Who does what
Striving to apply the law against Female Genital Mutilation
Bassilla Renju-Urasa, executive coordinator of Tanzania’s Network of Women Against Female Genital Mutilation (NAFGEM) says that although Tanzania outlawed Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)/circumcision in 1998, the practice continues. “We exist because the law is not applied”, she says.
“Circumcision entails serious psychological impacts and potentially life-threatening physical complications”.
© Reporters/LAIF
Some of the women who work with NAFGEM have themselves suffered through the procedure as girls. The body disseminates information and documents cases to try to change attitudes to some deep-rooted customs. Education, according to NAFGEM, is essential to combating FGM. A lot of women live in remote rural areas and find it difficult to bring forward a case.
NAFGEM’s little office on the third floor of a side street in Moshi is the epicentre of a movement that has made a positive change in the Kilimanjaro Region. But among the Masai, says Mrs. Renju-Urasa, the practice of FGM stubbornly persists. “The Masai cannot imagine someone not circumcised. It is a must. And the uneducated…the women, accept it”, she adds.
Just outside Chekimaji, a village nestled at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, a mother and daughter from the Kamba tribe are standing ground. The girl’s father, a school teacher, has recently passed away and now her uncle has taken over the household. He demands that her mother become his concubine. She refuses. Furious, the uncle says he will stop paying for Pascalini’s secondary schooling in Dar-es-Salaam. The uncle wants to marry the girl off; circumcised. Circumcision entails serious psychological impacts and potentially life-threatening physical complications. According to NAFGEM, some girls can subsequently develop an abnormal growth that obstructs normal bodily functions. The most common mutilation procedure involves simply cutting off part of, or the entire clitoris. Tanzania’s National Plan of Action to Combat FGM (2001-2015) attempts to address the issue but so far, with limited success. Penal Code 1930 was enacted to criminalise the practice of FGM but the passive nature of law enforcement means the practice is condoned.
The mother reported the uncle’s intentions to the authorities but without results. Her daughter then threatened to kill herself rather than undergo the procedure. Frightened for her daughter’s life and unable to rely on the local authorities, the mother sends someone from the village off to NAFGEM.
The next day I find mother and her daughter standing under the sparse shade of a tree Pascalini remains, for the most part silent, as her mother speaks on her behalf. “My daughters hate this hell”, she says. She has seven children, four of whom are daughters. The family feels abandoned and is despised by everyone in the village, she says. “Most have turned their backs on us”, she says. A letter, unsigned, was delivered to her doorstep. Threats were made against her children, she says. Back in Moshi, Mrs. Renju-Urasa listens to the report that the girl in question is facing the threat of FGM and notes that her fear is tangible. A proper investigation is required but only by those that understand the intimacy of the Kilimanjaro region: by someone from NAFGEM.
