FrontlineEndingFGM is behind the initiative to protect girls and women in areas where female genital mutilation is a widespread practice. From June this year until mid-2026, activists will travel over 15,000 kilometers in the caravan, from west to east in Africa, and collaborate with local grassroots organisations, local authorities and the media. With the aim of eradicating the practice, the campaign targets parents, but also local religious leaders and authorities. Among other things, the caravan will carry a “Dear Daughter” book, which parents sign and thereby undertake to protect their daughters from female genital mutilation. The campaign will also inform about the consequences of the procedure, by showing documentaries that deal with health effects such as complications during childbirth and menstruation, sexual and psychological problems. – It is one thing to tell them that young girls die from genital mutilation, another thing is for them to see it, says Ifrah Ahmed, who herself has survived the operation, to The Guardian. The work to inform will also take place through radio programs adapted to local challenges, which activists say is an effective way of reaching out to the local communities. According to FrontlineEndingFGM, using local media to spread the message at the Tana River in Kenya saw acceptance of the worst form of FGM drop from 89 to 5 percent after three years of regular broadcasts. Persistent problem The African continent has seen a decline in the practice of FGM over the past three decades, and the likelihood of undergoing the procedure is a third less today than 30 years ago. But the variation between the countries is great. While countries such as Kenya, Burkina Faso, Togo and Liberia have experienced a rapid decline, support is still high in countries such as Gambia, Mali, Somalia and Guinea. In Somalia, 98 per cent of women between the ages of 15 and 49 have undergone some form of genital mutilation. Although many African countries have laws prohibiting FGM, poor implementation and follow-up mean the practice continues. This is also connected to the fact that genital mutilation often has deep social, cultural and religious roots. The World Health Organization WHO writes on its website that important reasons why the procedure is carried out are social expectations and pressure, in addition to a perception that it prepares girls for adulthood and is necessary to control girls’ sexuality. Violation of girls’ and women’s rights According to UN Women, more than 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone genital mutilation, and this year close to 4.4 million girls are at risk of undergoing the operation. The operation has no health benefits, and is internationally recognized as a violation of girls’ and women’s rights, including the right to health, safety and physical integrity, and freedom from being subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. In addition, female genital mutilation is mentioned in the sustainability goals under sub-goal 5.3, which aims to “abolish all harmful practices, such as child marriage, early marriage and forced marriage, and female genital mutilation”. Through other normative frameworks, such as the Beijing Declaration and the UN Women’s Convention, the countries of the world have committed themselves to work towards an end to the practice. Local campaigns most effective A report from UNICEF concludes that the most effective measures against FGM are to reach out to local communities through dialogue with parents and religious leaders and the use of media and marketing, as well as education for girls and women locally. It offers good prospects for the caravan campaign, which will spread its message through media broadcasting, film screenings and dialogue in the local communities. The campaign is inspired by the “pink bus” movement that started in The Gambia ten years ago, where local activists and religious leaders traveled from village to village in a pink bus to persuade parents not to carry out the operation. Now FrontlineEndingFGM has several thousand activists across the countries in which they operate, and thus stands even stronger when they set out on the caravan tour.
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Caravan tour to stop female genital mutilation of girls and women in Africa
