Latest news with #femaleGenitalMutilation
Malay Mail
3 days ago
- General
- Malay Mail
From Burkina to Belgium: Fighting for women's rights from the hard-right bench
BRUSSELS, May 30 — When Assita Kanko was 10 years old, she pictured herself as president of her native Burkina Faso—with a mission to stamp out female genital mutilation, and further women's rights. As it turned out, she sits as a Belgian lawmaker in the ranks of the hard-right in the European Parliament, and says that suits her just fine. The 44-year-old says she feels at home among the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) -- one of three groups in the assembly's far-right bloc, whose influence has grown steadily since elections last year. As one of three EU lawmakers from the Flemish nationalist N-VA party, she rubs shoulders in the ECR with around 20 other outfits including Giorgia Meloni's post-fascist Brothers of Italy, and Poland's PiS. She also crossed paths with Meloni at the inauguration of Donald Trump—where they were both handpicked, as likeminded European politicians, to welcome the US leader back to office. Despite divergences with some ECR members on 'ethical' issues, Kanko pushes back at criticism of her decision to join the N-VA, a staunchly conservative party with a tough line on immigration. 'The idea that a black woman cannot also be right-wing is outrageous,' she told AFP. 'I want the right to think and I take that right to think, I don't ask permission.' Fighting for women's emancipation has been a cornerstone of her life in politics, she says. Born in Godyr, Burkina Faso, in 1980, Kanko was subjected to female genital mutilation at the age of five—like three quarters of women in the country. She shared her trauma from the experience in a 2013 book, the first of four she has written about gender equality. 'If my mother had had means of her own, I am convinced I would not have been circumcised,' she said. 'Today I am a very independent woman—and no one would dare mutilate my daughter. That has to be the goal.' EU being 'trampled' A 'top of the class' high-school student in Burkina Faso—in her own words—Kanko left to study in the Netherlands in 2001. From there she would move to Belgium—where speaking both Dutch and French proved a boon to her career, in the private sector then as a municipal official in a district of Brussels. Fast-forward to 2018, and Kanko decided to jump ship, leaving the centre-right MR party for the N-VA—the political home of Belgium's current prime minister, Bart De Wever. 'I feel unstoppable, free and proud to be a new Flemish woman,' she explained on the party's website at the time. Kanko describes herself as pro-business, as a sovereigntist—attached to the role of national governments within the EU—and as a fervent Atlanticist. That's how she explains her decision to attend the swearing-in of a US president who has made clear his disdain for the European Union—which he says was founded to 'screw' the United States. 'The United States is a partner we cannot do without,' she said. 'We have to form a bloc to defend Western values in the world.' But Kanko also warns that 'unless we believe in our own power, our own priority and strategies, Donald Trump will walk all over us.' As it stands—with a transatlantic trade war brewing and US security support in question—she considers 'the European Union today is being trampled underfoot—and not just by the United States.' 'It's trampled on by countries in the Middle East too, trampled on by China, trampled on by Russia, trampled on by radicals living on our own territories,' argued Kanko—who was raised in a Muslim culture but did not adopt the faith, and sees Islamic extremism as a threat. In the EU parliament, Kanko has focused on security and border control—and has sought to spotlight a report sounding the alarm about the Muslim Brotherhood as a threat to secularism and women's rights in France and beyond. Kanko wants to see the organisation investigated at European level. 'We need to wake up,' she told fellow lawmakers in parliament recently, accusing the brotherhood of 'indoctrinating children' and 'treating women as inferior.' — AFP
Malay Mail
10-05-2025
- Health
- Malay Mail
Ivorian women fight FGM with reconstructive surgery
ABIDJAN, May 11 — Adele Koue Sungbeu underwent female genital mutilation as a teenager but now holds her head up high and smiles broadly as she walks to work in Abidjan after reconstructive surgery. The 45-year-old midwife is one of 28 women from the west African country who underwent the procedure last month in a public hospital in Ivory Coast's economic capital. In charge of the surgery was obstetric surgeon Sarah Abramowicz, a leading specialist in female genital reconstruction in France. Sungbeu, who has three boys aged 22, 16 and 12 and is going through a divorce, said before the operation that her circumcision did not cause her any difficulties. But she said she felt 'embarrassed' by the way partners looked at her. 'They don't say anything but you feel that they're not comfortable,' she added. 'And that makes you feel uncomfortable. 'When you look at other women, you're completely different. That's my problem. When I open my legs, it's completely flat.' Sungbeu said she had been trying to get the delicate surgery to repair her clitoris and labia minora for some time. After the operation, she said she was 'proud to have done it'. Another woman at the clinic, who preferred not to give her name as she waited her turn, said she travelled to neighbouring Burkina Faso and paid 370,000 CFA francs (RM515.90) for the procedure. But the operation was never carried out. 'I was circumcised at the age of six by a midwife. It's hampering my relationships and my husband left because of it,' said the woman, 31. 'Militant' act One of the aims of the initiative, spearheaded by the Muskoka Fund set up in 2010 by the French government, is to treat women for free in hospitals. 'It shouldn't be something accessible only to those who can afford it through private doctors,' said Muskoka Fund coordinator Stephanie Nadal Gueye. The mission has a budget of €60,000 (RM289,761) and includes a significant and unprecedented training component for hospital obstetricians. Abramowicz, one of the only women working in the field in France, has trained 10 surgeons from six French-speaking African countries — Guinea, Benin, Senegal, Chad, Togo and Ivory Coast. She also brought in seven paramedics, mainly midwives, to provide comprehensive care for the 28, including psychosocial care to prevent them being stigmatised for having undergone the procedure. A report by the UN children agency, Unicef, last year estimated that more than 230 million girls and women worldwide have undergone female genital mutilation — 30 million more than in 2016. In Ivory Coast, one woman in three is a victim of FGM. The practice is internationally recognised as a human rights violation. Abramowicz said her happy and proud former patients have since been sending her '10 photos a day' of their reconstructed genitals. 'The value of this mission is that it has planted seeds among healthcare workers but also among these women,' she said. 'They should become advocates. There's something militant about getting repaired. The fight begins like that.' — AFP
