Awareness and information evening in the presence of Maty Diouf, Municipal Councillor Delegate for Civil Status, Sub-delegate for Integration and the Fight Against Discrimination, this Monday, February 6, 2012, from 6 PM at MUSEAAV (16 bis, Place Garibaldi, Nice).
February 6 has been designated by the UN and UNICEF as “International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation”. The city of Nice, the Association Generation Women of Africa and Elsewhere (GFAA), and MUSEAAV invite you to an awareness evening, an opportunity to inform and denounce an ancestral practice that destroys many women.
On the program for the evening:
• Readings of testimonies,
• An exhibition by three artists: C.B. Bass (artist of Congolese origin), Corinne Dubras, and Aisha Sylla (international coordinator of the Sylla Tati Caap Onlus Foundation, who exhibits works created during trips to Africa);
• Reading of a poem/play by Vittorio Rodriguez, a Nice singer of Cape Verdean origin;
• Musical entertainment by the trio “Trinity”,
• A buffet of “flavors from elsewhere” will close the evening.
A petition for the abolition of female genital mutilation will be launched during the evening. It will be subsequently submitted to Adèle Safi Kagarabi, Universal Peace Ambassador, advocate for women victims of sexual violence in Africa, Women of Gold of the city of Nice in 2011, and Patron of the 7th Games of La Francophonie, which will take place in Nice in 2013.
Free entry.
Female Genital Mutilation Worldwide
One in three women is subjected to genital mutilation on the African continent, totaling 130 million women. There are 3 million new cases per year, and 55,000 mutilated women live in France.
These figures are based only on known cases and could be significantly higher. While most of the twenty-eight African countries affected by this practice have enacted laws banning female genital mutilation, much progress remains to eradicate it permanently.
Female genital mutilation is an ancient cultural practice that violates the physical and mental integrity of women. In addition to stunting them by depriving them of part of their bodies, it is an intolerable means of coercion and submission. Long ignored, this practice has become a global cause, and many NGOs are attempting to end it.
The Association Generation Women of Africa and Elsewhere (GFAA) has been fighting against this scourge since 2009.
Today, the association has managed to raise awareness and bring many men on board – a victory when we know they are the founding fathers of these traditions and that without them, the fight would be more difficult – and many women who, symbolically, represent the guardians of these practices and are the sole victims of these mutilations. It is a small step forward. But we must continue… The path is still long.
