Työ kantaa hedelmää! Raportti Balesta

Hieno, menestyksekäs ja huolellisesti tehty raportti saapui. Tästä saa hyvän kuvan kuinka paneutuneita Bezunesh ja Tesfaye ovat työhönsä! Raportti on pitkä, mutta lue ainakin loppuosa tuplaviivan jälkeen missä on kuvia, sillä siellä on hienoja uutisia! Monessa kuvassa näkyy myös Bezunesh poika sylissään sekä valkopaitainen Tesfaye vierellään.

Opetuksesta voin sanoa, että se on todella rohkeaa ja vahvaa. B ja T nostavat piilotellun ja salaillun hirvittävyyden esiin julkiseen keskusteluun, mutta tekevät sen erittäin asiallisesti ja tyylikkäästi. Veikkaan, ettei kovin moni paikallinen asukas edes ole aikaisemmin tiennyt mikä on WHO tai sitä, että FGM on kansainvälisesti esillä hyvin vahvasti kielteisenä asiana. Myöskin se on rohkeaa, että asiasta puhutaan yksityiskohtaisesti ja suoraan. B ja T myös laittavat kuulijansa itse pohtimaan ja tekemään esityksen muille siitä, miten he aikovat asian suhteen edetä. Ja he tosissaan ovat käärimässä hihoja B:n ja T:n opetuksen jälkeen! Erinomaista työtä!!!

Tykkään kovasti noista valokuvista, niistä näkee kuinka paljon vaikutusvaltaisia miehiäkin on kuuntelemassa opetusta ja kuinka tosissaan he ovat asian suhteen.

Tuhannet kiitokset kaikille lahjoittajille! Te, tai siis me olemme mahdollistaneet tämän! Laitan huomenna jälleen 3kk palkkaerän maksuun. Tässä raportti:

Topic - The Historical background of FGM

Hi our dearest, who live in Finland. We are very fine within our joyful work and within our family. As we informed you last time our teaching in Kokossa in Bale area was very good and it was fruitful time. We could reach more than hundred male and female, married and unmarried. Especially on Saturday we gave training for 120 key persons, church leaders, youth coordinators, women leaders, churches members, pastors, evangelists, choir coordinators and governmental leaders. Also on Sunday we taught in different churches, Tesfaye taught in Kale Hiwot church and Bezunesh taught in Full Gospel church about the harmful traditional practice of FGM.

Our teaching was concerning historical background of FGM and how it inter into Ethiopia, based on our annual proposal.

Our teaching was like the following:

Definition of FGM

The world health organization (WHO) defines FGM as “all producers involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs, whether for culture or other non-therapeutic reasons.” It is considered as part of a group of traditional practice of female sex organ.

Its literal meaning is “to cut off an important part of human genital organ involving the whole part of the external genital organ of female.” It is one of widely practiced traditions that have been damaging the health of women and young girls in Ethiopia and other countries. It is deeprooted practice as the value of FGM practicing society.

For Muslims, circumcision is an outward symbol of the religious process, which brings oneself under the discipline of God’s requirement. According to their understanding circumcision reflects the inner growth of reason and submission of base passions to the higher spiritual requirements of true Islam.

Historical origin of FGM

Different writers have different suggestion about the origin of FGM. According to Sandy Willcox FGM was practiced in Egypt before 2500 B.C. Also pre-Islamic Arabia and ancient Rome are involved countries. Gachiri signifies that the practices was practicing before thousands of years and it was originated in Egypt and Ethiopia as earliest as one century B.C. but this is merely assumption without evidence. A Greek papyrus from 163 B.C. mentions girls in Egypt were undergoing circumcisions and it is widely accepted to have originated in Egypt and the Nile valley at the time of pharaohs.

Many people try to link the origin of FGM with Islam. However, the significance of the earliest records of the practice of FGM had begun thousands of years in Egypt before the beginning of Islam. Considering FGM as an Islamic religion obligation is not the right attitude because FGM was carried out before Islam arrived in Africa. Also Koran does not prescribe the performance of FGM.

The phenomenon

The estimation of the WHO shows that currently 100 to 140 million girls and women are living with the consequences of FGM at more than 30 countries of the worldwide. In Africa about three million girls are at risk for FGM annually and six thousand of them daily.

