Conscientious Objection to Female Genital Mutilation in Mali

In recent years, the incidence of female genital cutting in Mali has been estimated at 94%. To stop the suffering, a partnership between Healthy Tomorrow (a US based-organization) and Sini Sanuman (a Malian NGO whose name means "healthy tomorrow" in the Bambara language) is educating and mobilizing the population to stop the practice.

Ex-Excisers Face Crises of Conscience

One part of the campaign involves meeting with excisers, one-on-one, to discuss the suffering of the girls who undergo the procedure, and to ask the excisers to give up the practice. Four more excisers have quit in the last few months on the basis of meetings with Sini Sanuman. One hundred thirty one excisers have now become conscientious objectors since we started working in 2002 and have stopped harming girls as a result of this effort. The most recent exciser to quit was convinced to stop by one of the others, who is also one of the adults who help with our club for girls who are proud that they aren't excised.

Because many parents feel they have to excise their daughters, we are preparing a radio program to broadcast the voices of some of the girls in the club. They report they are very rarely insulted and that, when they are, they just answer that they're happy not to be excised and that's the end of the conversation. We hope this will reassure parents that their daughters will not be stigmatized if they are not excised.

One of the former excisers wrote a song, "I Abandon," which we have turned into a new music video. This will be played on Malian and West African TV many times. Eighteen of the ex-excisers who have stopped as a result of our campaign took part in the production. It starts out with the main exciser unable to sleep, thinking of the cries of the girls. She and her husband call a big meeting of other excisers and they all decide to stop. They dance and throw their knives and razor blades in a big hole which is filled in, and then we see a few of them doing new jobs with big smiles on their faces. We list the names of the ex-excisers who appear in the video. It wasn't long ago that it was practically impossible to get anything on TV about female genital mutilation (FGM) and now it is quite often that programs and music videos (ours and others) appear.

Pledges to Abandon FGM

Additionally, three villages have abandoned FGM through our efforts. In one of the villages, Moussala, the people made a big celebration out of the planting of a sign declaring the village had ended excision. They invited people from the adjoining villages, gave speeches, and danced. The two ex-excisers of the village were given Certificates of Honor. The ex-exciser/singer who made the video and another famous singer Adama Yalomba added to the festivities with their anti-FGM songs. Girls who were spared from being excised sang a song and there was music, dancing, and feasting.

Our Pledge Against Excision campaign is also gathering momentum. The campaign urges parents to pledge, "I am against excision and I promise to fight against this practice in all its forms. If I have a daughter, I will not have her excised and I will do everything to protect her from those who would like to have her excised." So far, Sini Sanuman has collected 23,000 signatures on the Pledge and the Women's Ministry has promised to help us obtain an appointment to turn them in to the legislature. Siaka Traoré, the President of Sini Sanuman, had already presented a draft of a bill to the Justice Department, so they have a concrete proposal for the law we hope the legislature will be voting on late this year.

Marching into the Future

A year ago, one of Sini Sanuman's activists, Boubacar Sow, hosted a big meeting where the people present urged us to organize a big march against FGM. These advocates have been pushing the idea ever since. The executive committee of Sini Sanuman believed, though, that the National Program Against FGM, part of the government's Women's Ministry, a key ally, would be opposed to the idea of a march. This slowed us down for a long time but finally we decided to at least broach the subject of a march with representatives of the National Program. It turns out that the funders of the National Program do want to support initiatives that will help pass a law against FGM. To our surprise, the Program representatives agreed that a march designed to publicize and advocate for legislation to ban FGM could be effective. They encouraged Sini Sanuman to put together a proposal for funding and to build a coalition to organize it.

The march might be a public way of presenting the thousands of signatures on the Pledge Against Excision to the legislature. Once the bill is introduced, we believe it will have a good chance of passing. Many countries have passed laws but not yet ended FGM, so even if the law passed it would be just one important step in a long struggle, but it would certainly represent a cultural and political milestone.

To help Healthy Tomorrow/Sini Sanuman continue to build support for a law against FGM, produce music videos, and throw -parties to celebrate a village committing to end excision, donations can be made on their website. Tax-deductible checks should be made out to "Creative Thought and Action" with "Healthy Tomorrow" on the memo line and mailed to the Healthy Tomorrow address listed above. The Stop Excision CDs are also available through AFSC-NERO, 617/661-6130.

This article updates the struggle detailed in Peacework’s April 2005 issue, “One Pledge At a Time: Stopping Excision in Mali.”