Sudan bans female genital mutilation

This is an unprecedented change in women's rights. Female genital mutilation (FGM), which involves the total or partial excision of the female genital organs or any other injury to them for non-medical reasons, has been officially abolished in the African country.

The work that follows the adoption of this amendment to the criminal legislation on 22 April is, above all, social and awareness-raising, because it is a practice that is deeply rooted in society and, therefore, there is a need to dispel the age-old myths that put women's lives at risk through misogynist and patriarchal beliefs. 

Sudan was expected to act in the same way with regard to other policies needed to protect women and girls in cases of crimes such as marital rape and child marriage, which were not yet covered by the Criminal Code. 

According to UN figures, approximately 87% of Sudanese women and girls between the ages of 14 and 49 have undergone some form of FGM in general, more than 200 million women and girls alive today have been subjected to FGM in all 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, and Sudanese feminist activists welcome this step forward which, while not sufficient to eradicate FGM, is a before and after in terms of rights towards effective equality and an end to the violation of women's rights.

Criminalizing a practice that violates the rights of children and women and threatens physical integrity is essential in a society that wants to evolve in terms of human rights. 

The conditions in which genital mutilation is practiced (with blades and sometimes sewing with a needle and thread) are deplorable and lack hygiene, often resulting in severe bleeding, urinary problems, infections or sometimes even the death of the girl, from one of the above causes.  

Girls who suffer from this practice (usually between the ages of breastfeeding and 15) and who survive it later may have cysts, severe infections, complications of childbirth and increased risk of newborn death in the event of pregnancy.

The time when they must have sex is no less harmful, as they suffer severe pain because their vaginal opening is sewn, and in certain areas of Africa, a village woman is said to have cut the sewn area with a knife so that the newlyweds can have sex. In areas where cutting is practised, it is considered a way of dignifying women, so that they can marry, as they are considered to be born unclean.