Daphne,

Brenda asked if I could respond to your one last question.  Female
circumcision, to my knowledge, isn't practiced here.  I checked with a
colleague who works in a hospital & I do know that this topic isn't
mentioned in any Ministry of Public Health documents.  One of our units
does include a section on hygiene and menstruation.  We have found that
women are interested in learning about family planning, other such
topics.  The difficulty is sometimes in convincing the folks who stay in
Kabul that women in villages are ready and willing to talk about these
topics.  Lisa



-----Original Message-----
From: womenliteracy-bounces at dev.nifl.gov
[mailto:womenliteracy-bounces at dev.nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Daphne
Greenberg
Sent: Friday, December 02, 2005 2:23 AM
To: womenliteracy at dev.nifl.gov
Subject: [WomenLiteracy] RE: women's issues and violence


Brenda,
Thanks for this very rich description, I think that it places things
into great perspective for us. Given the issues that you have described,
I was wondering if you know if female circumcision is widespread in
Afganistan? And if it is, is this something that health literacy classes
could/do cover in terms of at least encouraging women who believe in
performing this ritual to use hygenic methods? Or is this a topic that
is considered too sacred to address? Daphne