April 8, 2005 - (IPS) Hawa Aden Mohamed was only eight when she experienced the brutal pain of circumcision. Performed in a small Somali village, the operation was carried out without anesthesia, using only basic cutting tools and thorns.

The practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) cost her sister's life and nearly took Hawa's own as her wounds did not heal properly. Today, she is at the front line of a decade-long and bitter fight for women's rights in Somalia.

Her sister's death along with her own experience triggered Hawa's involvement in the women's rights movement. The frustration over circumcision turned into anger at the patriarchic Somali society, which considers the voice of women worthless.

"The Somali woman has no say in political decisions. She has no say in family decisions. Recently, for the first time, we elected one female minister to the Somali Puntland State, and one in the federal government," she said.

"But this is just tokenism. It is not enough," concluded the 56-year-old Hawa, who sat down for an interview on her way to Texas, where she is receiving the Amnesty International Ginetta Sagan Award on Friday for her outstanding work for women's rights in Somalia.

The award recognises the outstanding achievement of women who -- often at great personal risk -- are working to protect the liberty and lives of women and children in areas where human rights violations are widespread.

Hawa Mohamed is the founder and executive director of the Galkayo Education Centre for Peace and Development (GECPD), an organisation committed to eradicating FGM and strengthening women's political influence through human rights and literacy campaigns that have reached more than 7,600 women since 1999.

The GECPD aims at improving women's capacity to defend and advocate their rights in society, starting with the family.

An estimated 135 million girls and women have undergone genital mutilation, and two million girls a year are at risk for it. FGM is practised extensively in Africa and is common in some countries in the Middle East.

FGM can lead to death from the pain, shock, haemorrhage and damage to the organs surrounding the clitoris and labia. Afterwards, urine may be retained and serious infection can develop. Use of the same instrument on several girls without sterilisation can cause the spread of HIV.

Despite the horrors of the ritual, Hawa believes the subject is still too much of a taboo to be debated openly in the country.

"I don't see FGM stopping in my lifetime," she says. "We have to change the mentality of people, and the change has to come from the family. There are educated parents who discuss FGM. If they decide not to have their daughters circumcised, we advise them not to tell other people, who might not respect the decision."

The Somali women's rights movement started in the late 1970s, but was impeded by the civil war in 1991.

"It was set back 40 years in time," maintains Hawa, who fled the war to Canada, where she continued lobbying for women in Somalia before returning and founding the GECPD in 1996. By then there were no longer signs of public debate and awareness of women's rights in a country troubled by killings and the power politics of local warlords.

Civil war still plagues parts of Somalia, making it very hard to travel around. Although the women's rights movement has spread beyond Puntland, it is difficult to coordinate the struggle on a national scale.

Religious justification of female circumcision is common in Somalia, but Hawa argues that the practice of circumcision is not found in the Koran, but in the nation's culture and tradition. She continues to educate religious teachers about the dangers of FGM and has managed to establish dialogue with a few.

"In the beginning, the work at GECPD was very difficult. FGM was taboo. People did not want to talk and threw rocks at us and the buildings we worked in. Today, at least, we are able to create some debate about Somali traditions."

Last year, the GECPD launched a more visible and confrontational women's rights movement in Somalia. With Hawa Mohammed as one of the key figures, the GECPD managed to organise and coordinate the unprecedented "Zero Tolerance For FGM" demonstration on International Women's Day, Mar. 8.

"We were scared. But we had no choice. We'd discussed women's rights for years. Activists were asking, what next? We'd exhausted the talking," says Hawa about the demonstration, which drew more than 20,000 people -- including the Puntland vice president and five cabinet ministers.

The demonstration passed peacefully and raised awareness about the dangers of FGM among the people of Puntland.

"The demonstration created debate, a debate which is still going on today. And dialogue at least brings new questions," says Hawa.

More than 98 percent of Somali women have suffered genital mutilation, according to Equality Now, the New York-based women's rights group that nominated Mohamed for the Ginetta Sagan Award. By educating young people, the GECPD hopes to promote a more open debate about FGM and women's rights in Somalia.

"We must use education as the vehicle, to bring young people on board to take over, and we must promote the good traditions as well. Somali culture has very good values, such as respect, sharing and support. But it is unacceptable to continue female genital mutilation. And to say no, that needs courage, commitment, and principally belief," she emphasised.

Hawa Aden Mohamed collects the 11th Ginetta Sagan Award Friday at Amnesty International's annual general meeting in Austin, Texas. Sagan was a founder of Amnesty International USA. As a member of the Italian Resistance, she was imprisoned and tortured during World War II.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200504080644.html