By Olimatou Coker
A weeklong caravan and advocacy tour is underway across the country. The tour is organized by CSO Gender Platform and will hold consultations and radio programs on popularization of women’s rights and promotion of the newly glorified FGM law with local council and district authorities.
The objectives of the 8-day caravan are, according to the Gender Platform, for local leaders to understand the health complications related to FGM and use their platforms to push back against the repeal of the law and build a strong community solidarity framework for social mobilization and advocacy against all forms of GBV.
In her deliberations, rural women’s leader and rights advocate, Jonsaba Jawara, from the North Bank Region, on Monday called on government to ban taba (sex stimulant made from tobacco leaf) like it did with FGM.
She said the issue of the stimulant taba should not be ignored because it is too causing to women.
“There has to be a law banning it and its importation in the country. I have personal experience of the harm it does to women,” she said.
She narrated how young women use it also as way of securing fast labour which she said is false and misleading.
“Most ignorant people also use in their private parts as treatment for certain illnesses and infections while the majority use it for enhancement of sexual pleasure,” she said.
