This is the VOA SpecialEnglish Development Report.
Activists for the rights of women have declared a yearlyobservance to oppose the cutting of female sex organs. Thistradition is followed mostly in Africa.
February sixth is to be observed as what organizers call anInternational Day of Zero Tolerance of Female Genital Mutilation.Delegates at a conference in Ethiopia marked the first observancethis month. They condemned the cutting as a form of torture. Thewives of the presidents of Burkina Faso, Guinea, Nigeria and Malitook part in the conference.
The World Health Organization estimates thatone-hundred-thirty-million girls and women have experienced someform of cutting. The cutting involves removing part or all of thefemale genitals.
The United Nations Children’s Fund called on world leaders to endthis tradition by two-thousand-ten. UNICEF chief Carol Bellamy saidthat each year an estimated two-million girls are at risk ofcutting. She said laws against it need to be put in place andenforced.
About half the fifty-three countries in Africa have banned thetradition. But it continues. The cutting is usually done without anymedicine for the pain. Infections can result from the use of dirtycutting tools. Severe bleeding can lead to shock and death.
Cutting can also interfere with pregnancy and birth. And medicalexperts say it can affect the mental health of women by interferingwith normal sexual desire.
The age at which the cutting is performed differs from culture toculture. It is usually done between the ages of four and twelve. Thereasons for doing it also differ from place to place. Some culturessee it as a normal process based on love and a wish to protect.Other cultures see it as part of the path to becoming a woman.
Africa is not the only place where female genital cutting takesplace. The tradition is also common in some Middle Easterncountries. Some Muslim groups in Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan andIndia also do it.
Efforts to end cutting face resistance from women who see no harmin this tradition. They defend its cultural value.
No matter where it happens, though, activists say it violates thehuman rights of girls and women. They say it is important in thecampaign against cutting to educate not only females but also boysand men about this issue.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by JillMoss.