To truly empower women and girls, Sierra Leone must commit to digging out the violence of FGM and upturning the power imbalance that favours men and perpetuates the narrative of women and girls as subordinate beings.

It has just been revealed that an MP was invited to serve as a guest of honour and to make a statement as part of a ‘thank you’ tour in the Imperri Chiefdom, Bonthe District.

He spoke alongside members of the Sowei Council.

On the Sowei leader’s speech that followed, the female MP shared the revelation of her invitation by MPs in Freetown.

But was told of a prosecution case against her which involved the death of a young woman after she underwent a female genital mutilation died, and that case was said with no doubt be settled and thrown out of court.

An organization campaigning to end FGM, Forum Against Harmful Practices is also deeply concerned on lately hearing news about a “Kayndu” procession that took place on the 19th May in Kenema, a place Bondo initiation ceremony is highly practiced.

As per tradition, the procession was held to usher the women and girls that were initiated into womanhood.

The questions that FGM’s activists have posed are. What is going on in our country that prides itself in the pursuit of gender equality reforms and progressive education policies, but that stands so visibly side by side with those upholding the violence that is female genital mutilation?

What is going on where this abuse remains so entrenched, so normalized, and so protected in the highest corridors of power?

The devastating impact of Female Genital Mutilation for girls and women to their psychological and physical health has been long identified internationally as a human rights violation, they said.

Just last month, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls named FGM as “one of the most pernicious forms of violence committed”, and yet current estimates show about 200 million women and girls alive today are estimated to have been subjected to FGM.

In Sierra Leone, FAHP says, up to 83% of women and girls aged 15 to 49 are affected, making the country one of the highest in the world on the issue – despite decades of campaigning, it remains as prevalent as it has always been  – cloaked in the belief that to become a woman and fit for marriage, and that in the name of culture and empowerment, we must be cut.

It is traditionally believed that, in suffering pain and betrayal, we must be subordinate, our bodies meant to be violated, conditioned that this is the norm.

The handful of high-profile deaths, including the most recent recorded case of the death of three girls who police investigated in January of this year, would have been quietly ignored had it not being for the relentless agitation and pushing the issue onto international focus by some frontline anti-FGM campaigners saying, ‘yes to culture, no to the harmful practice of cutting.’

How are we as feminist activists, campaigners, and survivor-leaders, still having to fight for the rights and choices, dignity and safety of girls and women?

“It’s clear, FGM is ingrained in vote canvassing and streaked through our politics. Yet, if Sierra Leone wants to truly empower women and girls, all-the-while gaining in prominence on the world stage, we must all commit to digging this violence out from the root by upturning the power imbalance that favours men and perpetuates the narrative of women and girls as subordinate beings,” FAHP’s statement reads.

This is about safety and bodily autonomy, and, on top of that, it is about true empowerment that promotes health, education, and economic opportunities for women and girls.

This fight is fundamental to the foundations of a just society and what true empowerment means for Sierra Leonean women and girls.

FGM is just one manifestation of patriarchal oppression, bound up with all other forms of sexual, economic & cultural violence, masking itself as a tradition of rites of passage that we all hold so dearly.

“Real and genuine empowerment for us – women and girls, is a focus on legal protection, on promoting positive norms through education, and the freedom from the violence of FGM for us all to enjoy our full rights and live in safety, dignity and freedom,” the forum’s statement continues.

In a country that has signed international treaties like the Maputo Protocol and CEDAW for the elimination of FGM, and celebrated policy milestones such as the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Act last year.

Why is there a continued delay in the passage of the amended Child Rights Act which will ban both child marriage and FGM for children, but now, the promotion of a private member’s bill focuses only on child marriage, thereby separating child marriage from FGM?

Though the private member’s bill entitled the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2024 is commendable and is in line with the agenda to protect the girl-child, it is also important to note that these issues – FGM and Child Marriage are intertwined, and any attempt to separate them and ignore their interlinking threatens the lives of girls and women in Sierra Leone.

FGM activists said they needed legislative urgency on the amendment of The Child Rights Act.

“We urge our government to approve the strategy on the reduction of FGM, pending since 2016, for our administration to prioritize education that increases the power and choices of girls, and above all else, we call on Parliament to pass the Amended Child Rights Act and ban FGM for girls under 18-years old and to end child marriage.”

FAHP will continue to lead from the front. We will continue to bring two FGM legal cases into international spotlight, and to pressure our country into bringing urgent reform.”

“The time has to be now to take a lead in the international community, and to pull this impunity out of the shadows.”