Ethiopia’s anti-female-circumcision crusader honoured in Belgium

Ethiopian activist Bogaletch Gebre has won an international prize for her campaign to eradicate female genital mutilation (FGM), reports Africa Review. Gebre was awarded the King Baudouin Prize in Belgium for confronting “culturally entrenched taboo subjects”, the selection committee said. She helped reduce cases of FGM from 100% of newborn girls to less than 3% in parts of Ethiopia, it said. Also known as female circumcision, FGM is seen as a traditional rite of passage and is used culturally to ensure virginity and to make a woman marriageable. Bogaletch told BBC Focus on Africa that her message to community elders who promoted FGM was: “Daddy, you lived your time. This is our period, our children’s period. We don’t want to kill our children. I hope you are wise enough to accept that.” The King Baudouin Foundation awarded Gebre the €150,000 prize for her “innovative” campaign to eradicate FGM. The Kembatti Mentti Gezzimma group, which she founded, focused on arranging “community conversations” in areas of Ethiopia where illiteracy levels were high and FGM “endemic”, the foundation said in a statement. In February, the UN said data showed that fewer girls in Africa and the Middle East were being subjected to FGM and it is possible to end the practice. FGM was particularly in decline among the young in Kenya, it added. In December, the UN General Assembly unanimously approved a non-binding resolution calling for all member states to ban the practice.