The prevalence of female genital mutilation in Kenya has fallen from 50 per cent in 1999 to 34 per cent now. (What this figure actually refers to isn’t entirely clear – presumably girls emerging from the danger period.)
And showing that it is possible to almost stop the mutilation entirely, in Cameroon, the rate has fallen from 20 per cent to 1 per cent.
And in Nigeria, Kano state which adopted shariah and threatened to stone women for adultery (there were a couple of highly publicised cases) has toned down the approach, the New York Times reports, with the once Iranian-style religious police being reduced to directing traffic and guiding at football stadiums. Amina Lawal, one of the women threatened with stoning, is now a local political activist.
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