Cutting is now a crime in Sudan

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In Sudan, transitional authorities adopted an amendment to a penal code article last week which now classifies female genital mutilation as a crime, that is, female genital mutilation. A reform welcomed by UNICEF and defenders of women's rights.

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The mutilation of a woman to excise her is now punished with three years in prison and a fine in Sudan. And that it is practiced in a medical establishment does not change anything.

According to UN figures, nine out of ten Sudanese women are victims of this practice. A “  practice of torture  ”, as activist Faiza Mohamed of the Equality Now association described it, welcoming the long awaited introduction of these “  punitive measures to protect women  ”.

Article 141 of the amended Criminal Code was therefore approved on April 22 by the Sovereign Council dominated by the military and by the Council of Ministers controlled by civilians. The measure was immediately welcomed. Unicef ​​welcomed the start of a "  new era  ". And in the press Salma Ismael, spokesperson in Khartoum of the UN Global Fund for Children, said she was happy that mothers refusing this "  barbaric practice  " on their daughter can now "  say no  ".

But from legislation to reality, the distance is still long. In Sudan, the old regime of Omar al-Bashir had to renounce the ban, under pressure from the religious. And in neighboring Egypt , excision has been banned since 2008, but the UN estimates that it is still performed on one in seven children.

► Also listen: Excision: the tireless fight of Aïssata Camara

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• Sudan
• Womens rights
• Health and Medicine

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