Bullo’s story

Our WASH and HEAL project, funded by Bread for the World, works to end female genital mutilation (FGM). FGM harms women directly, and it also causes serious complications when they give birth. It has been practised in Afar for more than a hundred years. Governments and other organisations have tried to stop it in different ways, with little success.

What we learned

Two years ago we surveyed the communities where we work to understand the situation better. We found that 99.1% of women in the area had been cut, and 43% of families planned to cut their daughters in the future.

We asked what people believed a girl gains from being cut. Close to half said it brings religious benefit and cleanliness, helps a girl be accepted, and lowers her sexual desire, which they believe prevents unfaithfulness. Some families fear their daughter will not find a husband if she is not cut. Others said that uncut girls are mocked and shunned.

Because of this, many girls want to be cut so they will be accepted. Many men want to marry a girl who has been cut, believing she will be more obedient and faithful. Some people also believe that Islam requires it.

After listening to all of this, we began holding a community dialogue and teaching session every month. We have now done this for two years. At first the community refused to discuss the subject. Some religious leaders were angry and thought we were trying to force them to give up a practice that God allows. It was tense. But slowly, through teaching, we have built strong relationships with many of the people who opposed us. Some of them are now our strongest champions and are working to end FGM in the project area.

Bullo’s story

Bullo Utto was a traditional birth attendant in Garbohaf village, and she used to cut girls. She volunteered with FSA to organise women’s discussion groups and attended our teaching sessions many times. Now she goes from house to house teaching her own people about the harm FGM causes. At first some women in her village disagreed with her, but over the past two years she has kept sharing what she learned, and she has convinced many of them.

I met Bullo on a visit to one of our project sites and noticed she was holding a knife. I grew up in a rural area, and I knew that knife well. It is the kind of knife used to cut girls, and the same knife traditional birth attendants used to deliver babies. It was never sterilised. It has taken the lives of many women and girls.

Bullo said to me proudly, “Guret, you and your people changed our lives. Can you see this knife? I hope you recognise it.”

I nodded and said, “Yes. This is the knife used for delivering babies and for cutting Afar girls.”

Bullo smiled and said:

“You are right. It used to be like that, but today things have changed. Now we use this knife to cut goatskin. Can you see how dirty it is? We use it for something else now. Since we started attending your teaching and the community dialogue about harmful traditions, girls are no longer suffering and dying because of FGM.

“We were following a practice that Pharaoh brought to us. Our ignorance killed many beautiful girls. I have seen many women die at home from complications in childbirth. We thought mothers and babies died because it was God’s will. Now we know it was our ignorance that killed them.

“Families had to give at least a goat to a circumciser to cut their daughter, or to a birth attendant to help with a birth. So cutting girls was how many of us earned a living. I was one of those women. Through this teaching I had to ask myself: do I save lives, or do I take the money?

“We know that some people who have not attended the teaching still do this in secret. Some communities have not agreed to stop every kind of cutting. They have agreed to stop the most severe form, but they want to keep the ‘Sunna’ type. We will keep teaching and talking until everyone understands as we do. We want to teach Afar women in other kebeles too.”

(In Afar tradition, Pharaoh is a figure of evil.)

I thanked Bullo and everyone who took part for the change they are making in their community. I left the village encouraged.

I would like to thank Bread for the World for making a difference in the lives of the Afar people.

Guret Ahmed, Founder and Executive Director