Growing Up Sexually

Index → Africa→ Somalia

In Somalia urban areas, child marriage (sometimes at age 12) was rare; in agricultural areas, it was about age 15 (Warsame, Ismail)[1]. A law passed on January 11th, 1975, forbids marriage of females below age 16, and of males below 18.

Puccioni (1936:p90)[2]:

“Infibulation is regularly practiced on young girls. Ferrandi tells us that at Lugh the operation is performed at the age of seven or eight ([3]), while Zoli reports that it is done at the age of twelve or thirteen by the natives of the area beyond the Juba ([4])”.

Continued with Somali

Link:

http://fgmpadua.psy.unipd.it/MGF%20in%20Somalia.htm

Janssen, D. F., Growing Up Sexually. VolumeI. World Reference Atlas. 0.2 ed. 2004. Berlin: Magnus Hirschfeld Archive for Sexology

Last revised: Dec 2004

[1] Traditional Practices affecting the Health of Women and Children. WHO/EMRO Technical Report No. 2, Vol. 1. Report of a Seminar, Khartoum, 10-15 February, 1979, p139-40, 141-2; Warsame, M. (1982) Early marriage and teenage deliveries in Somalia, in Baasher, T. et al. (Eds.) Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children. WHO/EMRO Technical Report No. 2, Vol. 2, p134-7; Ismail, E. A. (1982) Child marriage in Somalia, in Baasher, T. et al. (Eds.) Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children. WHO/EMRO Technical Report No. 2, Vol. 2, p130-3

[2] Puccioni, N. (1936) Anthropology and Ethnography of the Peoples of Somalia. Bologna, Italy: Nicola Zanichelli. HRAF Ms

[3] U. Ferrandi, Lugh, cit., p419-20 [orig.footnote]

[4] C. Zoli, Notizie sul territorio […], cit., p290 [orig.footnote]