From rural hideouts to city suburbs, FGM taking toll of development

Two years later, Anne regrets the move and she probably will for the rest of her life.
Her mother Rose, took her to Kivule, a small suburb in Dar es Salaam’s Ilala Municipality under the pretext of sending her to school.

Little did Anne know that that little suburb in the nation’s biggest city was a female mutilation haven and she was to become a victim of the outlawed tradition.

A shy nine-year-old Anne narrates her awful ordeal.

"All I knew was that I was going to school in the big city and this excited me very much...but when time for school came, I was taken to a room of razors and sharp knives,” she sobs quietly and continues, “...I remember the shock and the pain that I went through," at this point she breaks into tears, clearly still traumatized two years down the road.

The trauma is indeed not only physical but mental too, imagine the very one that you have fully laid your trust on, your mother, tricks you, lies to you and betrays your trust, her trauma, knows no bounds.

But even if she had known what was going to happen to her in Dar es Salaam, what would a seven years old girl have done?
"If I knew this was what was going to happen I would have run away,” she says.

“I was so happy when I was told I was going to start a new life in the city but it turned out to be a new life of pain and torture,” she again sobs.

"It was my first time in Dar es Salaam and I didn't know anybody expect my family...I felt alone and abandoned,” she says lowering her eyes, probably embarrassed for her family.
She went on to narrate the pain she endured after the mutilation and recalls that after about a month that seemed like forever, her mother fulfilled her promise and Anne was sent to school, but school would not be the same, her entire life would not be the same.

The helpless child represents hundreds of young girls who are moved from their native villages to urban centres in the pretext of school but end up forced to undergo a most heinous procedure. A study by UNICEF indicates that there still very strong challenges in eradicating FGM in Tanzania, with new evidence showing girls having FGM at ever increasingly younger ages.

The study shows that FGM cases significantly increased to 31.7 percent in 2013 up from 28.4 percent in 2010.

The estimated overall prevalence of FGM in girls and women aged 15-49years in Tanzania stands at 14.6 percent according to the state Demographic Health Survey (DHS) of 2004 and 2010.

Yes the figures indicate a decrease by 3.3 percent of the earlier estimates 17.9 percent released in 1996 but at 14.6 percent, the prevalence is still disturbing.

As the government prepares for a new DHS this year, human right defenders are voicing concern over the new techniques being used by family members to ensure their under school girls are mutilated.
The Kivule suburb, a haunting FGM suburb

Magdalena John, an elderly woman and resident of the Kivule in Dar es Salaam admits that the suburb has in fact turned into an FGM haven giving her once quiet home town, in her words, ‘negative popularity.’
According to her, the FGM rites are conducted mostly in the months of June and December; “during those months, you can hear families in the neighborhoods discussing the matter,” she attests.

Testifying to the same account another resident of Kivule, identified only by the name of Mzee Khalifa said, "they carry out the ritual in secrecy and in late hours of the night so only few people are aware of what they do...it's not done in public, we would not allow such human abuse to happen here."

Rights group and legal action

Fighting FGM is proving to be a daunting task. The Tanzania Media Women Association (TAMWA) is up in arms over the new cases in the city. Marcella Lungu an officer with Tamwa says the practices in Kivule are unacceptable.

She alleges that police at the nearby Stakishari Police Post are not ‘so cooperative’ undermining efforts to end the practice.

She also highlighted another problem that makes further complicates an already complex situation;"FGM practices in Kivule are extreme but they are worsened by other gender based violence incidents which make the fight even harder."

Happiness Bagambi, a project officer for Tamwa says while there is considerable decrease of the practice, efforts need to directed towards the root of the problem, the families of these girls.

She said there is dire need to raise public awareness on the health and psychological effects of FGM and its impact to the family and national economy.

"If a person is not at peace or is traumatized, she cannot contribute effectively at the family or national level...the victims of FGM are denied the ability to reach their optimal potential as human beings," she said.

Chacha Michael is a member of the local government for kivule and he too admits that there have been several GBV related cases reported in the area. He too called for combined effort to educate the community of the side effects of FGM.