Hello Harona, Thank you so much for your contribution. You have offered some good ideas as well as some that are contrary to my research regarding female circumcision. I question and I challenge your statement that "As an African and having hailed from a community whose very survival depends on the practice of FGM, I at times shy away from the reality of the pain and suffering women/girls endour from circumcision camps,hoping that will subside my fears and worries." My ten years battle and research with this issue has revealed that female circumcision is practiced World-Wide, in Jewish, Arabic nations, Australian Aboriginal, Indonesian and Malaysian cultures, as well as among Sub-Saharan Africans. At this time, female circumcision is practiced in 40 countries, mostly in west and east Africa, but also on the Arabian Peninsula. It was practiced in the United States from 1890-1930 by doctors. According to my research, there is no indication that the culture or community that practice female circumcision depend on it for survival. I have visited every district and division in The Gambia and I did not come across a community that said they depend on female circumcision. I challenge you to name any community or village in The Gambia that depend on female circumcision. I was born and raised at Bakalarr village, in the North Bank Division. My ethnic group do not practice female circumcision but I lived among ethnic groups that practice it. Whilst I was growing up as a child, I know of two girls from my age group who went through this process and died but their death was associated to some traditional belief. I am a professor today but I am sure this two innocent girls could have been professor, doctors or president in The Gambia but their life has been taking away from them. How can one have prestige from a practice that forces and kills innocent young angel girls who are the future leaders of Africa? I am not the first Gambian or African to know that young girls died from this practice and I am sure (God for bid) I will not be the last one to know it too. I am urging all Africans to join hands and eradicate this evil practice in our societies. My challenge to Africans and Gambians World-Wide is for us to start putting female circumcision as a priority agenda in our conferences instead of ignoring it. I am prepared at any time to speak about this issue in any conference if I am invited and I have the chance to attend. I remember, when I was in Boston having a heated debate with a brother from Mali and South Africa about female circumcision. I also had the same debate with some Gambians and they end up turning their face away from me because they did not want to deal with it. Does that sound familiar to you or to some of us from The Gambia or Africa? The reason why I am saying this is because I belief that this is not only a youth issue, female issue or men issue but all human beings who care about the well being of their societies and nations for national development. Both men and women have to be empowered so that we can have a healthy dialogue about female circumcision. We have to first educate ourselves before we even think about educating other people about it. Some of us have not accepted the eradication of female circumcision in our minds and heart and yet proclaim to educate other people about it. How possible can that be? According to my research, change comes within and not outside. We must first change ourselves before wanting to change other people. Which way fellow Africans? Which way fellow Gambians? Are we going to continue hurting our lovely innocent young girls? For me, I say no. Where do you stand as a human being and what are you going to do about it? As far as I know, God will never tell anyone to go and hurt human beings. I love and cherish African culture but I also hate destructive practices in African culture. This being the case, we must separate evil practices from the good ones in our culture. May God bless us all. Michael ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------