violence against children WORLD REPORT ON - CRIN

60Violence against children in the home and familyPsychological violence, by spouses, againstmarried girls includes humiliation, threatsagainst her or someone close to her, and controllingbehaviours. Where a girl flees a violentmarriage and returns home, she may berejected by her parents and beaten for inadequacyas a wife.Harmful traditional practicesIn some settings, cultural traditions includepractices which inflict pain and ‘disfigurement’on children, such as scarifying, branding,or tattooing. Although the term ‘harmfultraditional practices’ has been particularlyassociated with FGM of girls, there are manyother harmful practices involving both boysand girls. In Ethiopia, a 1998 survey by theNational Committee on Harmful TraditionalPractices found that uvulectomy (removal offlesh from the soft palate at the back of themouth) is carried out on 84% of children,and milk teeth extraction on 89%. 81 Theseoperations may be performed with unsterilisedinstruments, leading to potential infection.Participants in the West and Central Africanconsultations for the Study expressed concernthat in West African countries includingMauritania, Niger and northern Mali, thedesire to marry their children at a very youngage incites parents to force-feed their 5–10-year-old daughters to promote their physicaldevelopment, make them as plump as maturewomen, and therefore pleasing to men. Thismay have tragic consequences, including rejectionby husbands who find their wives have notmenstruated and cannot produce children, aswell as obesity which is associated with laterserious health problems: cardiovascular disease,hypertension and diabetes.Female genital mutilation/cutting(FGM)The term ‘harmful traditional practices’ is mostfrequently used to refer to female genital mutilation,or ‘cutting’ as it is described in areaswhere it is practised. According to a WHOestimate, between 100 and 140 million girlsand women in the world have undergone someform of FGM. 82 Girls from very young ages upto their mid or late teens undergo this form ofgenital excision, normally including the clitoris,as a precursor to marriage. 83 FGM is seen asa protection of virginity, a beautification process,and in a number of cultures is regarded asan essential precondition of marriage.There are different forms of FGM, some ofwhich involve more radical excisions in thegenital area than others. In its most extremeform (infibulation), the internal labia minoraand external labia majora are cut and theexposed edges sutured together, leaving thevagina almost shut. Following the procedure,the girl’s legs are normally bound from foot tohip, immobilising her for days to enable scartissue to form. 84 This form of the operation isendured by 90–98% of Somali girls, usually atthe age of 7 or 8 years. 85 There are profoundimplications for a woman’s experience of sexualrelations and maternity. Prolonged labourand stillbirth are common. After delivery, thewoman is usually ‘re-sewn’.The most reliable and extensive data on theprevalence and nature of FGM are provided