在线英语听力室

2006年VOA标准英语-Opposition Growing in Senegal and Guinea-Bissau

时间:2007-05-14 06:25:26

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号:tingroom,领取免费英语资料大礼包。

(单词翻译)

By Phuong Tran
Dakar
26 December 2006

Village leaders from a wide area of Senegal and Guinea-Bissau gathered this week to denounce the traditional practice of female genital mutilation. Public-health advocates have been working for years to educate communities about the health dangers of the custom, which persists in many African Islamic societies. Some West African villagers who practiced female circumcision in the past have now turned against the custom, and they are sharing their message with surrounding communities. Phuong Tran reports from VOA's West Africa bureau in Dakar.


 
Senegalese villager at public declaration ceremony against F.G.M. in Kidira, Senegal
Leaders from more than 100 villages along the Senegalese-Guinea-Bissau border came together on Sunday to publicly reject the practice of female genital mutilation, or F.G.M.

These border villages join hundreds of other communities in West Africa that have abandoned the custom of removing parts of young girls' genital organs, as a form of female circumcision. Some people consider this a religious requirement, to keep girls chaste1, but religious leaders say F.G.M. has no part in Islam.

When 33-year-old Binta Diallo first heard about the dangers of female circumcision in her village of Kolda, near Senegal's southern border with Guinea Bissau, she was shocked.

"It was a shock to me when I heard them describe the dangers," she said. "No one had ever said anything bad about it."

Health educators from the group live and teach in rural communities where F.G.M. is commonly practiced.

"The word gets out and people realize this is a human-rights violation2, that there are problems in childbirth, [and] later problems women have that they do not even realize were a direct consequence of this practice. Once they learn about germ transmission they get the fact that this practice led to the death of many of their daughters," said Molly Melching, executive director of Tostan, an American nonprofit health and human-rights group.

Senegal passed a law seven years ago prohibiting female genital mutilation, and government officials in Dakar have tried stringent3 enforcement measures, but the practice is still widespread in rural parts of the country.

Female genital mutilation is normally performed by traditional practitioners4 using crude scissors, knives or even razor blades -- often without anesthetics. The girls subjected to this run the risk of many long-term medical complications, such as damage to the urethra resulting in urinary incontinence, sexual dysfunction, urinary tract5 infection and infertility6. Some of these conditions have proven fatal during childbirth.

The Senegalese woman, Diallo , was 25 years old when she first heard about the dangers of F.G.M. She had undergone the procedure when she was nine years old, and had already cut the genitalia of her oldest daughter, at the time four years old.

"After I heard about the risks, I decided7 not to do that to my second daughter. We have made the decision never to go back to F.G.M., Allah willing," she said.

For  Melching there is more than health at stake. "It is not just a question of health, but everyone has the human right to have their whole body," she said.

 
Villagers use theatre, song and dance to denounce F.G.M., Sinthiou Maleme, Senegal
Tostan has worked with almost 2,000 communities that have issued public declarations to discourage the practice of female circumcision. Mencher says villages set up committees to monitor and report people who still continue to practice this form of mutilation against girls.

Although there is a growing movement to reject F.G.M., there is still lingering resistance from traditionalists. After the national Senegalese news service (APS) published a report about Sunday's mass meeting in Médina Poussang, and the anti-F.G.M. stand the community leaders endorsed8, readers submitted their comments on-line.

She said, "There was a reaction from Africans living in Europe and the United States, and they were criticizing the fact that people were giving up a cultural practice. But then the African women were responding and saying that you do not understand the harm and the suffering that has come about because of this practice."

"It is too easy to say that this a cultural practice that we have to maintain. The world is evolving and Africa is not a museum," she added.

According to the U.N. children's organization UNICEF, 130 million young girls and women worldwide have been victims of female genital mutilation. And F.G.M. continues to be legal in almost 30 African countries and Islamic societies around the world.


分享到:


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 chaste 8b6yt     
adj.贞洁的;有道德的;善良的;简朴的
参考例句:
  • Comparatively speaking,I like chaste poetry better.相比较而言,我更喜欢朴实无华的诗。
  • Tess was a chaste young girl.苔丝是一个善良的少女。
2 violation lLBzJ     
n.违反(行为),违背(行为),侵犯
参考例句:
  • He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说,那是违反规则的。
  • He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。
3 stringent gq4yz     
adj.严厉的;令人信服的;银根紧的
参考例句:
  • Financiers are calling for a relaxation of these stringent measures.金融家呼吁对这些严厉的措施予以放宽。
  • Some of the conditions in the contract are too stringent.合同中有几项条件太苛刻。
4 practitioners 4f6cea6bb06753de69fd05e8adbf90a8     
n.习艺者,实习者( practitioner的名词复数 );从业者(尤指医师)
参考例句:
  • one of the greatest practitioners of science fiction 最了不起的科幻小说家之一
  • The technique is experimental, but the list of its practitioners is growing. 这种技术是试验性的,但是采用它的人正在增加。 来自辞典例句
5 tract iJxz4     
n.传单,小册子,大片(土地或森林)
参考例句:
  • He owns a large tract of forest.他拥有一大片森林。
  • He wrote a tract on this subject.他曾对此写了一篇短文。
6 infertility 37ExE     
n.不肥沃,不毛;不育
参考例句:
  • It is the Geneva, Switzerland-based Biotech Company's second recombinant infertility drug. 它是瑞士生物技术公司在日内瓦的公司生产的第二种重组治疗不孕症的药。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术制药疫苗
  • Endometritis is a cause of infertility. 子宫内膜炎是不育的原子。 来自辞典例句
7 decided lvqzZd     
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
参考例句:
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
8 endorsed a604e73131bb1a34283a5ebcd349def4     
vt.& vi.endorse的过去式或过去分词形式v.赞同( endorse的过去式和过去分词 );在(尤指支票的)背面签字;在(文件的)背面写评论;在广告上说本人使用并赞同某产品
参考例句:
  • The committee endorsed an initiative by the chairman to enter discussion about a possible merger. 委员会通过了主席提出的新方案,开始就可能进行的并购进行讨论。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The government has broadly endorsed a research paper proposing new educational targets for 14-year-olds. 政府基本上支持建议对14 岁少年实行新教育目标的研究报告。 来自《简明英汉词典》

本文本内容来源于互联网抓取和网友提交,仅供参考,部分栏目没有内容,如果您有更合适的内容,欢迎 点击提交 分享给大家。