Mauritania

Address: BP 3772, Nouakchott

Tel. (+222)-525 38 60; (+222)-525 71 89 (direct line)

Fax: (+222)-525 13 85

Contact: Mme Mariame Baba Sy

Mahjouba was raped in March on the nighttime streets of Mauritania's capital, but she will not bring charges against the man she says did it since she may be the one who ends up in prison. The 25-year-old says the legal advice she received was to not go to court, leaving her to suffer in silence. There is no law in Mauritania that defines rape. According to a local U.N.-funded group working with the victims, the law criminalizes the women instead of their rapists -- and society ostracizes the women.

Le 6 février le monde entier a célébré la journée de la « Tolérance Zéro Excision ou Mutilations Génitales Féminines » avec l’ultime conviction que cette pratique nuisible pour la santé des femmes prendra fin. Pourquoi avoir choisi cette date ? Le 6 février 1984 le Comité Inter-Africain (CI-AF) était porté sur les fonds baptismaux à Dakar, à la suite d’une conférence internationale  qui avait pour but de lutter contre les pratiques traditionnelles néfastes à la santé de la femme. Dans 28 pays d’Afrique des millions de fillettes subissent encore cette opération, mais aussi en Europe, en Australie, au Moyen-Orient et aux Etats-Unis.

Efforts to eradicate female genital circumcision in West Africa have taken a step forward with a fatwa against the practice in Mauritania and sanctions in Niger against mothers who subject their daughters to it. Known also as female genital mutilation (FGM), the tradition involves removing external parts of a girl's genitals and sometimes narrowing the vaginal opening. Bleeding, disease and problems in urinating and childbirth can result for millions of victims each year in Africa and the Middle East.