African Women's Organization - Vienna, Austria - Brief Article

"The African Women's Organization in Vienna was established in 1996 by Africans living in Vienna from Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Nigeria, Senegal, Egypt and other countries. We have a membership of about 120 women who are office workers, housewives, students and self-employed. We also have Austrian members who help us with our activities through advice and campaigns. We work with other community and women's organizations also governmental and non-governmental organizations

Our objectives are to create awareness and appreciation of the various political, economic, social and traditional problems women face in different societies particularly in Africa; to create and promote understanding and accommodation among different cultures and societies; and to assist the integration of women immigrants; working with the youth and women to promote African culture and tradition and to create a platform for cultural exchange and accomodation; campaigning against harmful traditional practices affecting women and children.

These objectives are realized through cultural exchanges, traditional shows, exhibitions, seminars and discussions. Every year we organize discussions on relevant issues concerning women. We especially use the celebration of International Women's Day March 8 for organizing seminars, discussions and cultural activities lasting two or three days.

Even though we have been addressing FGM through our various activities on culture and tradition, it was only in 1998 that our organization made the problem of FGM its area of priority. Our decision originated from the fact that there is a wide information gap on FGM in Austria and on the numerous requests received by our organization for information on FGM from various sectors of society. The main objective of the program is to prevent the practice of FGM among immigrants originating from FGM practicing countries and eliminate its practice in the FGM risk countries - where it is considered as part of communal tradition and custom - through cooperating with NGOs operating at the grassroot level.

AUSTRIA

OUR ORGANIZATION'S IMMEDIATE OBJECTIVES REGARDING FGM ARE:

- Creating awareness and understanding of the nature and magnitude of the problem, both by the local community as well as immigrants from the practicing countries. It is a continuous exercise and will be target specific and addresses various aspects of FGM: justifications, health, and medical, political, social and cultural, etc..

- Facilitating support and assistance to ongoing anti-FGM activities particularly in FGM risk countries of Africa.

- Establishing communication with existing FGM networks.

- Lobbying for FGM criminalization in Austria

- Involving religious leaders (Catholics, Muslims, Protestants, Coptics) to help with sensitization

- Providing education on reproductive health to immigrant mothers and also provide training to health facilitators dealing with immigrant women

- Organizing a resource center to be used for reference on FGM by students, researchers, health personnel, and others interested.

Our priority activity to date has been creation of awareness in different Austrian cities with a high population of African immigrants. A group of experts is addressing various aspects of FGM: health and medical, origin and reasons, political and legal, religious, social and cultural. This is a continuous exercise and will be in the future target specific, for example teachers, social workers, health facilitators, the police, students, religious leaders etc. Our organization had completed an assessment of the situation of FGM among immigrants in Austria and has made its findings official, showing that FGM is practiced by some immigrants in the country.

It also held a two-day international Conference on Oct 31 - Nov. 1, 2000. (see below).

These activities have boosted our efforts and as a result we intend to expand our activities in Austria as well as initiating cooperation with NGOs in Africa through the Inter African Committee (IAC) on traditional practices, who participated in the conference."

Editor's note: As result of the Conference held at the United Nations Centre in Vienna "the Austrian Parliament in its regular session Dec. 5, passed a resolution to criminalize FGM and to support anti-FGM activities."

COPYRIGHT 2001 Women's International Network
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group