Video-Eritrea Television ERi-TV US Professor Fikak Habteyes on Female genital mutilation – Debab
Watch it below:
http://vimeo.com/119205621
10.02.2015
Female genital mutilation (FGM) – a harmful traditional practice found in parts of Africa and the Middle East – was outlawed in 2007, although efforts to eradicate were in place during Eritrea’s pre-independence era. Like child marriage, not only is FGM a women’s, child, and human rights issue, it can place females at a high risk for HIV/AIDS through several causal pathways. Beyond abolishment, Eritrea has also promoted support, awareness, educational, prevention, and recovery programs in both urban and rural areas. Consequently, FGM prevalence rates have decreased, women’s and children’s rights have been better protected, and potential risk factors for HIV/AIDS have been prevented.