Sister Jamila,
         Like most people on list, I too have been silently observing the
interchanges on FGM.  Like most people I vehemently hate the practice. This
has been and issue that have taunted me for years. I think it is wrong and
deprives women the opportunity to be all woman. It also causes complications
for women during child bearing. Although the practices is culturally
motivated, some proponents will want you to believe that it is religious. The
genesis of this practice would be an interesting chain to trace, but it is
not only an African practice. It spread as far as Eastern Europe.
         As you put it, the fight to eradicate this rotten tumor from our
society should be approached with key emphasis on education. The fight on FGM
cannot be won with condemnation. The practice has a deeply rooted cultural
significance that governments cannot just legislate and expect the proponents
of FGM to accept that the practice is illegal. It is deeper than that.
          There are organizations in the Gambia whose sole purpose is
education for the eradication of FGM. These organizations have not only
identifying the cultural implications of FGM but also unveiling the economic
factors that comes with the practice and how these factors can be addressed
individually to fight the practice.
           A new approach to prevention of FGM is to continue the practice
without the mutilation. This approach involves educating the proponents of
FGM that they can have their ceremony without inflicting harm. They can
perform all the rituals that allows a woman to transcend into womanhood
without causing them pain and possible death.
         This approach helps the proponents of the practice to continue their
tradition of teaching their young women their cultural virtues and values. It
also helps maintain each ethnic tradition to preservation of their tradition.
         The economic factors of FGM has been mostly ignored by people who
condemn the practice. What some of these aggressive organizations that are
actively finding solutions to the practice is that; if you displace a worker
you must find them employment or they will continue their business. So they
women who administer the practice are being offered low to no interest loans
to start businesses to support themselves and their families.
          Although these short term solutions are working, the practice is
still widespread in some cultures. More education and support should be given
to organizations who are working had to put and end to the misery that young
girls who go through with this endure. It is a painful and hypersensitive
subject that should be the topic of discussion among every family. Victims
must come forth and become ambassadors for the fight against the practice.
          Finally, I want to thank those of you who have posted your concerns
about the practice. Let us not confuse FGM with MGM. It is very easy to argue
that both practices are the same morally, but fact remains that the medical
implications of FGM is more than anything you can imagine.

Thank you all.
Collectively we a powerful Divided we fall.
Matarr Sajaw.

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