The Ottawa Journal from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • Page 14

PAGE 14 OTTAWA JOURNAL SATURDAY, JULY 19, 1980 woirien-cJenouinice yw cnrcymsioim of females By Georgia Dullea COPENHAGEN Nawal was six years old on the night the strangers came to her house near the Nile River and pulled her from her bed. A hand reached out of the darkness and covered her mouth to stifle the screams. She remembers the feel of the cold tile of the bathroom floor where they placed her. She remembers the humming sound that reminded her of the butcher when he sharpened his knife before slaughtering a sheep for the festival. She remembers imagining that these strangers were about to cut her throat, for that was what happened to disobedient girls in the stories her grandmothers told her.

Instead, she was circumcized. In her pain, she opened her eyes and saw the blood and cried out for her mother. But her mother was standing there, among the midwives. Outspoken critic Today Nawal el-Saadawi is a 49-year-old medical doctor, a writer whose books are banned in her native Egypt, and an outspoken critic of female circumcision or "clitoridec-tomy," as she calls it. She was speaking out again this week at one of the many workshops being held here as part of the United Nations World Conference on Women.

According to international health authorities, female circumcision is currently practised in at least 26 countries, where it affects an estimated 30 million women. In a background paper prepared for the conference, the World Health Organization discusses Bolivian women storm meeting COPENHAGEN (AP) Sixty women stormed a United Nations women's conference in the Danish capital yesterday to protest the military coup in Bolivia. They fought with Danish police and several women were hurt. The Bolivian military overthrew interim President Lidia Gueiler on Thursday and annulled the outcome of last month's presidential election, thwarting leftist Hernan Siles Zuazo, who had been expected to succeed Gueiler as leader of the South American country. It was Bolivia's 189th coup in 155 years of independence.

Miner's wife The protesting women here were led by Domitila Barrios de Chungara, a Bolivian tfn miner's wife and mother of seven children, who was attending another women's conference being held nearby. She has been in conflict with Bolivian authorities for trying to organize women. Bolivian tin miners today challenged the coup and the military sent in tanks and troops to confront them. The protesters gathered outside the Copenhagen conference hall, site of the UN conference, holding up banners declaring "Support the Bolivian people's fight!" and "We denounce the Fascist military coup in Bolivia!" Several hurt When they tried to crowd through the doors to reach the meeting hall, police pushed them back, scuffles broke out and several women were hurt. Barrios demanded an opportunity to" explain the conditions of women in Bolivia to the president of the UN conference, Lise Oes-tergaard, who is Danish culture minister.

It was not immediately known whether Oestergaard agreed to see her. Five years after the start of the UN Decade, of Women, the 1,500 delegates from 140 countries are meeting in the Danish capital to set a plan of action for the next five years in their efforts to better the conditions of women. The conference, which began Monday, has been caught up in several political demonstrations and controversies. Morning readers know more niwon' practice and equipment which course TAX Dept. sq.

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The conference recommended the adoption of national policies and, where appropriate, laws against the circumcision of girls. It also called for more intensive education programs to demonstrate the dangers of female circumcision to the public as well as to the midwives, healers and doctors who still perform it. UN1CEF issued a statement here declaring itself "seriously committed" to working with governments to eradicate the circumcision of girls. It is thought to be the strongest statement ever made on the subject by an agency of the United Nations, which has been traditionally reluctant to speak out on matters concerning indigenous cultures. Female circumcision seems to be a popular and highly controversial subject for international discussion in the workshops that parallel the official EYE EXAMINATIONS'.

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822-0560 Public Works Canada Travaux publics Canada conference and that are being attended by more than women from all over the world. At least four workshops on "genital mutilation" are already scheduled and more are being Westerners shocked week's workshop illustrated the differing perspectives of World and Western women on and other sensitive issues being discussed. Many Western women here visibly shocked to learn that in African and Arab villages are circumcised between the ages of four eight In order to reduce their for sexual pleasure and hopefully guarantee their virginity before marriage. Waving a pamphlet Genital, and Sexual Mutilation of Females, a Swedish student an American, "Have you read This is barbarism, what they are the other hand, some Third women speak bitterly about they see as the interference of international feminists in a Third problem. At best, these feminists are well-meaning but ignorant, say, and at worst, they are the suffering of Third World for sensational value.

the workshop, a statement from Association of African Women for and Development set the Referring to "this new crusade West," the association warned women to avoid "ill-timed interference, maternalism, ethnocen-trism, and misuse of power" on the circumcision question. YORK TIMES CLASSES HELD AT 731 RICHMOND RD. 203 CATHERINE ST. DAY COURSE STARTS AUG. 5th 4 DAYS ONLY OTHER INSURANCE APPROVED COURSES START SOON "CALL" PROFESSIONAL DRIVING SCHOOLS THERE MUST BE A REASON WHY YOU SEE OUR CARS MORE OFTEN llilflP It- A 1 "1 it I $tc.

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