"It is important to know that before, there was no lawalawa." Working to stop female genital mutilation in Tanzania.

This article is about efforts to unearth the facts about a myth in Tanzania about lawalawa, and the use of female genital mutilation (FGM) by some Tanzanian ethnic groups to cure lawalawa. The term lawalawa, used to describe certain vaginal and urinary tract infections, appeared soon after 1968, following the ban on FGM in the Arusha Declaration, and is still used today. When working with these ethnic groups on the subject of eliminating FGM, one always hears about lawalawa. Today, the arguments for using FGM to cure lawalawa are used not only in relation to small children, but also adolescent girls and boys. Lawalawa is not always limited to vaginal and urinary tract infections, but sometimes also when girls or boys have a fever for other reasons. This article is based on information from the continuous work against FGM in 45 villages by the Singida and Dodoma chapters of the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices, Tanzania, from 2003 through 2012. The lesson we have learned is that the only way of eliminating FGM is to accept lawalawa as a fact and to give information and counselling. Only in this way, and not by force, will it be possible to break the connection between lawalawa and FGM.

A glimpse into 30 years of struggle against prostitution by the women's liberation movement in Norway.

The Women's Front of Norway has worked against prostitution for 30 years. In 2008 a law criminalizing the purchase of a sexual act was passed in Norway. This article describes the struggle and the main actors in lobbying for the law. In the 1980s, we raised awareness of prostitution and trafficking in women in a study of the pornography industry, and targeted sex tourist agencies organizing trips to the Philippines and Thailand. In the 1990s, our members in trade unions got their unions to take a stand against prostitution and against legalizing prostitution as "work". In 2006, the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions Congress supported a law criminalizing the buyer of a sexual act; this had a strong impact on the centre-left coalition Government. We invited leaders of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women to Norway to meet parliamentarians and trade unionists, and kept up the pressure. From the start, the focus was on ensuring that the situation for women in prostitution was ameliorated. Our demands have been for better social services and job training. Street prostitution, especially in Oslo, has been curbed, and a growth in the indoor market has not been reported. Our next task is participating in the awareness campaign "Buying Sex is not a Sport" in connection with the Soccer World Cup, South Africa, 2010.