Isatou Touray Takes Government To Task The Point </publishers.html?passed_name=The%20Point&passed_location=Banjul> (Banjul) December 6, 2000 Banjul Isatou Touray secretary general of GAMCOTRAP and a gender activist has described the government's attitude towards women as contradictory. Mrs. Touray, who was speaking in an exclusive interview, argued that the picture is quite good, looking at the policy documents that are available throughout the country, and all the instruments that are in existence in support of women's empowerment and the promotion of women's rights. However, she said, in some instances the policy rhetoric is completely different from what happens in practice. For instance, there are programmes in place to address health issues such as family planning, female genital mutilation, early marriage and other cultural activities that hinder the progress and promotion of the rights of women. Despite these, even the state itself is promoting some of the negative aspects through which women's rights are being violated, she pointed out. "So there is a contradiction between policy rhetoric and practice," she added. Citing the FGM issue, as an example, Mrs. Touray said about 90% of women and children in the Gambia are subjected to the practice. She noted that following some of the pronouncements made on the issue, GAMCOTRAP decided not to give up, but to go back to the field and collect the required cultural statistical information, and that they are presently working with the Gambia government, the department of state for health, UNICEF, NGOs and the civil society to make a systematic documentation of the type of FGM in this country, as well as the reasons behind the practice. This is going to take a long time, which means a lot of children are being subjected to it meanwhile, because there is no policy pronouncement against it, even though in the documents harmful traditional practices are areas of concern in addressing women's reproductive and sexual health needs, she noted. On what needs to be done to address the issues, Mrs. Touray pointed out that the state has to practice what it preaches. So that if officials say women must be given the opportunity to have a choice in terms of their reproductive health, the radio programmes, for instance, should be geared towards, she said. This could mean not allowing an imam or an unprogressive religious leader to counter everything that is stated, for example. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------