800 girls ‘suffered FGM last December alone’

800 girls were subjected to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in December last year alone, the Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Ms Sihaba Nkinga, was told here on Tuesday.

Tarime District Commissioner (DC) Mr Glorious Luoga told the PS that all the girls were circumcised during the month. 

 

This prompted the permanent secretary to warn that the government will take legal action against all those who are reluctant to stop the illegal practice. “As a government, we can’t afford to see such acts continuing to happen. It is not something to be proud of,” Ms Nkinga stressed.

She was speaking during the 9th graduation ceremony of girls undergoing alternative rite of passage at Association of Termination of Female Genital Mutilation (ATFGM) Masanga in Tarime District. Speaking at the same event, DC Luoga said the police have launched a search for all women who circumcised the girls.

Already 12 female circumcisers, locally known as ‘Ng’ariba,’ had been arrested and taken to court for performing the cut on the girls. Two of them had already been sentenced to jail, the DC added. The PS said FGM was a violation of human rights as it Continues on cut short the dreams of many girls.

She urged all communities still embracing the outdated harmful culture to stop it. “FGM should become a history in Tanzania. We as a government are well prepared and all those who do not want to stop it will be forced to stop,” she cautioned. Tanzania’s FGM rate stands 32 per cent at the moment, according to her.

FGM, she noted, is violation of human rights and was against international conventions, necessitating the need for the practice to be stopped to avoid tarnishing the image of the country. Ms Nkinga lauded efforts being made by ATFGM Masanga in saving several hundreds of girls from undergoing the harmful cut, pledging government’s continued cooperation.

She also urged girls passing through ATFGM Masanga to be good ambassadors in the fight against the culture, which subjected girls to humiliation and severe pain during and after the cut.

ATFGM Executive Director Sister Stella Mgaya told the PS that over 300 girls were sheltered at their camp during the critical month of December last year when FGM was widely conducted in nine different clans of Kurya tribe. But she said some parents reject to receive their daughters back, which posed a big burden to ATFGM Masanga.

“We ask the government to help in educating girls who are rejected by their parents after refusing to undergo FGM”, Sr Stella pleaded to the PS. The girls also appealed for government protection against forced FGM acts after leaving ATFGM Masanga camp.