Mali must answer a renewed pro excision campaign with a clear national law that protects the bodily integrity dignity and future of every girl
By Dr Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana
Dr Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana in the European Parliament © Dr Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana Strasbourg 2024
A coordinated social media campaign in Mali is attempting to recast female genital mutilation as protection. A razor blade cannot protect a girl. Mali should reject this dangerous message, stand with its own women’s rights defenders and enact a national law prohibiting every form of FGM.
A razor blade cannot protect a girl
Since mid-August 2026, anonymous accounts on Facebook and other platforms have circulated artificial intelligence-generated posters promoting female genital mutilation in Mali. Some carry the message, “In Mali, yes to excision. Let us protect girls and build their future.” The images have provoked strong opposition from Malian women’s rights advocates, health professionals and civil society organisations.
The slogan turns protection on its head. Female genital mutilation means the partial or total removal of external female genitalia, or another injury to the female genital organs, for non-medical reasons. It can cause severe bleeding, infection, chronic pain, urinary and menstrual problems, complications in childbirth, psychological trauma and lasting sexual harm.
A razor blade does not protect a girl. It mutilates her.
This renewed campaign is especially alarming because the law still leaves Malian girls without specific national protection from FGM. Mali’s 2024 Penal Code addresses violence generally but does not name the practice. The latest Demographic and Health Survey reported that 89 per cent of Malian women and girls aged 15 to 49 had undergone FGM.
Mali needs a specific law
The time has come to legislate. I appeal to Mali’s authorities and lawmakers, as well as its religious and community leaders, to listen to the Malian women and civil society organisations that have demanded protection for girls for decades. Mali should enact a national law explicitly prohibiting all forms of female genital mutilation.
Such a law would not be an attack on Malian culture. It would protect Malian children. It would not be an attack on religion. It would defend bodily integrity and human dignity. Nor would it be a demand imposed from outside. Malian women and men, doctors, educators, community leaders and human rights defenders have led this struggle for generations.
A law will not change attitudes overnight. It must be supported by prevention, survivor care, education, community dialogue and the meaningful involvement of religious leaders. But the absence of a specific law also sends a message. It allows those who promote FGM to treat inaction as acceptance.
Malian activists deserve full support
I express my complete solidarity with the Malian women who work every day to end FGM. This appeal is deeply personal. I was born in Bamako, and Mali is part of my own history. As a daughter of this land, I stand with the courageous women who refuse to let another generation of girls endure the suffering experienced by their mothers and grandmothers.
The testimonies shared by Malian survivors are painful. Behind every statistic is a child. Behind every appeal to tradition is a human being whose health, dignity and future may be permanently affected.
To Malian survivors and activists I say clearly that you are not alone and your struggle is ours too
As a former Member of the European Parliament and rapporteur for my political group on the Parliament’s 12 February 2020 resolution on ending FGM worldwide, I helped carry this cause at the European level. Today, as patron of the German INTEGRA network of organisations working to end FGM, I reaffirm my solidarity with everyone pursuing this struggle in Mali and across the diaspora.
A commitment rooted in Mali
This commitment goes back many years. Since 2007, FORWARD-Germany, now FORWARD for Women e.V., has worked with the Association for the Advancement and Defence of Women’s Rights, known by its French acronym APDF. The organisation was founded by our late friend Fatoumata Siré Diakité, a leading Malian advocate for women’s rights who also served as Mali’s ambassador to Germany.
We supported APDF prevention and awareness work, including the Youth Caravan No to Female Genital Mutilation, which travelled across Mali to inform young people about the consequences of the practice. I described that commitment in my 2007 article Berlin à l’heure du Mali.
I know the determination of Malian activists. Their long struggle deserves to culminate in lasting legal and social change.
FGM is not required by Islam
FGM must never be presented as a religious obligation. It predates Islam and Christianity and has no basis in either faith’s sacred texts. An old custom does not become legitimate merely because it has survived for generations.
In November 2006, an international conference convened in Cairo by Egypt’s Dar al Ifta brought together Muslim scholars, medical specialists, researchers and civil society advocates. It concluded that the mutilation practised in parts of Africa and elsewhere was a deplorable custom with no justification in the Qur’an or the practice of the Prophet Muhammad. The conference called for education, prevention and laws prohibiting FGM.
This conclusion reflects a central Islamic principle: neither inflict harm nor accept harm. The evidence is clear that FGM has no health benefit and can cause serious physical and psychological injury. Religion should offer protection and compassion, not a justification for irreversible violence against children.
Traditions can change
Opposing FGM does not mean opposing Mali, Africa or African traditions. Societies have always revised customs when experience shows that they cause harm. A practice that damages health, violates bodily integrity and denies dignity must be open to scrutiny and abandonment.
We must also reject the claim that FGM safeguards morality or controls a girl’s future conduct. A woman’s virtue cannot be measured by the part of her body that has been removed.
Education protects Knowledge protects The law protects The blade does not
A historic choice for Mali
This debate raises a fundamental question about the society Mali wishes to leave to its girls. Will their bodies remain vulnerable to mutilation in the name of tradition, or will the nation affirm that every girl is born with dignity, bodily integrity and rights that no one may take from her?
I call on Mali’s authorities to begin the process of enacting a national law that explicitly prohibits every form of FGM. The legal framework should be accompanied by well-funded prevention, survivor protection and care, public education, enforcement mechanisms and sustained dialogue with communities and religious leaders.
The coordinated online campaign has made silence impossible. To the Malian women who have fought for decades, I renew my solidarity. To survivors, your voices matter. To girls at risk, your bodies belong to you. To Mali’s political leaders, it is time to act.
No to female genital mutilation in Mali Yes to a law Yes to the bodily integrity dignity and future of girls and women
Dr. phil. Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana, M.A., is an honorary citizen of Erlangen, a former Member of the European Parliament, a founding member and vice president of FORWARD-Germany and patron of the German INTEGRA network.
