Debate on Female Genital Mutilation in Djibouti

Debate on Female Genital Mutilation in Djibouti Al-Jazeera TV (Qatar) February 4, 2005:

Newscaster:A regional convention on the phenomenon of female circumcision in Djibouti turned into a battleground between the clerics and Djibouti's government. This occurred when the recommendations included a clause stating that female circumcision, as practiced today, is a [human rights] violation, contrary to the previous agreement to permit female circumcision in the presence of a specialist doctor.

Reporter: This was the convention hall after the reading of the [initial] recommendations, which permitted female circumcision by specialist doctors. This is what the hall looked like when this clause was omitted, which meant no female circumcision would be permitted.

Many Muslim clerics from Djibouti left the hall in protest against what they considered a blatant breach of the agreement - in order to please the West.

Cleric: We agreed to prohibit the deadly Pharaonic circumcision and to keep the Sunni circumcision, in which we believe. We all agree on this. But then they changed it. That is why we left the hall.