Meanwhile, blogger Andrew Sullivan, among others, is horrified to learn that the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has endorsed a ‘kinder gentler’ form of FGM:

NEW YORK, May 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — International human rights organization Equality Now is stunned by a new policy statement issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which essentially promotes female genital mutilation (FGM) and advocates for “federal and state laws [to] enable pediatricians to reach out to families by offering a ‘ritual nick’,” such as pricking or minor incisions of girls’ clitorises. The Policy Statement “Ritual Genital Cutting of Female Minors”, issued by the AAP on April 26, 2010, is a significant set-back to the Academy’s own prior statements on the issue of FGM and is antithetical to decades of noteworthy advancement across Africa and around the world in combating this human rights violation against women and girls. It is ironic that the AAP issued its statement the very same day that Congressman Joseph Crowley (D-NY) and Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) announced the introduction of new bipartisan legislation, The Girls Protection Act (H.R. 5137), to close the loophole in the federal law prohibiting FGM by making it illegal to transport a minor girl living in the U.S. out of the country for the purpose of FGM.

…and The Debate Continues

Hillary Clinton with Edna Adan in NYC

The Daily Beast has kindly provided Edna with a photo of herself with Hillary Clinton. Edna missed getting a photo of the encounter, herself, but happily somebody else did. The two go way back.

I had a longish chat about FGM [Female Genital Mutilation] with Hilary Clinton and reminded her of our first meeting in Beijing in 1995 during the Women’s Conference there when I was the first person on that occasion to raise the question of FGM.

Here are four of the best of what was taken.

There are many (many!) more photos in the Edna Hospital Photo Gallery.

Edna Adan with Graduating Nurses

“The biggest gift I want to leave behind is not a building, but the skills I leave with the women. I want to train 1,000 midwives.”

Her progress so far is astounding. Since the hospital opened, they have delivered more than 9,500 women and lost only 39. “That’s 39 too many,” she laments, nonetheless delighted that they have reduced the maternal mortality rate by one-fourth. In 1988, the last time a study was done, there were 160 deaths per 10,000 births in Somaliland, making it the third worst in the world. “Women are dying of complications nobody is picking up,” she explains. “Because nobody is there to support them, care for them, or deliver them. They are getting infected, torn apart. No woman should die of childbirth, because modern obstetrics has ways to save them.” The challenge: “ignorance, poverty, and harmful traditions.”

Those are also the culprits in her other lifelong cause: ending the practice now called Female Genital Mutilation. When she started speaking out–to the embarrassment of her husband-it was simply Female Circumcision. “No one would talk about it then. I was the first Somali woman to pick up a microphone.” And despite all the publicity in recent years she says, “We have not cracked the surface of it. I am giving out a document at the conference showing a new survey of 4.000 women. Of them, 97 percent, shamefully, had been cut. After 34 years of campaigning. We’re nowhere near winning that battle.”

But Edna Adan Ismail takes comfort that now, “we have the whole world talking about it, it’s out of the closet.”

Read the Full Article

An estimated 120 to 140 million women have been subject to this harmful and dangerous practice and 3 million girls continue to be at risk each year. The practice persists because it is sustained by social perceptions, including that girls and their families will face shame, social exclusion and diminished marriage prospects if they forego cutting. These perceptions can, and must, change.

FGM/C poses immediate and long-term consequences for the health of women and girls, and violates their human rights. More Information

You can watch a video at YouTube where Edna Adan discusses FGM with Voice of America.

Here is the original article by Saeed Mohamed

Dr. Edna Adan spoke at the university’s graduation ceremonies on International Human Rights Day and to celebrate law students from 20 countries who had just completed a Master of Laws (LLM) in Human Rights and Democratization in Africa.

Mr. Martin Nsibirwa, University of Pretoria’s LLM Programme Manager, introduced Edna Adan to the audience saying, “Edna Adan Maternity Hospital is the best hospital in Africa.”

The theme of Dr. Edna’s keynote address was “Promoting Human Rights in Somaliland and Africa in general.”

Edna Adan receives the Chancellor's Medal at the University of Pretoria

The recognition that Centre for Human right at the University of Pretoria is bestowing upon me belongs to all who speak out for the voiceless and will hopefully encourage those who are concerned about human rights but who keep silent out of fear of repercussions. Perhaps we should learn from the tortoise whose motto is ‘You cannot make progress unless you stick your neck out but with due caution.’

