“This is bad news. A huge number, bigger than ever”deplores Claudia Coppa, lead author of a Unicef report on female genital mutilation, published, Thursday March 7, on the eve of International Women’s Day.
According to new global estimates in this report, the number of women and girls who have survived clitoral ablation, excision (total or partial removal of the clitoris and labia minora) or infibulation (excision plus suture of the opening vaginal to shrink it) is now estimated at over 230 million, or 30 million additional people compared to 2016, which represents an increase of 15%.
These painful, sometimes fatal, mutilations also have long-term psychological and physical consequences, such as fertility problems, complications during childbirth, stillborn babies and pain during sexual intercourse.
Sharp decline in practices in Sierra Leona
Africa is the continent most affected with more than 144 million survivors of these mutilations, ahead of Asia (80 million) and the Middle East (six million), according to the report which focuses on thirty-one countries where the practice is common.
Despite the increasing total number, largely linked to population growth in these countries, the report highlights progress in reducing this practice which violates the most fundamental human rights. Thus, certain countries are recording a significant decline, such as Sierra Leone, where the percentage of adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 having undergone genital mutilation has fallen in thirty years from 95% to 61%, but also Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Kenya. But in Somalia, for example, 99% of women between 15 and 49 years old have undergone genital mutilation, 95% in Guinea, 90% in Djibouti, 89% in Mali.
“We are also seeing a worrying trend, with more and more girls undergoing this practice at younger and younger ages, often before they are 5e birthday “notes the Director General of Unicef, Catherine Russell, in a press release. “This significantly reduces the possibility of intervention. We must redouble our efforts to end this harmful practice. »
Progress would therefore need to be 27 times faster to succeed in eradicating this practice by 30, as planned by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (UN). Even if perceptions evolve, these mutilations “have existed for centuries, so changing social norms and practices linked to these norms takes time”comments Claudia Coppa to Agence France-Presse.
The silence of men
Where they persist, “it is linked to entrenched forms of gender inequality”she insists. “In some societies it is considered a necessary rite of passage; in other contexts, it is a means of preserving the chastity of girls” and of “control” their sexuality, she continues, evoking the difficulty mothers have in opposing it. Yet they “remember the pain”but “sometimes the pain is less than the shame” and the risk of seeing their daughters rejected by their community and unable to marry.
“They are not cruel mothers. They try to do what they think is expected of them.”insists the expert, drawing a more general parallel with society’s expectations of women.
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“We are expected to be mothers, wives, to care for our communities, to conform to expectations about purity and sexuality”she adds. “Women know very well that if they do not conform to these expectations, there are repercussions, punishments. »
Unicef then pleads for laws prohibiting this mutilation, but also for the education of girls and their emancipation. Without forgetting the role of men. Women generally think they want these mutilations to continue, but for those with a mutilated sister or mother, this is far from being the case in all countries, according to the report. “But they remain silent”a silence which suggests their acceptance, regrets Claudia Coppa, calling “everyone to take a stand”.