The Sadness of Senegalese Women

As in many African countries, Senegal has been plagued by the practice of genital cutting for ages. Recently, though, villages have been rising up and denying this old tradition. The tradition has been something believed to make women and girls pure and acceptable for marriage as well as to ensure that they would remain virgin until they were married. Many women, like Aissatou Kande, have declared that they will not cut their daughters and foster a new age in their villages. This phenomenon is a very recent occurrence, but it is a slow process though so many are standing against it. Aissatou Kande’s village has not yet pledged to stop the practice though.

The human rights violated here are many. The first is the right to security of self. Women and girls cannot feel safe as long as practices such as this exist because their bodies must change to be acceptable. Another is the right to safety of person from violence. Though is some cases people would consider it traditional, but it is a violation of a woman’s/girl’s safety of person. It also violates the right to equality of men and women, in which women have this extra expectation of them that men do not have. To be pure should not require a surgical procedure that is very dangerous.

I, personally, have never understood the practice of such traditions because they do more harm than good if you look at it objectively. Traditions like these often have come out of old religious practices and it is somewhat understandable why it has held so long. The problem here is that overarching international programs do not work as well, but grassroots programs do work. The grassroots program in question is Tostan, which focuses on the education of the populace within the villages. This has always been the best approach to human rights violations in Africa in my opinion and though it cannot be duplicated well for all countries, it does work better than any amount of money funneled into the continent.

Do you believe that due to its status as a tradition it should be overlooked? Is the initiative being taken by the villages and women themselves enough to change the situation?