90% of Mali women 'mutilated'
2006-02-22 09:44
Bamako - More than 90% of Malian women have suffered genital mutilation, a European parliamentarian has told a conference on Tuesday, calling for an end to the potentially fatal practice.
Mali, which signed the Maputo protocol last year calling for states to ban and punish female genital mutilation, planned to outlaw the custom.
Emma Bonina, a member of the European parliament and founder of the No Peace Without Justice non-governmental organisation, said: "Here in Mali, despite a long fight, mutilation affects more than 90% of women.
"The government and the parliament are leaning towards putting into practice the Maputo protocol and a law banning excision."
Mali, a Muslim nation in Africa's arid Sahel belt, was one of the world's poorest nations with more than 90% of the population living on less than $2 a day.
Awareness campaigns
One presentation at the two-day conference cited a 2001 survey, which showed that 75% of Malian women said they were in favour of excision.
Diallo M'bodji Sene, Mali's minister for the promotion of women, children and families, said: "A law without awareness campaigns on the ground ... would present weaknesses, which would dangerously undermine the fight."
The United Nations children's agency, Unicef, said last year that an estimated three million girls and women were mutilated or cut each year on the African continent, in a custom traditionally believed to bestow status and honour.
However, it could disfigure, cause psychological damage and sometimes kill.
The practice, also known as female circumcision, usually involved cutting off the clitoris and other parts of the female genitalia.
There were degrees of severity and many of the practitioners were untrained and used crude instruments.