Inter Press Service - September 24, 2002
Doua D. Munkanouan

Marie Gueu, in her 50s, was crying because she was unable to afford the excision ceremony for her eldest daughter, Fidele, 14.

Cote d'Ivoire has banned female genital mutilation.

A week earlier, the village had begun a traditional process to circumcise a dozen girls, aged 4-15. Among the Dan, an ethnic group in western Cote D'Ivoire, parents make a show of their riches and possessions during the circumcision period.

The event takes place at the beginning of rice harvesting season. Rice is the main staple of the region.

"This is also the traditional time for natives of the region to return home. Wherever we live, we try to return home for the celebration," explains Agathe Kpan of the Department of Public Markets in Abidjan. She always returns home for the occasion.

Berine Sangbeu, a young woman from the neighbouring village of Dio, also has come to Gbangbegouine to attend the occasion. "We're not as lucky as the other villages. Our celebration takes place after every three years," she says.

In Gbangbegouine, like elsewhere in the region, villagers believe that female circumcision builds character. "It's when a girl learns to be a woman," says Fidele's mother.

She adds, "I've felt awful for a week when I thought it was my fault that my daughter could not become a woman. My rice was not ripe enough to harvest. I became depressed. But I was lucky because the village came to my aid".

Yvone Kouaye, whose daughter is among the 2002 batch to be circumcised, also considers herself lucky. "My daughter resisted coming to the village for years because she did not want to undergo the exercise. The villagers took a dim view of me," she reveals.

Kouaye's 13-year-old daughter, Monique, lives with a guardian in Man, the capital of the country's western district. She goes to school, and had been able to grasp from television and newspapers the risks associated with the exercise, like contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, though unsterilised rudimentary objects that the women use for the operation. The exercise also affects a woman's reproductive system, especially during labour.

But her mother, through her guardian, finally convinced her to undergo the exercise. "I made her understand that she could not stay away from her village forever, and that she could not turn her back on her culture," says Kouaye.

Under pressure, Monique finally succumbed to "the operation".

Every woman in Gbangbegouine claims that she is unaware of the law barring female circumcision in Cote D'Ivoire. "There are people in the village who have never seen a television. Only a few fortunate ones have radio sets. Our road is impassable year round. We almost never go anywhere. Given such conditions, how do you think we can get any information or news?" says Gueu.

The women say it will be hard to combat female genital mutilation. "This is our culture. I've been practising it since I was a child. I don't see why I should stop now," says Seumin Douin, who performs the operation.

"No one is being forced. Parents send me their children, so the parents are responsible. You need to speak to them," she says.

In Man, the argument is the same. The women, who perform the operation, blame parents, and say that if the girls did not come, they would abandon their trade.

The Association to Defend the Rights of Women

(AIDF) operate mainly in the cities and less in the countryside.

As a result, many families go back to their villages to have their daughters circumcised.

Gregoire Zingbe, a native of Man, recalls his experience during the 1970s with his wife. "My wife's parents disowned her because she did not want to be excised. They demanded that I marry her as soon as possible, which I did".

Zingbe's action not only reassured his parents-in-law, but also served as an example to his village. The villagers saw that it was possible for men, from the region, where excision is sacred, to marry uncircumcised girls.

In Gbangbegouine, there was also the case of a top government official whose daughters, with their father's 'complicity', refused to undergo circumcision.

"Under pressure from his mother, the official came to the village last vacation to tell the villagers that his daughters had run away as soon as he began to talk about their upcoming excision. He paid transportation costs for a delegation, from the village, to Abidjan to find out if the children had fled. Since then, there has been no further talk about excising the girls," says Kpan.(END/IPS/AF/HE/HD/TRA-FRE/DDM/SZ/MN/02)

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