Culled from The Point 

Women Circumcisers Vow to Drop Knives
Friday 10th March 2006

By Sarata Jabbie-Dibba

A three-day training organised by Gamcotrap for women leaders has served as a vital forum for enlightening women leaders on the ramifications of female circumcision and two women circumcisers have in fact vowed to drop knives.

The training, organised in the build up to this year's Women's Day commemoration, brought together thirty-six women leaders who have completed a three-day training on leadership, decision-making, politics and the promotion of women's sexual and reproductive health and rights. They were also exposed to the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, leadership, and harmful traditional practices and how they affect the health of women and children.

One of the outcomes of the training was the declaration by two women circumcisers (ngansimbas) that they have been convinced of the wide-spread ramifications of female circumcision and that they will never circumcise any more girls. Some women leaders also vowed never to subject those in their families yet uncircumcised to such a harmful practice.

Meanwhile, the Secretary General of Gamcotrap, Dr. Isatou Touray, took the participants through Gambia's report on CEDAW to the Commission on the status of women held in New York last year. Dr.Touray also informed them that as women leaders, they have to be given an account of issues claimed on their behalf as well as the responsibilities to ensure their rights are guaranteed.

"It was noted that protecting the rights of women and children is the responsibility of all, and that a recent Rabat declaration has made the position of the Organisation of Islamic Conference clear that female genital mutilation and early marriage are not Islamic injunctions but traditional practices," Dr. Touray posited.
 

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