MONROVIA — As calls mount against female genital mutilation, a renowned Liberian health practitioner, Obediah G. Weahweah, has joined the bandwagon in condemning the unwholesome and willful practice in Liberia.
By Selma Lomax, [email protected]
Weahweah said the act melted against teenage girls in rural Liberia by traditional people is a gross violation of their human rights.
Weahweah lamented how the practice is on the increase in Rivercess County, where he is currently assigned as a health worker.
He further explained that the practice has denied many teenage school-going girls the opportunity to continue their primary and secondary education in most parts of the country, particularly in rural communities.
“Female genital mutilation has a greater negative impact on women who go through these harmful and forceful conscription by traditional leaders in these villages and towns”, he explained.
“This practice is harmful to the future of young girls coming up in a society where women are marginalized and abused on a daily basis, ” he continued.
He is meanwhile calling on the government of Liberia and international partners to take some strong measures against this barbaric humiliation of teenage girls in affected counties and communities.
Mr. Weahweah has also called on civil society organizations in the country and other national partners to pay keen attention to the situation before it goes offhand.
Already, the Organization for Women and Children (ORWOCH) and the Community Healthcare Initiative (CHI), have filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus at criminal court A against Hannah Tarr, the head of the Traditional Sande Society in Kpaans Town, and all those under her command.
The petition alleges that Tarr and her associates are responsible for the forceful abduction of four young women for alleged offensive behavior.
The victims were forcibly taken for initiation into the Sande society, a traditional bush society operating illegally in Kpaans Town, according to the petitioners.