It has been long abandoned in many countries. However, today it is common practice in 28 African countries and more than 80 million women are at risk in Africa. Christians, muslims and animals have been subject to it. In Ethiopia FGM is practiced by Muslims and Christians alike. Internationally, FGM is recognized as a violation of the human rights of girls and women. With boys foreskin is cut while at girls the clitoris and other parts of the vulva are removed. What is done to girls has different purpose and result when we compare it with male circumsition.

The Types of FGM

The world health classified FGM into four major types:

Type one is Clitoridectomy - It is the removal of the clitoris with the prepuce or without excising part or the entire clitoris. In Ethiopia this practice is common between the Amharic and Tigrigna speaking muslims. It is considered as the simplest type. It requires a great skill, good light, surgical tools and an anesthetized, motionless body, quite aside from a thorough knowledge of anatomy.

Type Two is Excision - It is removal of the clitoris together with partial or total excision of the labia minora with or without the labia minor. In Ethiopia tribes who commonly practice it are Gurage, Tigire, the Gondor’s Amara, Oromo, Shinashe, Kunama and Kambata.

Type Three is Infibulations - It is stitching of the opening of vagina by creating a seal covering which is formed by cutting and repositioning the inner and sometimes outer labia with or without removal of the clitoris. In this type of FGM a small hole is leaving for urine. The tribes Harare, Somali, Mensal, Saho, Afar and some Oromo in Hararge practice it.

Type four is other or Unclassified - This is a collective form of FGM. It has diverse range of practice like priking the clitoris with needles, burning or scarring the genitals, and ripping or tearing of the vagina. Primarily this type is found among isolated ethnic groups as well as in combination with other types. It is not practiced in Ethiopia but in Pitta-Pattain Australia and Rwanda.Variations of the types of FGM show that the irreversibility of the practice throughout the world.

However, in Ethiopia about 90% of women are believed to undergo one of the above three forms of mutilation except type four of FGM.

The Process of FGM

The procedure varies, depending on the FGM types girls age, and circumciser’s experience.

The circumciser: in Ethiopia the process of mutilation is performed under unhygienic condition by traditional practitioners, mainly old women and men. They use the sharp instrument like a razor blade and knife. Some of them are traditional birth attendants. They use it as a means of income generating. Majority of them are uneducated village women and village midwives. In some culture circumcisers are ordained by a group of elders. In Agikuyu of Keny a child is believed and said to have an inner calling to be traditional doctor. Others perform it as inheritance from their mother or father at the old age of the father or mother since they become unable to perform the operation because she or he could not cut properly.

The circumcisers use some local medicines to heal the wound. Some of them apply antibiotics in ointment form and in powder form after they excise girls body. In Agikuyu of Kenya the less modern circumcisers pour milk, iodine onto the fresh wound. The traditional ones use red powder made from alloy leaves after they dried and crushed. They smear folded leaves with castor oil. These leaves are placed in the center of the wound to separate the two sides and to keep them from joining together during the healing process. In Ethiopia the circumcisers are recognized as gifted with the ability of circumcision from the nature. In some areas they are assumed as they are possessed by evil spirit. The medicine, which circumcises use at the time of the procedure, has its own health affection.

Procedures are mostly carried out on young girls sometime between infancy and age 15, and occasionally on adult women. It is different from culture to culture. In Ethiopia the age of the procedure is different from place to place and family to family. But girls and boys are circumcised before marriage. The economic background of the family plays a great a great role for early circumcision or late circumcision.

Determinants of FGM

The reasons for doing FGM are as varied as the rituals that go with the custom, including a mix of traditional, socio- cultural, and religious factors.

Socio-Cultural Factors: Where FGM is a social conviction, the social pressure to conform to what others do and been doing is a strong motivation to perpetuate the practice. It is often considered as a way to prepare adulthood and marriage. The most common reasons to practice FGM are to reduce wife’s sexual desires in order to indemnify her faithfulness to her husband in their marriage relation, to prevent problems of labor and delivery, to conform traditional requirements, peer pressure, fear of stigmatization, for cleanness, and beautifulness after the removal of the clitoris. Most of these beliefs do not stand up in the face of current knowledge and realities. The traditionalists excise women because their forefathers and andestors did it.

