A Liberian journalist says she has been forced into hiding after lifting the lid on initiation rituals, including genital mutilation, by a secretive women’s society.
Mae Azango, a reporter with Liberian daily Front Page Africa, published a story on March 8 in which a woman recounted how when she was a child she was held down and had her clitoris sliced off by members of the Sande Society.
The society is an initiation school where women and girls are sent to be circumcised and groomed to be prepared for marriage, as culture and tradition demand in the west African state, Azango wrote.
Azango’s story was illustrated with pictures of initiated teenage girls emerging from the bush.
“A few days after I published the story, I received calls, anonymous calls, and women telling me that I have exposed their secret and I am going to pay the price,” Azango said in an interview from a secret location.
“I was only doing my job, now I am in trouble,” she said.
Azango said the punishment for exposing the secrets of the women’s initiation society was to be forced to undergo the ritual “whether you like it or not.”
“They have been hunting for me for weeks now. They have gone to my working area, they have been going to my house, and the worst of all is that they have attempted getting my daughter to have her initiated by force,” Azango said.
International media organizations and non-government organizations have called on government to step in, a difficult task for the regime as courts have no say in the matter.
“The court cannot do anything in this case. It is part of the customary law so it is beyond the control of the judiciary,” Liberian lawyer Emmanuel Capeheart said.
“It is the law of the traditional people. Once you have violated, it they can deal with you and the law cannot help you. If these women get Mae, they can carry her to the bush and she will stay there the longest, no one can go there to help,” Capeheart said.
The powerful secret societies, called Poro for men and Sande for women, are spread throughout west Africa.
The woman in Azango’s article, now aged 47, was forced to undergo initiation at 13 because of a crime committed by her mother in 1976.
Azango reported that 10 of Liberia’s 16 tribes practice female circumcision.
Liberian Information Minister Lewis Brown said the government had launched an investigation.
“The government’s attention has been seriously drawn to the report of threat against Miss Mae Azango ... the director of police has been instructed to protect the journalist who is daily in contact with the police,” Brown said.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is facing pressure on taboo issues such as female genital mutilation and homosexuality — especially after winning the Nobel Peace Prize last year.
“We find it troubling that Liberia, boasting Africa’s first female head, remains muted on the issue engulfed in controversy,” Front Page Africa said in an editorial.
“We hope that the debate emerging out of reporter Azango’s report will push government and society as a whole to educate the uninformed public about the dangers and risks involved,” the editorial said.
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