Mariame Dabo, 59, lives in Tambacounda, in eastern Senegal. A survivor of female genital mutilation as a child, Mariame works tirelessly to raise community awareness on women’s and girls’ rights and support victims of gender-based violence (GBV), particularly female genital mutilation (FGM).
Since 2009, she has been providing voluntary support to activities of a programme run by Amnesty International as a member of a committee combating violence against women. The mother of a son, this executive assistant says she wants to fight for women and girls as long as she can.
“I see things that are not acceptable, which is why I have committed myself to the fight against all forms of gender-based violence. We support the victims and take care of them from a health and legal point of view. We don’t get paid for this and we don’t expect anything in return. As long as I’m alive and healthy, I’m going to fight violence against women.
Through our activities with Amnesty International and other partners, we have managed to bring men, women and youth together. We organize talks, training sessions and intergenerational dialogues to discuss early marriage, GBV and human rights. Now community members are starting to talk to each other about issues they didn’t dare raise before. We often invite religious leaders to our activities too.
I’m very optimistic, but I know it won’t be easy!
Mariame Dabo
We make regular home visits. We sit down with couples to discuss FGM or GBV. The men are my friends. I talk a lot to men and boys. There must be no taboos. We also do radio programmes. Community radio stations are close to the people, and we have made them our gateway to reach our targets.
We set up watch and warning committees. In Koussanar, a locality in the department of Tambacounda, a member of one of these committees was able to save eight girls who had been put together to be cut. We also organize repair camps for women with fistulas [perforation between the vagina and the bladder and/or rectum causing urine and/or faeces to leak through the vagina] in partnership with UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.
From victim to survivor
Being a victim of female genital mutilation myself led me to work alongside girls to support them, and to raise parents’ awareness so that they would stop this practice. I only had one child because of the pain of childbirth and the following six months. For the type of FGM I underwent, which is infibulation, they take the scissors and, as we say, they cut off your sex so that the child can come out. I had problems afterwards, it hurt so much. I feel comfortable talking about it. I don’t have any taboos. I wouldn’t want another woman or another girl to be a victim of such suffering.
I am full of hope because since we started the activities, we feel that excision has begun to diminish. Some cutters have given up because they now know about the 1999 law banning excision. Because as I say on the radio, ‘if you are doing this and you are caught, you will get a sentence of three to five years’ imprisonment’. But I think the best approach is to raise awareness.
That’s the way to go about it: reach out to people, talk to them and explain the consequences.
Mariame Dabo
Women don’t make the link between excision and all its health consequences. Sometimes there are cases of death; the girl may lose a lot of blood and die. When the girl becomes an adult and becomes pregnant, she may develop [an obstetric] fistula. It can kill her if it’s not treated. If we hadn’t dared to talk about this, women would certainly have continued to cut girls without understanding the pain and the harm it causes them. Now, many understand this and stop this practice. My mum herself has understood. Her granddaughters have not been cut.
During our activities, we identified some cutters. During one of our talks, we asked the audience if there was a cutter in the locality. One woman stood up and said, ‘Yes, I do that’. She and the whole community took part in our activities. She said she would stop and asked that no one bring their child to her home to be cut. That’s the way to go about it: reach out to people, talk to them and explain the consequences.
These are cultural practices. The cutters’ grandmothers and mothers were cutters themselves. The knife is passed on, it’s a tradition in our region. In some ethnic groups, if you are not cut, they say you are impure. Now many people understand that this is not the case and abandon this practice. In general, the grandmothers, mothers and aunts are the ones who have their girls cut, and they do it behind their fathers’ backs. This is why we involve the heads of the households in our activities.
Our phones are like toll-free numbers – people can call us
at any time!Mariame Dabo
I’m very optimistic, but I know it won’t be easy! It’s a long-term battle. We need volunteers and victims who are willing to talk about it. I think the state also has a big role to play. As part of the programme we are running [with Amnesty], we have signed a partnership agreement with the Ministry of Education. We need to work in synergy, so that every ministry involved is committed to the fight against excision.
I also deal with men who hit their wives. I talk to them in a calm manner and ask them if they know that it’s illegal. I can take them to the police or gendarmerie at their wives’ request, because we don’t make decisions for the victim. Due to my age and experience, I’m no stranger to the community. As soon as I arrive at someone’s house and say I want to talk to them, it’s no problem. Some people are reluctant and hide, but we always manage to get hold of them because we work in collaboration with the local leaders.
We mediate at the House of Justice and if there are no solutions, we accompany the victim to the gendarmerie or the police. Recently, I was called at around 11pm about a case of a woman beaten by her husband. I took photos, accompanied her to hospital and then to the House of Justice where the husband was summoned. Our phones are like toll-free numbers – people can call us at any time!
I believe in the judiciary. The last rape case I dealt with was a year ago. The man was tried and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment. There was another case two years ago, where a girl was raped and her rapist strangled her. We dealt with this case and the perpetrator was sentenced to life imprisonment. We follow cases through to the end.
Passing the torch to the youth
My message to young girls is to stand sentinel and work hard to raise awareness among their peers. We are an ageing generation, and soon we will no longer be able to do field missions, activities, anything about these scourges.
We have grouped girls and boys into human rights education school clubs. We’re passing the torch to them. At their age, we didn’t have the chance to have training, but they have this chance, and I think they will be able to lead the fight so that we can achieve zero GBV and zero FGM in our communities.”
Through a human rights education programme implemented since 2017 in Burkina Faso, Senegal and Sierra Leone, Amnesty International is working to combat gender-based violence through education, awareness-raising and advocacy, with a view to changing mentalities and behaviour and helping to reform legislation in these countries.
