By Taro Matsuoka - NEWSDESK - 14 Mar 2003 02:01

ASMARA, March 14 (Reuters) - Abrahten Grmay has been carrying out female circumcisions since she was 17.

As the village circumciser in the remote Anseba region of Eritrea, she says she has carried out 30,000 operations over half a century on young girls and more commonly on babies.

Now 67, her white robe flies from her muscular arms as she demonstrates how she used to ply her trade with a razor blade.

"To them I was God," she says, claiming that none of her operations ended in complications. "They treated me with so much respect."

For many people worldwide, the female circumcision that Abrahten describes is little more than a violation of basic human rights.

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), as it is commonly called, involves removing some or all of the external genitalia. It can drastically limit normal bodily functions and cause long-term physical and psychological damage.

In most of the cases carried out in Eritrea, only the clitoris is removed. On occasion, the clitoris and inner labia are cut and the outer labia stitched together, leaving only a small hole for the flow of urine and menstrual blood.

Some forms of FGM leave scar tissue which has to be cut open before sexual intercourse and the birth of each child.

But for communities which practise it the tradition is a rite of passage from girlhood to womanhood.

They say it also reduces a woman's sex drive, therefore serving to limit promiscuity.

According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), 95 percent of Eritrean women have been circumcised.

Researchers and government officials say the process -- also known as sunna in cases where the clitoris is removed -- is just one of many ways that women are subjugated in poor, illiterate and patriarchal societies.

EMBEDDED TRADITION

Despite the bad publicity FGM has received from human rights groups, the government of the tiny Red Sea state has decided not to legislate against it because it has a long tradition in Eritrean society.

Officials say trying to pass laws against it would only push it underground and prove even more dangerous for the women involved.

Although humanitarian organisations like UNICEF have urged all governments to outlaw female circumcision, they recognise that a ban could, in certain cases, be damaging.

"Attempts by countries such as Tanzania, Egypt, and Sudan to enact laws on FGM only led to underground and cross-border movement to have the girls circumcised," UNICEF said in a 2001 report.

Yet the practice has considerable risks.

It is usually performed by amateurs without modern medical facilities and sometimes leads to death.

Eritreans do not discuss FGM openly because it is taboo to talk about sex in general.

However, people's fear of a clampdown is leading to more secrecy than a decade ago when the government launched a campaign against the ancient practice.

Abrahten herself stopped circumcising in 1983, after rebels came to her village and complained about the practice.

Since then she has been an instructor in the campaign against FGM but says that although she no longer knows anyone carrying out circumcisions, the practice is still rife.

GENDER EQUALITY

Eritrean government officials say FGM is just one of a host of gender issues that must be tackled if women are achieve equal rights.

Part of the fight is changing the belief that female circumcision makes girls beautiful, as well as chaste.

"When you talk about FGM, you have to first talk about gender issues," said Sister Yihdega Andehaemanot, project coordinator of the health ministry. "You have to raise the awareness first."

UNICEF Eritrea has trained 150 male and female members of the national youth association to help raise awareness on gender issues across the country.

Yihdega said she and her trainees have succeeded in making some small steps towards tackling gender inequalities, such as encouraging boys to help with chores at home.

"They're changing. Not much. But they're starting to change," she said, pointing to a chart on the wall which showed a woman climbing a flight of stairs. The word "awareness" was written on the first step.

"It's a long process," she said.