Genital surgery helps Burkina's mutilated women

By Naomi Schwarz

OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) - Abi Sanon was seven days old when she went under the knife.

Growing up in Burkina Faso, she thought all women had part of their clitoris cut out in an age-old custom practiced in various forms in much of Africa and parts of the Middle East.

"But when I got older, I had friends who had not been excised, from Burkina Faso, but especially my Ivorian, Beninoise, and Cameroonian friends," said Sanon, 35.

"I learned that for them sexuality was pleasurable, whereas for me it was mostly painful."

Now help is at hand for Sanon and women like her in the poor West African country, in the form of a surgical operation to reconstruct the clitoris and restore some sexual sensation.

Sanon first heard of the procedure being performed far away in Paris, but could not get a visa.

Then she heard the surgery was available in Burkina Faso, a country cited by experts as one of the most progressive in trying to end the tradition, and the first in Africa to make the reconstructive surgery available.

"I went to the doctor the next day," she told Reuters.

The surgery costs around $150 at public hospitals here, although Sanon's husband helped pay the extra to have the operation at a private clinic, which can cost as much as $400.

As many as three-quarters of women in this landlocked former French colony have undergone a ritual variously referred to as female circumcision, genital cutting or genital mutilation.

Variations range from superficial incisions to removal of the exposed section of the clitoris and labia of the vagina, which is sometimes sewn up with only a small opening left.

The procedure often takes place in unsanitary conditions with no anesthetic. Many girls die from infections before the wound heals; others suffer long-term health problems including sometimes fatal complications during childbirth.

The phenomenon is widespread despite being outlawed in many African countries, affecting more than 90 percent of women in some parts of East and West Africa.

"Sexuality, sexual desire of women remains a taboo," said Alice Behrendt, who studies the custom in West Africa for children's advocacy organization Plan International.

"Men are still very afraid of women being unfaithful, and most parents refuse to abstain from excision because they fear their daughters will express sexual desire and it will bring problems for the family such as early pregnancy," she said.