Interventions to stop female genital cutting and the evolution of the custom: evidence from age at cutting in Senegal (2015)

Giulia Camilotti
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Giulia Camilotti: CRED - Centre de recherche en économie du développement - UNamur - Université de Namur [Namur]

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Abstract: Legal sanctions and awareness campaigns are increasingly used to try to reduce female genital cutting (FGC). In this paper I show that these interventions against FGC, rather than leading to the abandonment of the practice, can have unintended effects. Using DHS data from Senegal, I find that girls born in the year and in a region where a condemnation for breaking the law took place are cut almost one year earlier. No effect is found on FGC rate. Using a unique dataset from the region of Kolda in Senegal, I find a decreasing trend in age at cutting after the year of the introduction of the law sanctioning FGC. In both cases, I interpret the decrease in age as the result of a process of de-ritualisation and individualization of FGC due to the push towards secrecy of the practice.

Keywords: Senegal; customs; Female Genital Excision (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-06-14
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01815593

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