Eritrea bans female genital mutilation

Eritrea has banned the ritual mutilation of girls' genitalia, a practice known also as female circumcision.

The AP reports:

Anyone who requests, incites, promotes or witnesses female circumcision is subject to a fine and imprisonment, Eritrea's information ministry said late Wednesday.

The ban was imposed on March 31.

"Female circumcision is a procedure that seriously endangers the health of women, causes them considerable pain and suffering besides threatening their lives," the government said.

With age-old cultural roots, female circumcision or genital mutilation, is practiced today in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and Egypt and other parts of the Arab world such as Yemen and Oman.

The mutilation usually involves removal of the clitoris. Those who practice it believe it tames a girl's sexual desires, maintains her honor and increases her marriageability. It is practiced by both Muslims and Christians.

The U.N. estimates up to 130 million women worldwide have undergone circumcision.

As the story points out, more than a dozen other African nations already ban female circumcision, although the bans are not rigorously enforced. Still, this is good news, even if only as another step in the stigmatization of this practice.