With the 16 Days of Activism campaign in place to combat gender-based violence, HUMAN ACCESS conducted three public awareness-raising events in Hadhramaut and Al-Mahra governorates to protect women and girls from violence, as part of a UNFPA-funded project to combat female genital mutilations (FGM).
Given the spread of digital violence and electronic blackmail, this topic was the subject of two awareness sessions.
The first session was in Mukalla city, targeting students of the Girls College at Hadhramaut University, and the second was in Al-Ghaydah city of Al-Mahra, targeting about 63 female students from Khawla Bint Al-Azwar School. The goal was to educate the beneficiaries about the dangers and ways of preventing this widespread violence in our world today.
A workshop was held in Seiyun city in the presence of officials from the Ministry of Endowments and Guidance office in Wadi Hadhramaut, which confirmed that female circumcision has nothing to do with religion, but rather is a wrong social practice that is harmful and constitutes a form of gender-based violence.
Furthermore, the discussions confirmed that religious scholars should be involved in eradicating this phenomenon, given their prominent role in society.
