"Taking the dress" - women organize resistance to practice of female genital mutilation - Brief Article

UNESCO Courier, July, 2001 by Khadi Diallo

FGM is considered a human rights abuse by a growing international movement of NGOs and UN agencies. These activists seek to eliminate the practice, not legitimate it on the grounds of cultural or religious tradition. They also reject its medicalization in which health professionals reduce the risk of infection.

The opposition is largely fuelled by African women like Mrs. Diallo, who volunteers with the French section (GAMS) of the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children. Public awareness campaigns target communities, families and health authorities, while efforts are underway to develop laws to ban and sanction the practice. Some groups are also pushing for provisions to offer asylum to those at risk of mutilation in their countries of origin.