Yemen Working to Reduce Female Genital Mutilation 30% by 2012

By Lauren Mellinger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SANA’A, Yemen– On December 3, Yemen announced the implementation of a five-year plan to reduce the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) or female circumcision.  The practice of FGM operations occurs most often in coastal areas of the country.

According to Ali Hashim Al-Seraj, an expert on family and reproductive health issues, Yemen remains the last Gulf country where the rate of FGMs remains high.  The rates of FGM are highest in coastal areas of Yemen; in Hodeidah, 97% of girls are forced to undergo the procedure.  The practice is also frequent in Hadramout (96%), Aden (82%), Al-Maharah (96%), and Sana’a (45%).

Al-Seraj claims the rate of FGM operations in Yemen is comparable to Sudan and Egypt, two countries with the highest rate of FGM operations annually.  According to UNICEF Director of the Childhood Protection Program, Nour Al-Kasadi, FGM operations are generally more popular in areas that have high illiteracy rates and where there is a lack of awareness of the negative health effects of the practice.  In addition, coastal areas in Yemen have large numbers of African immigrants who come from countries where the practice is common.

Legislation that bans the procedure without a sufficient public education program regarding the dangerous consequences of FGM has proved to have little deterrent effect.  While the Yemeni government has taken measures in the past to reduce the practice of FGM operations, including banning the procedure from all hospitals and health centers in the country in 2001, this failed to reduce the practice.  Instead, it led to an increase in “back-alley” procedures, involving no sterilized tools and the absence of doctors or other medical experts to perform the procedure.  A study by the US Agency for International Development revealed that only 10% of FGMs carried out in coastal areas of Yemen are performed by trained medical personnel.

The new plan will focus on public education and involves coordination among the government, civil society organizations, and the media.  The goal is to raise public awareness of the negative health effects of the procedure.  In addition, according to Dr. Nafissah Al-Jaifi, Secretary General of the High Council of Motherhood and Childhood, support from religious leaders in the community is vital to the success of the program.

The plan has been well received internationally.  The United Nations Children’s Fund, which regards FGM as “one of the most persistent, pervasive and silently endured human rights violations,” has pledged to assist with both the implementation and assessment stages of the program once it is accredited by the Yemeni government.  According to UNICEF’s Yemen Representative Aboudou Karimou Adjibade, “We cannot let this harmful practice take its toll on the health and development of girls and women.  We are ready to accelerate the abandonment of FGM in one generation.”

For more information, please see:

Yemen Times – Yemen to Reduce the Practice of FGM by 30 Percent by 2012 – 5 December 2008

Yemen Times – Yemen National Plan to Accelerate FGM Eradication – 19 November 2008

Gulf News – Yemen to Fight Female Genital Mutilation – 27 June 2008

US Department of State – Yemen: Report on Female Genital Mutilation or Female Genital Cutting – 1 June 2001

Author: Impunity Watch Archive