Liberia needs to muster the courage to ban FGM

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has called on others to ban female genital mutilation, yet her country is poised to miss an opportunity to end the practice

When Nobel peace prize laureate Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was elected Africa’s first female head of state in 2005, expectations were high. Throughout both her terms as president, she has talked about her firm commitment to women’s rights, coming out strongly in favour of the health and safety of women and girls.

Last year, at an international event on gender equality, President Johnson-Sirleaf said: “Too many of our countries have yet to muster the courage to ban the irreparable harm inflicted by genital mutilation on young girls in traditional societies.” It was a controversial statement, as Liberia is one of the states yet to do so – half of Liberian women and girls (pdf) are estimated to have undergone this extreme form of violence.

Following bans last year in Nigeria and The Gambia, Liberia is now one of only three countries in west Africa yet to ban FGM – the others are Mali and Sierra Leone.

In Sierra Leone and Liberia, the Sande female secret society promotes and carries out FGM as part of a rite initiating girls into womanhood. FGM is ataboo subject (pdf) and it is forbidden to talk about secret societies and their practices with non-initiated people.

Punishment for such violations include physical abuse, forceful initiation and death threats – something Ruth Berry Peal, a woman in northern Liberia who was forced to undergo FGM, and other women have faced for years after standing up against it.

Liberia’s media has been silenced on the issue too – and the lives of journalists who speak out are put at risk. Mae Azango was forced into hiding in 2012 for writing about the issue in Front Page Africa.

Things appeared to be changing last year when, in response to many years of international and national pressure, adomestic violence bill was finally introduced to strengthen legislation on violence against women and girls – including, for the first time, a ban on FGM.

The proposed measures on the latter were, though, extremely weak. The bill regarded FGM as an offence only when performed on a girl under the age of 18 – or a person 18 or older without their consent. This would provide a loophole for parents or guardians to grant consent on behalf of their daughters, leaving those most at risk unprotected. The bill also included ineffective penalties for perpetrators, where counselling and fines could be arbitrarily determined by a judge.

Equality Now and its local partner, theWomen of Liberia Peace Network, with funding from Comic Relief, have been working to ensure that a total ban on FGM is included in the bill instead – as required by the Maputo protocol, the African women’s rights legal framework, which Liberia has ratified.

This week, things seem to have taken a turn for the worse as legislators decided to delete the FGM provision entirely. A debate will now be held on Thursday on the bill in its current state. As this provision was the most controversial measure, the domestic violence bill could pass without any mention of FGM.

At a time when the Africa-led momentum to end FGM is growing, it is vital that we do not lose the opportunity to protect more girls and women from this huge violation of their rights. Unlike neighbouring countries such as Guinea and Sierra Leone, Liberia has already managed to significantly reduce(pdf) FGM prevalence from 85% for middle-aged women to 44% for girls aged 15 to 19. However, unless tough legislation is enacted and properly implemented, it may be difficult to accelerate this change and the lives and wellbeing of millions more girls will be put at risk.

Johnson-Sirleaf is well positioned to “muster the courage” to do what is necessary to ensure that Liberia bans FGM – either as part of the current domestic violence bill, or as a standalone bill, as a matter of urgency.

There has been too much discussion and not enough action. Liberia cannot afford to keep making statements to make it seem like it is doing something, without following through and putting real measures in place, which promote and protect the rights of its girls.

Source: Mary Wandia via Guardian

Nigeria must stop unsafe abortions killing women

‘It is pure madness that Nigeria accounts for less than 1% of the global population but is responsible for 14% of global maternal deaths.’ Photograph: Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters

I will never forget the 19-year-old who died after she endured an abortion performed with the spoke of a bicycle wheel

It was a cold, rainy, early morning. The rain had started late that night and the downpour was torrential. I had been awake through it all studying for an exam and was about to get some sleep.

Just as my head hit the pillow, an ambulance siren tore into the night and grew louder and louder. I turned in the bed hoping for it to be something else. I was the physician on call and it had been largely uneventful so far at the hospital where I was working in southern Nigeria. I got out of bed.

It was a case of a 19-year-old who was rushed in to hospital because she had had severe weakness, dizziness and fainting spells for three days. She told me she hadn’t had her period for three months and had had an attempted abortion. She was too afraid to tell her parents about her pregnancy – they were prominent churchgoers and held in high regard in the community.

Legal abortion wasn’t an option for her as her life was not deemed to be in danger, a pre-requisite in Nigeria. Single parenthood would have ruined her and her highly placed family’s reputations. Her mother had earlier regaled her with tales of virginity and how she should remain chaste for her husband.

When she went for an abortion, she had been led into a dimly-lit, dingy room with a small bed in the middle where the medicine dealer, popularly referred to as the “chemist” in local parlance, used a bike wheel spoke to get rid of her baby. She had been bleeding consistently since then but had been afraid to present at the hospital. Now, it was dawning on her that she might die. Her boyfriend was 21 and he was scared for her. They had been having sex for about six months, relying on condoms and chance to prevent pregnancy. Alas, they ran out of luck.

I started resuscitative measures and diagnosed her with septic abortion with shock. She had a burning fever. All attempts to save her life were eventually futile and she gave up within three hours.

It has been four years since that night, but I still see her face clearly. I am haunted by her pleas not to let her die. I was born a Catholic and I grew up hearing that abortion is wrong; they told me the same about contraceptives.

Unsafe abortions remain the leading cause of maternal mortality and morbidity in Nigeria killing an estimated 50,000 women a year. The lack of documentation and the also the fact that a lot of these procedures take place in unorthodox settings – by traditional healers, roadside medicine dealers and poorly trained physicians who are not up to date with current abortion procedures – contribute towards the burgeoning figure. Poverty is also a factor, as many families living on less that a dollar per day cannot afford contraception.

Despite the apparent restrictive abortion laws in Nigeria, very few people have actually been prosecuted due to the lack of diligence in gathering evidence, perpetual delays in the courts, and the fact that it is not a reportable crime; people only tend to report when things go wrong because of the fear of stigmatisation within society.

The complications resulting from unsafe abortions are multiple and include sepsis, severe haemorrhage and, at worst, maternal death. Those who survive may have to deal with pelvic inflammatory disease, adhesions and secondary infertility in a country where a high premium is placed on fertility and childbearing. Guilt also has a lasting effect on such women.

Every day some confused girl gets pregnant when she is not ready to have a baby. She could be anyone; a girlfriend, wife or sister.

As I left the 19-year-old’s fixed and dilated pupils staring at me as if accusing me of not doing all that I could to save her, I wondered if there was anything Nigeria could do to save her people from preventable causes of maternal mortality? It is pure madness that a country that accounts for less than 1% of the global population should be responsible for 14% of global maternal deaths. Can we do better or are we going to continue like this?

Lifted from The Guardian