The witnessess of two HURRARC women rights activists from Sierra Leone

Hawa fights to protect children from genital mutilation, even after having been threatened.

Josephine is involved into the question: she’s a victim.

Shooting and editing: Francesca Gentile

“As Money dominates the World, so Female Genital Mutilation dominates the African Woman and the Girl-Child” – Saul Paul

The economics of female genital mutilation

The “American journal of Nursing” states: “Circumcision is an important source of income for those involve in its performance, therefore such people have a vested interest in perpetuating the practice.” Female genital mutilation is a money making business and it brings about a highly profitable economic windfall to those who are engaged in it.

In Africa, as well in Europe or the Americas, the people who actually organize this mutilation of the female genitalia get a lot out of it financially. Older women, “Native Surgeons” are seriously paid to perform the mutilation. In African Communities, outside Africa, nurses, physicians, midwives and barbers are economically compromised to effectively engaged in this practices.

One factor that have made it very difficult to discourage the practice of female genital mutilation is that it is not only limited to love of custom, but to love of the economic benefits that are associated with it. It is like a trade fair, when the season for female genital mutilation is come, money which have been gathered over long years is spent with a recklessness that under score the difficulty and strain that went into raising it. That is why the practice in most cases is always conducted in the season of plenty when food is in abundance – harvest season. Although the Easter season and political female genital mutilation initiations also draw there toll.

Female Genital Mutilation in Africa is a community affair and it is a very expensive ceremony. A lot of money is spent both on those who go through it successfully, as well as on those who develop health problems out of it. So it marks a high level of spending in peoples budget, more so in African communities where every body seem to be related. It marks an increase in business activities, as everything ranging from food, clothes, and rum is demanded in large quantities. It is a period of luxury, with free food, free alchool, free sex, been available all over the place. Before the Europeans introduced “Christmas” into Africa and Arabs “Ide of fitri and Ide of Asha” female genital mutilation rites used to be national festivities where in the only losers were the victims whose genitalia’s were mutilation, and fatalities that are always hastily buried with a bunch of green leaves accompanied with feverish traditional songs in hastily prepared shallow graves.

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