Female circumcision condemned
2003-04-12 20:37
Dar Es Salaam - Tanzania is stepping up its campaign against circumcision of women, a ritual still widely practiced in the east African country, where one in every five women has her genital parts mutilated, a senior government official said on Saturday.
"About 18% of women in Tanzania have undergone the ritual," said community developement, gender and children ministry permanent secretary Mary Mushi said on Saturday.
Mushi was briefing journalists ahead of a three-day regional workshop on Female Genital mMtilation (FGM) to be held in Tanzania's eastern coastal town of Bagamoyo starting on Monday.
Official records show that FGM is widely practised in Tanzania's central and northern regions, where hospital records indicated that up to 70% of women attending clinics for birth were circumcised.
Some tribes in Tanzania were until recently regarding an uncircumcised woman as an outcast, while some communities claim that the practice curbs sexual desire on the part of women, thus minimising cases of infidelity.
Mushi said that about 60 delegates from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Uganda and host Tanzania, who are members of the Eastern Africa Network Against FMG that was formed in 2000, are expected to attend the workshop.