November 25th is the international day for the elimination of violence against women, and the Italian Cooperation in Kenya has joined the campaign coordinated by the NGO AIDOS against female genital mutilation launched by Minister for Equal Opportunities Mara Carfagna and Vice President of the Senate Emma Bonino.
The Nairobi UTL organised four reproductive health seminars from 20 to 23 November, the special focus of which was genital mutilation. The seminars were held in Eastleigh, a Nairobi neighbourhood hosting over 40,000 refugees from Somalia, a country where up to 98% of all girls undergo infibulation. The seminars were run by Somali Diaspora NGO “Dialog Forening” and AMWICK, which has been working for years with AIDOS on the issue of FGM in Kenya. Its over 130 participants were mostly men—the “male” approach being part of the DF methodology, which deals with gender education for men.
The majority of the attendees were religious heads (imams), teachers and medical personnel from private clinics in Eastleigh, young people from various associations, women of varying ages and categories and local radio journalists. The themes confronted included: false myths about FGM, implications of FGM on public health, the harmful effects of infibulation, rights of women and references to FGM legislation in Kenya.
In early November the UTL organised a conference that brought together 40 Somali women’s organizations and women from the American and European Diaspora, aimed at forging a common strategy for defending the role and rights of women in the new Somali constitution.
The conference goal was to strengthen the international platform for the elimination of FGM made up of the Somali Women Agenda and various Diaspora associations in Europe, and to lobby the independent commission charged with writing the new constitution to include articles that cite women’s rights as being equal to men’s, that protect women from every form of violence and, above all, that ban FGM. The conference offered Somali women an opportunity to discuss gender violence and identify existing gaps in legislative support for women in Somalia.
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ITALIAN DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION