50 girls at an Ethiopian school supported by the NGO Plan International have said no to female genital mutilation, becoming ambassadors for this message. This is the Uncut girls club.
Lenteta, Weyinitu, Dorite, Dirshaye and Birtukan are just some of the fifty members of the Uncut girls club: an all-female group that meets regularly at a school in the Bonazura district of Ethiopia to discuss the risks associated with female genital mutilation (FGM) and strategies to combat it. Through education and awareness, this united front of girls who have said no to mutilation is convincing other peers and their families to join them.
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The club was founded at a school supported by the NGO Plan International, active since 1937, which through Because I am a girl protects the rights of girls in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Within the framework of this initiative, Plan International Italy is engaged in Ethiopia with the project An alliance to give girls a voice to reduce FGM and child marriage. In addition, it is active in Sierra Leone to protect the sexual and reproductive health of adolescent girls through the programme My sexuality is my right!.
The reasons why FGM is practised — traditional customs involving the mutilation of female genitalia for non-therapeutic purposes — vary from country to country and from village to village, and although it is sometimes justified on religious grounds, there is no faith that officially recognises it. Generally, the aim is to prepare girls for marriage: they are often mutilated before the age of fifteen.
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140 million women worldwide have undergone FGM, concentrated in 29 countries in mainly western, eastern and north-eastern Africa, where more than three million girls are at risk of being subjected to it every year. Whether it involves the removal of the tip of the clitoris — the first type of FGM according to the classification of the WHO, which divides them into four forms — or infibulation, which involves the sewing shut of the vulva and is therefore the most extreme form, these practices are considered violations of human rights as forms of violence and oppression against women. They also carry concrete health risks, including complications such as infections and problems during childbirth.
Around half of all mutilated women live in Egypt and Ethiopia. As in Egypt, FGM is also illegal in Ethiopia, and offenders risk not only a fine but also imprisonment. Yet 81 per cent of girls are mutilated, demonstrating that legal prohibitions are not enough. Because cultural change does not come from the top down — it must be won by women and girls themselves.
The first step is to change the perception of FGM. "They are part of our history and are a respected tradition," explains Lenteta, 16, one of the members of the Uncut girls club. "In the past, we girls wanted to be mutilated." Within the group, she and other Ethiopian teenagers were confronted with the risks they face, and Lenteta has since changed her mind: "Now, my friends and I talk about what we can do to eliminate FGM."
The challenge is nonetheless great, because not being mutilated is considered a taboo. Indeed, it is sometimes the girls themselves, rather than their families, who want it, like the sisters of fourteen-year-old Dorite, who explains that they "chose to undergo the procedure because they feared they would otherwise be bullied and no one would want to marry them."
Dorite did not follow in their footsteps, deciding not to undergo FGM, and through her participation in the club she has recruited many new members. Learning and listening give the girls the tools to take their lives into their own hands, involving their families too, whose support is indispensable. For example, Dirshaye's mother could not understand why her daughter did not want to honour this tradition. "When I explained the things I had learned in the Uncut girls club, she fully supported me," the thirteen-year-old recounts. "Now she is a fervent opponent of FGM."
Among peers, families and generations, the message is spreading. The process of change and growth makes these girls not only "uncut" but also better educated and more self-confident. "Now that we have the courage to speak out on such a sensitive issue, we also dare to have our say in class and answer questions with the same enthusiasm as the boys," explains fifteen-year-old Birtukan.
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It is essential that the way they relate to the male sex also changes. No longer only as future wives, but as people with voices, rights, desires and personalities. "If my future husband wants a mutilated bride, I will try to explain to him the consequences of this practice, and he will be able to marry me only if he understands my decision," reveals twelve-year-old Weyinitu. And it is thus that from a school club the seed of a generation of Ethiopian women equipped with the tools to realise their own dreams is born. "I am proud to have managed to bring new members into the Uncut girls club," says Dorite. "I think I could become the first female president of Ethiopia."