Research on female circumcision in Somalia.

Newsl Inter Afr Comm Tradit Pract Affect Health Women Child. 1988 Mar;(5):10.

Research on female circumcision in Somalia.

Ahmed SM.

The 1st research on female circumcision and infibulation in Somalia was undertaken by the Women’s Research Unit in the Academy of Sciences and Arts. The project’s aim is to study in depth the magnitude of the problem and to identify the best means of uprooting it through an information campaign against all forms of female circumcision and infibulation. A study has since been conducted in the community of Barja to compare complications at delivery between women who are infibulated and those on whom the mildest form of female circumcision has been performed. Other activities planned include a survey of the practitioners to register the types of methods used, problems encountered and medications used, and to ascertain how these influence the types of circumcisions performed, as well as in-depth interviews with religious leaders exploring the best way of persuading them to come forward and announce that female circumcision is not prescribed in the religion. Case studies will also be conducted with men to learn their points of view since, in spite of their denials, they are the force behind the persistence of the practice.

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