Today, with profound humility, and knowing full well that there are many who are far more deserving than I am, I accept this award on behalf of those individuals and groups both in Somaliland and elsewhere who have taken great personal risk to ensure that others may live in peace and dignity. This includes the quarter million war genocide victims in Somaliland who gave their lives to fight oppression during our civil war from 1982 to 1991. I wish to reconise them as the martyrs who praved the way for the peace, freedom and stability that we (Somalilanders) enjoy today.

Dr. Edna further emphasized in her moving speech about the importance of empowering women both in Somaliland and Africa in general.

I accept this award on behalf of the women of Somaliland and Africa who have the highest maternal mortality rate in the world and who die because they are poor. Our women die because they lack care from well trained health care providers in health facilities that are properly equipped. Our women also die because the lack the education that would have raised their status and given them access to skills and employment” Dr. Edna attaches her caring emotions; she further highlights that women die because of female genital cutting.

I know there is no magic wand that can resolve all our problems but I am confident that if we join hands and concentrate on just one effort which is that of training more midwives in our community, we will prevent the death of many women and children. I therefore appeal for support in this major undertaking which my hospital (Edna Adan Maternity Hospital, Hargeisa Somaliland) is pioneering in Somaliland and where such training is in progress right now.

The University of Pretoria’s Centre for Human Rights, which was awarded the 2006 UNESCO Prize for Human Rights Education, presents the one-year full-time LLM in partnership with eight other universities in Africa representing all the sub-regions. The students were drawn from a variety of backgrounds, including the civil service, the judiciary, academia, and some recent graduates.

Since its inception in 2000, 291 students from 35 African countries including Somaliland, have graduated from the programme, and gone back to their respective countries to hold various positions in government, academia, and the NGO sector.

Iraqi Kurdish four-year-old Shwen screams during her circumcision in Suleimaniyah on April 14, 2009. The parliament in Iraq’s northern autonomous region of Kurdistan is preparing to outlaw female circumcision, according to a woman MP and a doctor who had long battled to halt the widespread practice. The German non-government group Wadi carried out research in 201 villages in the autonomous provinces and in the predominantly Kurdish Kirkuk area in September. It found that 3,502 out of 5,628 women and girls surveyed had been mutilated — an average of more than 62 percent. While widespread in the African continent, it is not known how female circumcision was introduced into northern Iraq. The practice, encouraged by some clerics, does not appear to exist in other parts of the country. By Safin Hamed/AFP/Getty Images. (Thanks to Andrew Sullivan)

My theory is that women in Somaliland die because of ignorance on their part and on the part of those assisting them. Poverty is a strong factor that prevents women from seeking help because they convince themselves that they cannot afford the cost of modern medicine and would rather consult the local traditional healer who often causes more complications.

As far as African women are concerned… We fare the worst compared to women in other continents. In my 48-year experience as a midwife, I see very little improvement in the conditions under which our women progress through their pregnancies and childbirth. It’s a situation that shocks me even more today when I witness the advances that have been made in medical care elsewhere during the past half-century.

What leads the women of our continent to their graves during pregnancy and childbirth? As I describe below, the reasons fall into six categories: nutrition, education, high fertility, female genital mutilation, improper care at delivery and inadequate health facilities.

Read the Full Article:

On The Issues Magazine: Fall 2008: The Terror of Motherhood in Somaliland and Women’s Rights to Safe Care by Edna Adan Ismail

Reported by Jennie Goutet, HOPE worldwide

The first regional consultative seminar on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) was held for the countries of the Horn of Africa February 19-21, 2002. Seminar attendees gathered from Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somaliland and Somalia (Bosaso, Mogadishu) to discuss ways to end this barbaric ritual.

FGM dates back to ancient Egypt when young girls would be circumcised to ensure that those sent to the Pharaoh would always be a virgin. The practice continues today in the form of circumcision or mutilation all throughout Africa and parts of the Middle East. The mutilation is usually done in rural areas, without anaesthesia, and with a dull and dirty razor blade, knife or bone that kills many of the girls due to complications.

Among the speakers at the Seminar were representatives of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Religion. They discussed the health concerns that FGM poses in the young girl as well as during her childbearing years. The Qur’aan was read and an expert in religion proved that the Qur’aan does not support bodily mutilation, and that the practice is therefore contrary to the predominant religion in the very countries where it is practiced.

Efforts were focused primarily on collaboration between these countries in the efforts to eradicate Female Genital Mutilation by sending out a common message and developing strategies and educational material in Somali, which is spoken in all of these countries. It was jointly agreed upon that February 21 would annually be recognized as FGM Day and that the Edna Adan Maternity Hospital would be the center of cooperation and communication for the Horn of Africa on FGM-related issues.