Background

East Africa is a large, diverse region with wide differences and disparities in the social, political and economic structures of individual countries.

While Kenya and Egypt share an established, relatively stable, relatively prosperous, if unequal, society; Sudan the largest country in the region joins Ethiopia, Somalia and Somaliland in a devastating decades-long history of war, internal conflict, and political instability. Substantial environmental damage, large-scale displacement of people and lack of access to the most basic services add to this area's insecurity and poverty.

Many of East Africa's people do not have sufficient food or clean water, access to sewage, electricity, health care and education. For those who live in remote, rural or tribal areas, the inequalities are even greater.

But throughout the region, it is East Africa's women who suffer disproportionately.?? Illiteracy and poverty combine with deeply entrenched social and traditional customs and practices to severely damage women's health and well being; restrict their ability to move freely in society and to take a full, active part in their own lives and those of their families, their communities and their countries.

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Fact File:

97% of Egyptian women aged 15-49 have undergone Female Genital Mutilation
33% of the country's women marry under the age of 18
85% of Ethiopian women are circumcised
72% of the country's women are married by force, or abduction
98% of Somalia's women have undergone Female Genital Mutilation
Of these, 90% were subjected to the severest form of the practice - Infibulation
100% of women in Somaliland have undergone Female Genital Mutilation in its severest form, infibulation
Almost 90% of Sudanese women have undergone Female Genital Mutilation ? often in it?s severest form
Many Sudanese girls are married by the age of 15
Over 30% of Kenyan women have undergone Female Genital Mutilation
This figure rises to 99% in the northeast of the country
One-third of the country's women under the age of 18 experience early or forced marriage
67% of Kenya?s rural women have had a child before they are 20

Victims of repressive traditions - Women's position in East African society

Since Womankind began working with partner organisations across the region, there has been considerable progress in raising awareness, and changing attitudes towards, two practices that are widespread and severely damaging to East Africa?s women: Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and early or forced marriage, or marriage by abduction.

Communities in Sudan are now openly discussing the subject and while FGM is still practiced it is beginning to be done so in less severe forms. Parts of Somaliland are beginning to end the practice altogether; Sudan and Kenya are finding alternative celebration rites for young women; while in Ethiopia women who have been subjected to FGM are at the forefront of calls to end the practice in their country.

However, throughout the region there remain significant areas where a combination of tribal and traditional customs, as well as deeply entrenched social acceptance of discrimination towards and violence against women, hinder a genuine move towards change. Women's low social status in many East African countries, their lack of access to education and knowledge about their own human and civil rights, severely restricts their ability to fully participate in working for change within their communities and their countries.

Female Genital Mutilation:

The practice of 'circumcising' women is widespread in every country in East Africa.?? Despite the
Governments of Egypt and Ethiopia ruling the practice banned, or illegal and the pressure from women's organisations and international health agencies to end FGM, it remains widely socially accepted.
Justified for reasons of culture, tradition, economics, religion and sexuality, the severity of the
practice varies from country to country, and within different ethnic, tribal or rural communities.

FGM is a violation of women?s fundamental human rights. It poses real and substantial risks to women's
lives, seriously damaging their sexual and reproductive health and their bodily integrity. When
combined with early or forced marriage, the consequences for the region's women are doubly repressive.

Subjecting girls and young women to FGM has long term implications for their physical, mental,
emotional and psycho-sexual health. Women who have undergone FGM experience:

Pain
Haemorrhage
Infections including HIV and Tetanus
Shock
Complications and infections of the urinary tract
Painful menstruation
Incontinence
Fistula
Complications of pregnancy
Complications in childbirth
Infertility

In those areas where women are subject to the most extreme form of FGM Type 111 Infibulation the
practice involves cutting off all the external genitalia and sewing up the vagina almost entirely. A tiny hole is left for the passing of urine and menstrual blood.

Many of East Africa's girls and young women die each year as a result of Female Genital Mutilation.

Early, forced or marriage by abduction:

In many East African countries, traditional social and cultural influences are male, conservative and patriarchal. Discrimination and violence against women is widespread; access to education for girls and young women is often limited, or unavailable and women's status is considered subordinate and secondary to that of their husband and male relatives. While a number of countries now recognise the social and economic importance and value of educating girls and young women, the practice of early marriage is still a common reality for many.

Defined as marriage 'under the age of 18', early marriage has significant implications both for women's
development and for the social and economic development of the whole region. All too many East African women are faced with responsibilities as wives and mothers at too young an age, responsibilities for which they are ill equipped physically, emotionally and economically. Traditional practices which see young women marrying men significantly older than themselves add to the inequalities, limiting their ability to negotiate with their partner as equals. Early marriage and restricted education impacts on women economically, condemning them to a life of servitude and poverty, and socially many are excluded from decision-making at all levels, locally, provincially and nationally.

In addition, early marriage has serious health implications for East African women. The demands of sex and pregnancy on a still immature body leave many young women with chronic incontinence as a result of fistula a hole formed between the vagina and bladder or rectum. As well as the physical distress and indignity, many women suffer additional emotional trauma through rejection by their husband and
family.

East Africa's women also experience marriage in violent forms: through force or by abduction. Forced
marriage without the women's consent is common throughout the region, while the use of rape and
abduction remains a widespread 'traditional' practice in parts of Ethiopia. Typically, the girl is abducted by a group of young men and then raped by the man who wants to marry her, either someone she knows or a total stranger. The trauma of such violence is real and significant, damaging women's physical, psychological and emotional health.

Helping women build their future