Sudan protects girl-child dignity, criminalizes mutilation

Sudan’s highest governing body has approved a law criminalising female genital mutilation (FGM).

This was disclosed on Friday July 10, 2020, by the justice ministry, three months after the cabinet approved amendments to the criminal code that would punish those who perform it.

The sovereign council, which comprises military and civilian figures, approved the criminalisation of the age-old practice known as FGM, or genital cutting.

While condemning the tradition in a statement released on Friday, the Council noted that the obnoxious practice “undermines the dignity of women.”

“The mutilation of a woman’s genital organs is now considered a crime punishable by up to three years in prison,” the justice ministry said.

It added that doctors or health workers who carry out the practice would be penalised, and hospitals, clinics or other places where the operation is carried out would be shut down.

Nearly nine out of 10 girls in Sudan fall victim to FGM, according to the United Nations.

Rights groups have for years decried as barbaric the practice, which can lead to a myriad physical, psychological and sexual complications and, in the most tragic cases, death.

In its most brutal form, it involves the removal of the labia and clitoris, often in unsanitary conditions and without anaesthesia.

The wound is then sutured, often causing cysts and infections and leaving women to suffer severe pain during sex and childbirth complications later in life.