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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif">Somalia - Death of 10-Year-Old Girl Prompts First FGM Prosecution in Somalia's History<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">Campaigners say investigation into case of girl who bled to death marks a ‘defining moment’ for
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#0D0D0D">the
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#1F497D">c</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">ountry</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#1F497D">.</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#C70000"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jul/26/first-fgm-prosecution-in-somalia-history-death-10-year-old-girl#img-1"><span style="color:#C70000;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="490" height="293" id="Picture_x0020_3" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D43E5B.3FD31090" alt="The blades and anti-bleeding powder used in female genital mutilation"></span></a></span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#C70000;text-decoration:none"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> The blades and anti-bleeding powder used in female genital mutilation, which is carried out on the vast majority of women and girls in Somalia. Photograph: Georgina Goodwin/UNFPA</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">By Kate Hodal – July 26, 2018<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">Somalia’s attorney general has announced the nation’s first prosecution for female genital mutilation after a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jul/20/10-year-old-girl-death-fgm-female-genital-mutilation-somalia"><span style="color:#AB0613">10-year-old
girl bled to death</span></a> following a traditional cutting last week.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">The announcement has been described as a “defining moment” in a nation where 98% of all women and girls undergo FGM, the highest rate anywhere in the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">Speaking at a conference on FGM in the capital, Mogadishu, on Wednesday, attorney general Ahmed Ali Dahir said he had <a href="https://twitter.com/GMCEndFGM/status/1022081447484633089"><span style="color:#AB0613">sent
a team of 10 investigators</span></a>to interview Deeqa Dahir Nuur’s parents and the village cutter who performed the fatal operation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">“We are ready to take it to court,” Dahir told an audience of officials, journalists and religious leaders, <a href="https://twitter.com/GMCEndFGM/status/1022087459608424449"><span style="color:#AB0613">organisers
reported on Twitter</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">Deputy prime minister Mahdi Mohamed Gulaid, who also attending the event hosted by the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/end-fgm"><span style="color:#AB0613">Global Media Campaign to
End FGM</span></a>and the <a href="https://www.ifrahfoundation.org/"><span style="color:#AB0613">Ifrah Foundation</span></a>, said: “It is not acceptable that in the 21st century FGM is continuing in Somalia. It should not be part of our culture. It is definitely
not part of the Islamic religion.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">State prosecutors have been dispatched along with the criminal investigation bureau to Galmudug state, where the operation took place, to collect evidence, Gulaid added.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">“The prosecution of those involved in Deeqa’s [death] will send a strong message to the country,” he said. “This is really a defining moment for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/somalia"><span style="color:#AB0613">Somalia</span></a>.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">The surprise announcement has been welcomed by campaigners all over the world. FGM survivor and activist Ifrah Ahmed, 26, said the declaration “had taken everyone by surprise”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">“It shows just how quickly things can move when there is political will,” said Ahmed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">Previous campaigns to end FGM, which is upheld by conservative and religious groups but technically illegal under the constitution, have proved futile.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">“It is great news that the attorney general is taking this girl’s death seriously,” said Brendan Wynne of <a href="https://donordirectaction.org/2018/04/fgmfund/"><span style="color:#AB0613">Donor
Direct Action</span></a>, a charity that supports anti-FGM groups worldwide. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">“Although there isn’t an effective FGM law in Somalia, we hope a prosecution can happen to send a signal that this extreme form of violence will no longer be tolerated. Somali girls are
dying because of FGM. There is no excuse to not reduce it completely in this generation.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">Most girls in Somalia undergo the most severe form of circumcision between the ages of five and nine, during which external genitalia are removed or repositioned and the vaginal opening
is sewn up, leaving only a small hole through which to pass menstrual blood. The operation is often performed by untrained midwives or healers using knives, razors or broken glass. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">Together with her three sisters, Deeqa was taken by her mother to Olol village in Galmudug State, where the traditional cutter performing the operation is believed to have severed a vein.
Deeqa was taken to hospital, where she haemorrhaged to death two days later.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">Her passing was first noted by Somali journalist and distant relative Nafisa Ogle, who was asked by Deeqa’s uncle for a large container to help prepare the girl’s body for burial.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">“I said: ‘What do you need the container for?’ And he said to wash the body, the girl had died from the cut. By then they had brought Deeqa to the hospital and I went to check if it was
true, and I put the news out on Twitter. Then all the journalists came to report what had happened to her.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">According to Ogle, Deeqa and her three sisters all underwent FGM at the same time. “The mother is going completely crazy – she had her three other daughters cut at the same time, by the
same cutter. The sad thing is that the parents think FGM is normal and didn’t recognise the dangers.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">Deeqa’s passing is the most high-profile death in many years in Somalia, where complications from FGM are generally denied and rarely publicised.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">Campaign group <a href="https://www.28toomany.org/"><span style="color:#AB0613">28 Too Many</span></a> said that although Somalia does not have specific legislation criminalising FGM,
offenders could potentially be prosecuted under a penal code that makes it illegal to cause harm to another person.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">Maggie O’Kane, director of the Global Media Campaign to End FGM, said the attorney general’s announcement was being heralded in Somalia as “huge”, but warned that progress on banning cutting
may be slower than hoped.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">“The fact that the attorney general has actually put his head way above the parapet and said he will prosecute is extraordinary,” said O’Kane.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">“We will see how huge and fierce the debate in Somalia will be if the prosecution does go ahead. But it will be a long road for a country that hasn’t yet even banned FGM.”</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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