VOA标准英语2008年-Norway Arrest in Gambia Mutilation Case Raises

By Ricci Shryock
Dakar
10 June 2008

Norwegian authorities are calling for three Norwegian-born girls subjected to female genital mutilation in the Gambia to return to Europe. The father of the girls has been arrested in Norway following an investigation¹ by local human rights workers. But activists² in Africa say that rather than criminalizing the problem, it should be resolved at the community level. For VOA, Ricci Shryock has more from Dakar.

A spokeswoman for Oslo-based Human Rights Service Hege Storhaug says finding out about the girl's circumcision was part of an investigation to end the practice.

She says this led to her group finding out girls were being sent back to the Gambia to undergo what she calls a mutilation.

"They have been sent back in 2003," she said. "And all through 2003 they were circumcised. And this is the big battle now for the Norwegian authorities, how to get these girls back home to Norway."

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is legal in the Gambia, but the daughters in the Gambia are also Norwegian citizens. They are living with family in a rural part of the small country.

President Yayah Jammeh endorses³ the practice, and says it is an important part of local culture.

Storhaug says if Norwegian authorities take the girls back to Norway, they will most likely be put in foster care under the auspices⁴ of Norway's Child Protection Agency.

The father was arrested last week in Norway. The mother of the three girls is pregnant with her seventh child and Norwegian authorities judged her to be too weak to be behind bars.

As the director for Tostan, a non-profit in Dakar, Senegal that has been working with West African populations to eliminate FGM in the region for decades, Molly Melching says that it is important for the Gambian family to uphold Norwegian laws, but the fight to stop FGM must also take into consideration that this practice has been around for hundreds of years.

She adds advocacy must focus on changing people's minds rather than criminalizing it, because the community as a whole must decide to abandon the practice.

Idrisa Keita, a Tostan program officer in the Gambia, also works with the Gambian government woman's bureau. He says the group focuses on community-based education.

"Unless and until we educate them to know the human rights, democracy and the health implications of this practice, they will not easily abandon the practice," he explained.

Storhaug, the Norwegian spokeswoman, says she met the girls in the Gambia, and she thinks they are unhappy and suffering.

"These girls they are human beings," she added. "That's number one. They are not Gambians. They are not Norwegians. They are human beings and we have some standards here in Norway."

Melching says that through Tostan's experience, West African residents were much more likely to abandon the practice when approached from an internal, grassroots level, rather than when they are forced into it.

Groups such as Tostan work with villages to encourage the entire communities to make a declaration that puts an end to FGM. Melching says this method has worked with more than 3,000 villages in the Gambia's neighbor, Senegal.

1 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

2 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 endorses   

v.赞同( endorse的第三人称单数 )；在（尤指支票的）背面签字；在（文件的）背面写评论；在广告上说本人使用并赞同某产品

参考例句：

• There isn't one country in the Middle East that now endorses the Eisenhower Doctrine. 但至今没有一个中东国家认可它。 来自辞典例句
• Whether any of this truly endorses Dr Patel's hypothesis is moot. 这些视频能否真正证明帕特的假设成立还是个未知数。 来自互联网

4 auspices   

n.资助，赞助

参考例句：

• The association is under the auspices of Word Bank.这个组织是在世界银行的赞助下办的。
• The examination was held under the auspices of the government.这次考试是由政府主办的。