From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Tue Sep 16 2008 - 08:17:25 EDT
Page last updated at 10:04 GMT, Tuesday, 16 September 2008 11:04 UK
Tough choices for Eritrea's Three Sisters
Life on the Edge: Eritrea's Three Sisters
By Steve Bradshaw
Executive Producer, Life on the Edge
*Twenty-two-year-old Leyla is about to celebrate her daughter Menal's first
birthday. She will have to decide whether the celebrations should also
include Menal's circumcision.*
Although her family are taking it calmly, Leyla's actually wondering whether
to call it off.
Leyla has only had two children. But Amina, who is 35, has had six. Now she
is pregnant again and has to decide whether to have her seventh at home.
The alternative, as Amina sees it, is to take a big risk and trust a new
local hospital.
Howa has an easier decision to make - but not as simple as you might think.
She is being offered a hectare of land in a government scheme supported by
the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development.
The land would help Howa feed her four children, who she is bringing up on
her own.
The trouble is that local custom dictates women should not plough the land
and, without ploughing, it is hard to see how she would have any crops.
Leyla, Amina and Howa live in Eritrea's Gash Barka - a vast drought-prone
region and a rarely filmed corner of the Horn of Africa.
Our three sisters do not know each other, but they do have a friend in
common - Belainesh Seyoum, of the National Union of Eritrean Women.
Belainesh fought against Ethiopia in Eritrea's war for independence,
enlisting after her best friend was killed.
Belainesh and our three sisters are living in a country where women helped
win the war and one in three soldiers were female.
*Tricky choices*
Now, helped by changes in the constitution, they can make a stand for their
own rights. But it is not that easy - they will have to take on neighbours,
family, whole centuries of tradition.
And it is not always clear to Leyla, Amina or Howa how to unravel this
dilemma.
As Leyla says: "If a girl is circumcised...she can marry, she can get a
husband".
But at a Women's Union workshop, attended by her father, Leyla hears that
female circumcision has been outlawed, and is not dictated by religious
texts.
At a family lunch afterwards there is discussion on the matter, but that is
all.
"It was important that my father and relatives were there," Leyla says.
"If they were to continue to attend such meetings, I'm sure their attitudes
would be changed. As for me, I can't say. I can't make up my mind in just
three hours."
Meanwhile, Amina is still considering where to have her baby.
"I gave birth to all my children in this bed. All six were born here. I've
never gone to a hospital and I've never had any problems," she says.
Home births are dangerous and infant mortality rates are high here. With the
help of medically trained midwives, the government has been trying to lure
people to hospitals.
But, prompted by Belainesh, Amina reveals another reason for preferring a
home birth.
She would be able to enlist the local traditional birth attendants.
And they could be trusted to reconstitute the restrictive "stitching"
performed during some kinds of circumcision here.
But she says: "If I go to hospital, they will unstitch me. But after the
birth they refuse to do the re-stitching".
Berhana Haite, from Eritrea's Ministry of Health, warns strongly against
practices like re-stitching.
"Infection can happen... bleeding can happen. It's really a lifelong
suffering," she says.
Local doctors echo this warning but Amina remains unconvinced.
*A new front-line*
As for Howa, she does have the chance to work her land. The government
scheme includes a loan to help her pay a man to plough it for her.
But she is aware that this goes against the norm.
"People here believe a woman should not go out and leave small children
behind," she explains.
"I have to support my family, which is why I go to the market every Tuesday
to sell tea - even so, my neighbours gossip."
As Leyla, Amina and Howa have found, tradition and peer pressure are tough
constraints.
But they are strong-minded young women and there is a sense history on their
side.
During the war, women from traditional backgrounds were among those who
fought on the front-line.
"There was no distinction between men and women," says Belainesh.
"So we used to work together in the kitchen and we used to fight the enemy
together."
But the problem now is that there is no enemy, only tough dilemmas and
tricky choices.
How does Belainesh think our three sisters will decide?
"Leyla, I believe she will not circumcise her daughter. And Amina... maybe
65% she will deliver in the health centre. Howa - she has cultural pressure
- but she will break away because she has to come out of poverty to send her
children to school."
"Traditional attitudes do not change within a day or a month or a year," she
says. "It needs a lot of time to change in order to transform women to a
better life."
*Life on the Edge is broadcast on BBC World News on Tuesdays at 1930 GMT.
The films were made for the BBC by TVE.*
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