In addition to the above mentioned points socio-cultural factors include the excising of power and control over women and it is honor for the family or clan of the circumcised girls. The procedure brings prestige to families, ensures that the girls can marry certain people and that they will not be able to marry into groups that do not excise. It is sometimes an education into a secret society. It initiates to join the group in order to obtain social support of the group. These societies also often have considerable influence over the entire cultural group of which they form a part. According to the declaration of WHO of 1996 in some society, recent adoption of the practice is linked to copying the traditions of the neighboring groups.

The Religious Factors

Societies that practice FGM believe that unless a woman is circumcised her prayer will not be heard, her burial will not be performed in accordance to the cultural customs and norms. Uncircumcised girls are seen as bad women that bring a wrath of the creation because they considered FGM as religious requirement. In Keffa being uncircumcised is an insult to God. Additionally, Harari’s and Afar’s believe that uncircumcised women prayer and offering are not acceptable. Jeblawi religion says, that which protruded from the boy is excessive and should be trimmed.

However, some reactions are raised from the religious leaders in relation to the religious factors of FGM. They take varying positions regarding to FGM, some promote it and others contribute tools for elimination. Coptic Pop Shenouda, the leader of Egypt’s minority Christian community, said that the Quran nor the Bible demand or mention female circumcision. Doctor Kemani presented concerning Islamic attitude towards FGM in the IAC on traditional symposium held in Tanzania in August 2000 said: ”We understand that the female circumcision is not an Islamic tradition or a religious obligation. Moreover, in its most sever form it is considered as an anti-Islamic act. In fact, performing such an action should depend on medical instructions that in the case of necessity and being of interest and not practiced by all individuals. Therefore, performing this act in Islam is not prohibited and neither emphasized however it is left to circumstances and necessities.”

Some muslim communities practice as it was demanded by Islamic faith, however it predates Islam. But in prohibiting the practice Al-Azhar Suprem Council of Islamic research the highest religious authority in Egypt issued a statement saying FGM has no basis in core Islamic law or any of its partial provisions and that it is harmful and should not be practiced. FGM is often motivated by social beliefs to insure wife’s faithfulness to her husband in considering proper sexual behavior and to keep prematurely virginity and marital fidelity.
.

After this teaching we made a group discussion and interview time for each church. And then, we gave three questions to them:

  1. Why do the people of Oromo practice this harmful traditional FGM?

  2. What is the attitude of Christians in this area about FGM?

  3.What is the churches stand about this bad traditional practice of FGM?

After their discussion and interview each group did a presentation for all the others what they discussed and what they decided to do about it. Their response look like this:

1. Evangelical church of Mekane Yesus:

This group is from Evangelical Church of Mekane Yesus, it is not from only one church but many churches. The leader’s are very happy in our training and teaching program and they decided to stop the harmful practice of FGM by teaching, training and giving recognition for all the church members. And they said ”first of all we start to stop this kind of bad practice for our children and we will show a good example for others”. Also one women said that she have three uncircumcised girls and she will take care that they will not undergo any kind of the harmful practice of FGM.

2. Full Gospel Church

This group is from Full Gospel Church. They strongly dislike the cultural practice of FGM and they decided to teach about it in the church and at any place and also by contacting the government. This group have a good opportunity because among learners they have health centers workers and a district president. We hope they can reach others through these key persons.

3. Kale Hiwot church

This group is from Kale Hiwot three churches (KHC). After training their comment was that this teaching must become work of leaders and Evangelists. After that they can change other people. Within this group the unique thing is that we reach one cutter women through our teaching and we could interview her. Also this group rejected the harmful practice of FGM.

4. Hiwot Birhan church

The last group is from Hiwot Birhan Church. Most of this group is very rejecting towards the cultural practice of FGM among Oromo people because the FGM practice discourages the women’s life psychological, physical and total life of marriage. After this training they decided to stop the harmful practice of FGM and they will try to teach about it in church and at any place where they are getting any chance.

Finally all groups said for the future time they want additional training and more recognition about the harmful practice of FGM. And we agreed that we will teach another time. So, we and Sari are very happy this time with all our great work.

We wish all the best for those read this report in Finland!