By Kaata Minah
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (IPS) – Over 200 million women and girls around the world have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM). This is the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons.
The largest share of these cases is happening in Africa. FGM has lifelong consequences, including complications during childbirth and painful sex. It also disrupts girls’ education and often serves as a gateway to child marriage, trapping them in cycles of poverty. There is a clear pathway to change this.
In Sierra Leone, 83 percent of women aged 15–49 have been subjected to FGM. The practice is deeply tied to the Bondo Society – a female secret society that is integral to the cultural identity of Sierra Leonean women; where girls are prepared for womanhood. The Society is defended as a powerful space for sisterhood and solidarity.
But sisterhood cannot come at the cost of girls’ bodily autonomy. Cutting a girl’s genitals in the name of tradition is not a rite of passage, it is violence – and it must stop.
If we are to end this harmful tradition, we must first break the silence that perpetuates the practice. Growing up, FGM was not debated, questioned, or acknowledged in my household. Although my mother is a member of society, she did not subject me and my sister to this horror. Just the same, we also never spoke about it.
Looking back, I see her silence not as indifference but as survival. A quiet act of defiance against a harmful practice in a society that socially and culturally punishes outright defiance. Nonetheless, silence can be complicity.
When silence allows the practice to go unchallenged, it reinforces the assumption that FGM is a cultural tradition rather than a human rights violation.
There are survivors and activists who refuse to stay silent. They are using creativity and innovation to challenge societal norms perpetuating the practice, pushing for open dialogue towards mitigation, and ultimately eradicating the practice.
These include integrating the fight against FGM with advocacy for universal education. Additionally, leveraging technology to tell stories that vividly capture the dual realities of FGM – that is, the beauty of cultural traditions and the brutality of the practice. Such initiatives are crucial in the fight to end the long-standing practice.
But dialogue is not enough. Progressive legal and policy frameworks must galvanise the cultural shift. On paper, there has been some progress.
At the recently concluded African Union Heads of State Summit, African leaders adopted the AU Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls, which proposes a comprehensive, legally binding framework for the prevention and elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls, including FGM.
It calls for addressing root causes, strengthening legal and institutional mechanisms, and promoting a culture of respect for human rights, gender equality, and the dignity of women and girls. It builds on the Maputo Protocol, which Sierra Leone ratified in 2015.
This is Africa’s comprehensive legal instrument on the rights of women, which eliminates harmful practices and provides for the right to reproductive health, dignity and security of persons, among others. Yet, despite these commitments, the country has yet to pass domestic legislation ending female genital mutilation.
There is, however, an opportunity to do so with the Child Rights Amendment Bill, which seeks to amend the Child Rights Act of 2007. Here there is the welcome proposal to explicitly prohibit the cutting of minors.
The data is clear; 71 percent of girls who undergo cutting do so before the age of 15. Passing this legislation will ensure that the rights of girls are legally protected and perpetrators are held accountable – which in turn would have a deterrence effect.
This will significantly reduce the depressing statistics on human rights violations of children and the widespread deleterious implications on their lives.
Ending FGM is possible, but it will need a concerted effort with varied strategies. The bottom line is that we must refuse to stay silent and challenge harmful norms and narratives that endorse the practice.
Additionally, the citizenry must demand progressive laws and their full implementation to ensure the safety, dignity and rights of women and girls. Until this happens, most women and girls in our country will continue to suffer preventable harm to their health and lives.
Kaata Minah is an African feminist activist, and 2024 Impact West Africa Fellow dedicated to achieving gender equality through transformative feminist education and community-led initiatives. Kaata has experience in policy advocacy, program design and management, feminist education, and event management. Kaata drives campaigns that challenge power structures, foster movement-building, and promote social justice and gender equality. Kaata’s commitment extends into academia, where she volunteers as a lecturer at the Institute for Gender Research and Documentation (INGRADOC) at the University of Sierra Leone (Fourah Bay College).