Sudan tries to end painful practice

Press, 7 February 1985, Page 23

Sudan tries to end painful practice

NZPA-AFP Khartoum Sudanese authorities have quietly resumed efforts to bring an end to the genital mutilation of the country’s female population, but specialists say the cen-turies-old practice is unlikely to yield to the new campaign. “The drive against excision is part of the general effort to modernise Sudanese society since independence, but, in fact, no campaign has ever had any effect on the ancestral practice” of excision, said a university professor in Khartoum. He said that Health Ministry workers supervising ’ the campaign “have not shown a lot of enthusiasm for their work.” A recent Government. study showed that 98 per cent of all women in the Muslim north of Sudan and 80 per cent of the female population in the Christian and Animist south have undergone a total or partial removal of the clitoris, sometimes followed by infi-

bulation — the stitching closed of the vagina to prevent sexual intercourse. “It is a practice which dates back several centuries and I can assure you that if I forgot to excise one of my daughters, she would come to me herself and ask for it to be done,” said a retired nurse, formerly with the Khartoum University Hospital. Young girls who do not undergo excision, normally performed at puberty, are considered as dirty or unchaste by friends or potential husbands. For the “daya” — old women who perform the operations — girls spared excision remain children, immature and unworthy of passing into the secret universe of women. “Ancient customs like murdering widows : have been abolished over : time, but it is still considered indispensable for a girl to have her sexual organs mutilated in order to achieve human dignity,” complained an anthropologist, i Ali

Bashir. Gynaecologists add that most excisions result in complications such as anaemia, infections or tetanus, while later in life they can leave women suffering from painful menstrual periods and difficulties in giving birth.

“Women appear to live through all this without difficulty,” said a health worker, Asma Sherif, “but in truth they are reluctant to talk about it or are afraid to confront their husbands on a taboo subject.” An estimated 84 million women ,in sub-Saharan Africa undergone excision. A conference bringing together women from nine African States in October sought ways of stopping the mutilations.

Observers said a conference appeal for religious authorities to actively oppose excision was likely to fall on deaf ears because of the continuing widespread public support for the painful practice.