COUNTRY PROFILE: FGM IN UGANDA JULY 2013 Registered Charity : No. 1150379 Limited Company: No: 8122211 E-mail:
[email protected] © 28 Too Many 2013 CONTENTS FOREWORD 5 BACKGROUND 7 PURPOSE 7 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 8 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 9 INTRODUCTION 13 INTRODUCTION TO FGM 15 NATIONAL STATISTICS 15 POLITICAL BACKGROUND 20 ANTHROPOLOGICAL BACKGROUND 21 COUNTRYWIDE TABOOS AND MORES 22 SOCIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND 22 EDUCATION 25 RELIGION 27 MEDIA 27 FGM PRACTICES IN UGANDA 29 ETHNIC GROUPS PRACTISING FGM IN NORTH EASTERN UGANDA 30 OTHER GROUPS THAT PRACTISE FGM 35 RELIGION AND FGM 36 WOMEN’S HEALTH AND INFANT MORTALITY 37 EDUCATION AND FGM 39 FGM BY AGE 41 PUBLIC ATTITUDES TO AND KNOWLEDGE OF FGM 42 LAWS RELATING TO FGM 45 INTERVENTIONS AND ATTEMPTS TO ERADICATE FGM 48 CHALLENGES FACED BY ANTI-FGM INITIATIVES 63 CONCLUSIONS 65 ORGANISATIONS CONTRIBUTING TO EFFORTS TO ABANDON FGM 68 REFERENCES 69 PAGE | 4 FOREWORD women who have poor literacy; pressure to accept early or child marriage; poor access to physical In an increasingly results and outcome and psychological health care, and a risk of HIV/ orientated culture, donors in development are AIDS transmission. expecting greater demonstration of monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to show good use I worked in a medical clinic in rural Northern of their partnership investment. Similarly, in Uganda in 2004-5, helping support the physical the female genital mutilation (FGM) sector, and psychological needs of children in Internally governments, NGOs, academics and the media Displaced Children’s (IDC) Camps, fleeing from are seeking more robust research data to show the Lord’s Resistance Army.