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Putting an end to cross-border FGM practice… The role of advocates for girls’ protection
Hajia Nadia Abaas IV
Advocacy is a powerful tool that can be used to cause positive change in society by putting poli¬cy makers on their toes to discharge their duties satisfactorily.
Over the years, many advocates have used their voices to expose the rot in society and in the process saved thousands of lives.
In this same way, advocates for women and girls protection in Ghana can help fight Female Genital Mutila¬tion (FGM) to protect young girls from the devastating implication of the practice.
FGM, the practice of altering or injuring the female genitalia for non-medical reasons, is a deeply-root-ed cultural practice that continues to haunt many regions across Africa.
Despite efforts to eradicate the menace from Ghana, recent reports have revealed that young girls are taken to nearby countries like Burki¬na Faso to undergo the inhumane act before they are brought back to their respective families.
This calls for firmer action to be taken against this cross-border act to save victims.
It is good to know that the laws against the practice of FGM are well enforced, however if the purpose for the enforcement were not achieved, the whole motive of fighting FGM to protect our young girls will be lost.
Dealing with this danger of cross-border FGM would require wom¬en centered Non-Governmental Organ-isations (NGOs), advocates for girls’ protection, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and all well-meaning Ghanaians and Africans at large, to rise up and speak against the practice.
Speaking exclusively to The Spec¬tator, women empowerment advo¬cate, Hajia Nadia Abbas (IV) bemoaned the implication of such practices on young girls, and called on governments and international organisations to collaborate to create awareness pro¬grammes in affected regions.
According to her, cross-border collaboration among countries that encourage FGM was crucial, adding that governments must work together to exchange information, coordinate action and harmonise legislation to en¬sure that culprits do not escape legal consequences.
She indicated that religious and traditional leaders must also come out in their numbers to discourage actions that harm girls.
“We must call for the participation of all well-meaning members of the public in speaking against all forms of violence against humanity, includ¬ing this dangerous practice that is a human right violation.”
“I strongly believe that when everybody becomes an advocate for positive change, good results can be realised quickly,” she added.
Furtherance to that, she noted that men could join in the advocacy for the rights of women and work towards gender equity.
Hajia Nadia Abbas (IV) confirmed that she heard stories of young girls who were taken out of the country to neighbouring countries for them to un¬dergo FGM mainly because the police in those areas were on the look-out for culprits for such ill practices.
Advocates for women and girls’ rights stated that the fact that FGM had become a thing of the past in Ghana, did not mean authorities should relax; “We must be alert and arrest persons seen forcing girls out of the country for the barbaric act to be carried out on them. We must ensure we join forces with all our neighbour¬ing countries to put a permanent stop to this menace.”
Hajia Nadia Abbas (IV) who is also the Founder of Nadisco Foundation, a women centered NGO indicated that, when young girls are made aware about the severe health implication of FGM, which include urinary problems, complications during child birth and even death, they would stand up for themselves and report family mem¬bers who threaten to force them to undergo FGM.
MEN MUST JOIN THE FIGHT TO END FGM
On the International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM which was marked in February 2023, the United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA) called for partnership with men to join the fight against FGM.
When men join the fight against practices that affect women negative¬ly, success would be easily achieved, leading to an understanding that women and young girls also deserve to be respected and cherished.
By joining the fight against FGM, men demonstrate their commitment to their loved ones. Men can also challenge these harmful norms and attitudes by openly opposing FGM and promoting alternative practices that respect and uphold the rights of wom¬en and girls.
UNFPA’S REPORT ON FGM
The UNFPA has estimated that more than 200 million girls and women globally have undergone some form of FGM.
It also estimates 68 million girls are at risk of being mutilated be¬tween 2015 and 2030. A more recent study further revealed an additional two million girls to be at risk of this harmful practice due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Further projections by the UNFPA showed that 4.3 million girls, world¬wide, this year remain at risk of FGM.
According to the UNFPA, this number is likely to reach 4.6 million by 2030, as conflict, climate change, rising poverty and inequality contin¬ued to hinder efforts to transform gender and social norms that underpin this harmful practice and disrupt pro¬grammes that help protect girls.
These revelations prove that all hands are needed on deck to save women and girls from this barbaric human rights violation.
The fight cannot be won if trans-border FGM practices were not checked.
By Raissa Sambou
One of the issues we have been grappling with as a nation is corruption, and it has had such a devastating effect on our national development. I have been convinced that until morality becomes the foundation upon which our governance system is built, we can never go forward as a nation.
Our traditional practices, which have shaped our cultural beliefs, have always espoused values that have kept us along the straight and the narrow and have preserved our societies since ancient times.
These are values that frown on negative habits like stealing, cheating, greediness, selfishness, etc. Our grandparents have told us stories of societies where stealing was regarded as so shameful that offenders, when caught, have on a number of instances committed suicide.
In fact, my mother told me of a story where a man who was living in the same village as her mother (my grandmother), after having been caught stealing a neighbour’s cockerel, out of shame committed suicide on a mango tree. Those were the days that shameful acts were an abomination.
Tegare worship, a traditional spiritual worship during which the spirit possesses the Tegare Priest and begins to reveal secrets, was one of the means by which the society upheld African values in the days of my grandmother and the early childhood days of my mother.
Those were the days when the fear of being killed by Tegare prevented people from engaging in anti-social vices. These days, people sleeping with other people’s wives are not uncommon.
These wrongful behaviour was not countenanced at all by Tegare. One was likely going to lose his life on days that Tegare operates, and so unhealthy habits like coveting your neighbour’s wife was a taboo.
Stealing of other people’s farm produce, for instance, could mean certain death or incapacitation of the whole or part of the body in the full glare of everybody. People realised that there were consequences for wrongdoing, and this went a long way to motivate the society to adhere to right values.
Imagine a President being sworn into office and whoever administers the oath says, “Please say this after me: I, Mr. …., do solemnly swear by God, the spirits of my ancestors and the spirits ruling in Ghana, that should I engage in corrupt acts, may I and my family become crippled, may madness become entrenched in my family, may incurable sicknesses and diseases be my portion and that of my family, both immediate and extended.”
Can you imagine a situation where a few weeks afterwards the President goes to engage in corrupt acts and we hear of his sudden demise or incapacitation and confessing that he engaged in corrupt acts before passing or before the incapacitation—and the effect it will have on his successor? I believe we have to critically examine this option to curb corruption.
My grandmother gave me an eyewitness account of one such encounter where a woman died instantly after the Tegare Priest had revealed a wrong attitude she had displayed during the performance on one of the days scheduled for Tegare spirit manifestation.
According to her story, the Priest, after he had been possessed by the spirit, declared that for what the woman had done, he would not forgive her and that he would kill. Instantly, according to my grandmother, the lady fell down suddenly and she died—just like what happened to Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts Chapter 5.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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BY ROBERT EKOW GRIMMOND-THOMPSON
