In Cairo, while the global community anticipates the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, Fatemah Farag explores an ongoing tragedy and reviews efforts to reach the end of the straits Customary violence A new report on female genital mutilation (FGM) finds the practice to be not only life-threatening and the cause of unspeakable pain, but a human rights violation that remains disturbingly widespread all across the country "Sometimes women need to be beaten," Mohamed Omran, a downtown Cairo shop owner, declares. "If not, they can get out of line. A daughter or wife will not respect the man of the house if he does not show some discipline." Nor is this a particularly violent man. A jovial and trusted shop owner, he is known to sell some of Cairo's best cheese; he even takes it upon himself to feed scrounging street cats; and he always returns the right amount of change. Indeed, by his own admission, Omran can't imagine life without his wife and two daughters. Yet every woman in his family has undergone female genital mutilation -- one example of how poverty and ignorance can combine with patriarchal conventions to perpetuate forms of violence against women. According to recent United Nations (UN) statistics, at least one out of three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime -- with the abuser usually someone known to her, making of violence against women "a universal problem of epidemic proportions. Perhaps the most pervasive human rights violation that we know today, it devastates lives, fractures communities, and stalls development". And as is evident in the case of Omran, it is an epidemic that can take on the subtlest of forms, safeguarding culprits. In 2002, the Council of Europe adopted a recommendation declaring violence against women a public health emergency, and a major cause of death and disability in the 16-44 age bracket. In a World Bank report, it was estimated that violence was as serious a cause of death and incapacity among women of reproductive age as cancer, and a greater health hazard than traffic accidents and malaria combined. And according to UNIFEM, "a 2003 report by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that the [economic] costs of intimate partner violence in the USA alone exceed $5.8 billion per year: 4.1 billion are for direct medical and health care services while productivity losses account for nearly $1.8 billion." That is not to mention the increased risk of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, as well as persistent gynecological problems and psychological conditions, including fear of sex and loss of pleasure. The latest UNICEF study, conducted by the Florence-based Innocenti Research Centre and released in Cairo today, estimates that three million women in Africa are subjected to FGM every year. For its part the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that some 130 million women now alive have suffered the procedure. Attending the release of a new report entitled "Changing a harmful social convention: female genital mutilation", to mark International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, are representatives of the Egyptian government, UNICEF and local non-governmental organisations -- a positive if inevitably inconclusive step. Whatever the case, the message borne by the report is dire, particularly from the local standpoint: "Although concerted advocacy work over recent decades has generated widespread commitment to end this practice, success in eliminating FGM has been limited -- with some significant exceptions." Indeed nearly half of the victims of the practise in Africa are from Egypt and Ethiopia. "FGM affects far more women than previously thought," the report goes on. "It continues to be one of the most persistent, pervasive and silently endured human rights violations." Such a situation, what is worse, can only underline a range of factors contributing to other forms of violence against women. Researchers have found that parents and family members perpetuate such violence even though they understand it may harm their daughters -- it is deeply entrenched as a social convention. "Understanding FGM as a social convention provides insight as to why women who have themselves been cut and suffer the health consequences favour its continuation. They resist initiatives to end FGM, not because they are unaware of its harmful aspects, but because its abandonment is perceived to entail loss of status and protection." Still, among many other documents, a 2003 report entitled "The Situation of Egyptian Children and Women" raises hopes concerning the possibility of reversing the trend in the most affected areas: "There is evidence... of a decline in the practice in recent years, presumably the result of efforts by the Ministry of Health and Population and NGOs to increase public recognition and discussion of FGM as a serious health and human rights issue. The proportion of mothers who indicated having had a daughter circumcised or indicated that they intended to have a daughter circumcised in the future decreased from 87 per cent in 1995 to 81 per cent in 2000. Attitudes towards FGM also appear to be changing -- in 2000, 75 per cent of women felt that FGM was a tradition that had to continue, down from 87 per cent in 1995." According to the Digest released today, indeed, "With global support, it is conceivable that FGM can be abandoned in practicing communities within a single generation." The most successful approaches are identified as those that "guide communities to define the problems and solutions themselves to endure that they do not feel coerced or judged. They also encourage communities who have made the decision to abandon the practice to publicly declare their choice and spread their message to neighbors". A human rights approach, capacity building and the engagement of tradition and religious leaders, legislative and policy measures are also identified as crucial in shifting people's attitudes. But until modern society reaches a level of consciousness and organisation to effectively end all forms of violence against women, the words pronounced by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 1999, on the occasion of the UN General Assembly designating 25 November the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (see box) will continue to haunt us: "Violence against women is perhaps the most shameful human rights violation. And it is perhaps the most pervasive. It knows no boundaries of geography, culture, or wealth. As long as it continues, we cannot claim to be making real progress towards equality, development, and peace." Listening to women's voices There is increasing global recognition of violence against women as a human rights abuse. Evidence includes two documents defining gender-based violence as a violation of women's rights and a form of discrimination that prevents women from participating fully in society and fulfilling their potential as human beings. Both commit their signatories -- UN member states -- to taking action against it: - The 1981 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), recognises violence against women as a particularly egregious form of discrimination that must be eradicated. States party to the Convention are obliged to take all appropriate means to eliminate discrimination against women. - Comprehensive international policy statements aimed at ending violence are the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1993, and the Platform for Action from the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. In memory of the Mirabal sisters By passing Resolution 54 on 17 December 1999, the General Assembly designated 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and invited governments, international organisations and NGOs to organise activities designated to raise public awareness of the problem on that day. The choice of date came as recognition of a date chosen by women's activists since 1981; a date chosen to commemorate the brutal assassination in 1961, of the three Mirabal sisters, political activists in the Dominican Republic, on orders of Dominican ruler Rafael Trujillo (1930-1961). (Source: UNIFEM)
