{"id":1880,"date":"2018-08-23T23:16:25","date_gmt":"2018-08-23T23:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/?p=1880"},"modified":"2018-08-25T11:48:49","modified_gmt":"2018-08-25T11:48:49","slug":"somalias-first-fgm-prosecution-by-victims-parents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/2018\/08\/23\/somalias-first-fgm-prosecution-by-victims-parents\/","title":{"rendered":"Somalia\u2019s first FGM prosecution by victim\u2019s parents"},"content":{"rendered":"

MOGADISHU (SOHA) \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Somalia\u2019s first prosecution for female genital mutilation (FGM) following the death of a 10-year-old girl has run into problems because her parents will not help investigators locate the cutter, an activist said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The case highlights the difficulties of ending the ancient tradition in Somalia, which has the world\u2019s highest rate of FGM, with 98 percent of women and girls having been cut, according to U.N. data.<\/p>\n

The death of Deeqa Nuur made international headlines last month and prompted the attorney-general to announce the country\u2019s first prosecution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe investigation has been hampered,\u201d said Ifrah Ahmed, a campaigner against FGM. She met investigators while making a film about Deeqa\u2019s death, which is due to air on six Somali TV channels on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Ahmed said the girl\u2019s family had paid a traditional circumciser $20 to cut their daughter and three cousins.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mother said she didn\u2019t know where the cutter was. The truth is they are hiding her,\u201d Ahmed told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Mogadishu.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey are not telling me or the government team where the cutter is. They are scared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Somalia\u2019s Attorney General Ahmed Ali Dahir could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n

Ahmed, who was cut herself as a child, described her trip to meet Deeqa\u2019s family in a remote region in central Somalia\u2019s Galmudug state as \u201cvery emotional\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe father refused to speak to us, but you could feel the sadness and anger. The mother said she had thrown away all her daughter\u2019s clothes because she couldn\u2019t take the pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite Deeqa\u2019s death, Ahmed said many villagers still believed deeply that FGM was an important ritual.<\/p>\n

Ahmed, who runs an anti-FGM charity and is an adviser to Somalia\u2019s government on gender issues, said she hoped her film would change mindsets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want Somali people to understand that this is a terrible practice and should not be happening,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Ahmed said it was not clear whether the authorities were considering bringing charges against the parents.<\/p>\n

Somalia does not have a law against FGM, but a senior CID officer interviewed in the film warned parents that it was still illegal.<\/p>\n

Legal experts say prosecutions could be brought under the Penal Code, which makes it an offence to cause hurt to another.<\/p>\n

Deeqa\u2019s death has prompted campaigners to renew calls for Somalia to pass a law on FGM. Efforts to pass legislation have been stalled by parliamentarians afraid of losing votes.<\/p>\n

FGM affects around 200 million girls and women worldwide.<\/p>\n

Source: REUTERS<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MOGADISHU (SOHA) \u2013\u00a0Somalia\u2019s first prosecution for female genital mutilation (FGM) following the death of a 10-year-old girl has run into problems because her parents will not help investigators locate the cutter, an activist said on Thursday. The case highlights the difficulties of ending the ancient tradition in Somalia, which has the world\u2019s highest rate of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-news","category-protection-cluster"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1880"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1891,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1880\/revisions\/1891"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}