Female genital mutilation is going down in Senegal, formerly a hotbed of the activity, and setting an example in the region:
Campaigners have tried for decades to bring an end to FGM. But their tactics of providing alternative employment to the circumcisers, introducing alternative rites of passage for girls, or demanding legislation to outlaw the practice have all failed to make a dent: an estimated 2 million girls in about 26 African countries are circumcised every year.
The sea-change in Senegal is being credited to a slow but steady program of human rights education that allows villagers to make up their own minds about whether to abandon female circumcision. Spearheaded by a local rights agency called Tostan, the program’s success is proving so eye-catching that the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is endorsing it as a model.
The next major target for the campaign is Somalia, where FGM is near-total among girls. Put simply, mutilation is fading in popularity because African villages are essentially the same as California valley girls – no one wants to look out of style when something new catches on:
Despite growing awareness of the health risks, which can affect childbirth, parents continue carrying out the practice because they fear their daughters won’t otherwise be able to find a husband.
It’s this same power of social conformity that is helping the campaign to end FGM in Senegal. As more villages publicly announce that they are abandoning the practice, Tostan says others begin realizing it may no longer be a marriage requirement, momentum builds, and the number of villages following suit snowballs.
“People are realizing that the social convention is changing,” says Molly Melching, the Texas-born director of Tostan who has lived in Senegal for more than two decades.
There’s no doubt public education can genuinely change minds, but the fastest way to effect social change is appealing to people’s sense of belonging. Maybe we should send some Madison Avenue executives to Africa to speed up the campaign. Do we really need there here anyway?
I’m a tech journalist who’s making a TV show about a college newspaper.