this is how I practice it at home. My daughter Safwa has three daughters; none of them have been circumcised."

Al Karouri has put together a blue 20-page pamphlet against female circumcision. As often as he can, he distributes it in classes, to parents and at mosques.

"I also hope to be able to persuade other clerics of my arguments," Al Karouri said. "At the moment, in Sudan we only differentiate between legal and illegal types of circumcision and that is precisely the problem."

Al Karouri is pushing for an unequivocal fatwa, for a legal obligation to make female genital mutilation a punishable crime.

"If we could get a fatwa passed over this - and the idea is not impossible - we would have overcome a great hurdle in our dealings with the clerics," he said.

But for the time being, Sudan remains a country with one of the highest rates of female circumcision. It is an operation that kills many of the patients.

Author: Stefanie Duckstein
Editor: Sabina Casagrande