Rüdiger Nehberg passed away on Thursday at the age of 84. One who became known as “Sir Vival” and is quoted on his deathbed with the words: Somehow I’m a lucky guy! (…) Because I have experienced so much that it would be enough for three lives. “He was a survivor, adventurer and activist, a fighter for nature and the rights of all people nobody else looked at: like the Indian people“ Yanomami ”. Or the women in Africa who suffered from the cruel practice of female genital mutilation. In commemoration of this fight, we are relaunching an interview that Nehberg natur editor Jan Berndorff gave ten years ago on the occasion of the theatrical release of “Desert Flower”. A moving document that reminds you that it’s always worth getting involved.
The greatest civil war ever
nature: Mr. Nehberg, a survivor and wildlife expert is now campaigning for women’s rights against genital mutilation. How did that happen?
I first heard about it 30 years ago when I was crossing a desert in Ethiopia and came across a woman who had been severely mutilated during circumcision and who was now to be forcibly married to a man she hated. She had fled. I thought that was terrible even then, but at the time I was doing an 18-year project with Indians in Brazil to protect them from gold assault. And I didn’t dare to believe that as a small citizen you can change something. But then I learned from my experience with the Yanomami that nobody should consider themselves too small to be able to change anything. And then, 20 years after I met the woman, I was reminded: I was reading “Desert Flower” by Waris Dirie. And then I was so horrified that I could not continue reading in some places. I cried. Now I was ready to go against this custom.
How did you go about it?
At the beginning I thought that established organizations could support me politically. I do the actions and they provide the echo. But that was a complete disappointment. They all thought I was crazy. The stupidest arguments were that Islam was incapable of dialogue and genital mutilation was not a matter for men. So I and my wife Annette Weber founded my own organization in 2000: “Target”. First of all, it was about obtaining evidence to confront those responsible. So we flew to Africa and made photos and films of mutilation with a lot of patience. Annette and I complemented each other well, because on this topic it is of course important to have a man and woman in the team: she can’t get to the scholars and I can’t get to the mutilators. Our strategy from the beginning was: We do it with Islam as a partner where circumcision is the most common. And our goal was to have the practice declared sin from the very highest point. We started with a Sultan of the Afar people in Ethiopia who allowed us to drum up his 60 clan leaders. After they saw our pictures, they declared the custom to be sin and laid it down in the tribal law.
That means they weren’t even aware of what was going on before?
No, one hears very often: “Why do women always moan, as a man I am circumcised. This is not a comparison: the man only loses a piece of foreskin, but keeps his feeling of joy during sex. The woman, on the other hand, is literally destroyed – physically and mentally. With the Afar in Ethiopia, the most brutal form of all genital mutilation is common, the pharaonic circumcision. In the ritual, the relatives usually come together and sit on the four limbs of the girls so that they cannot defend themselves. Then the clitoris and all labia are cut off and afterwards the vagina is covered with thorns. The thighs are tied tightly so that the vagina grows together. There remains an opening the size of a grain of rice, which is kept open by inserting a straw. From then on, urination takes half an hour, usually 14 days; the blood only drains off with extreme abdominal pain and massage. The tools for the cuts are usually the most primitive: razor blades, broken glass, can lids, jagged knives, often led by old women who also have poor eyesight; without anesthesia, without any knowledge of anatomy – and without mercy. The girls are usually between five and ten years old. But there are also cases where the procedure is only carried out shortly before the wedding, up to the age of 17. However, some parents perform the mutilation two weeks after birth so that the children do not remember it later. If they survive, the United Nations estimates that about a third of girls die from the effects of this type of circumcision.
What is the point of circumcision?
The women should be made compliant, forced to be loyal. The mutilation takes away their sexual instinct, they lose interest in men. So they are degraded to everyday objects. Uncircumcised are considered instinctual, as prostitutes.
And is that justified with religion?
Female mutilation occurs in 35 countries. The majority are Muslim cultures, but Christians and other believers are also circumcised. The focus is on the Sahel region in Africa, northern Iraq, Malaysia and Indonesia. The Koran or the Bible are often used as a reason, but actually they are more like tribal rituals – traditions that nobody questions. For me it’s the biggest civil war ever – society against women.
Back to the Afar. Has this people now given up the custom?
As far as possible, yes – and within a few years. The word of the tribal elders and clergy has weight. From time to time we hear about the doctors in our mobile medical center, which we gave to the Afar, but still from circumcisions. Then we immediately turn on the clergymen, they call a village assembly and publicly reprimand the mutilators, who then swear aloud to Allah that they no longer have to do this and only work as a midwife.
Are they being punished too?
It is actually enough that honor and belonging to the group are at stake. But a year ago, genital mutilation was also included in a kind of blood revenge law. If someone destroys a girl now, it will be punished like a murder: 25 camels punishment for the mutilator, 25 for the family. That is ruin. This threat alone works wonders.
Doesn’t the population resent interference?
On the contrary: The Afar are grateful that we have broken this taboo. They even gave us a small hospital that was built with EU funds, but with which nobody really knew what to do because it is far out in the desert. We will start work there next year and also operate on girls with a closed vagina. If we don’t open it, it will happen on the wedding night: First the man tries with the penis; if that doesn’t work with the dagger. There are injuries that no longer heal in life. We want to protect the circumcised girls from that. In any case, our success and good contact with the Afar as a reference opened many doors for other cultures, for example in Djibouti or Mauritania. The breakthrough came when we managed to convene the ten highest Muslims in the world for a scholarly conference at the traditional Azhar University in Cairo, the largest Muslim educational institution.
How did you convince them to come?
It is very important to act in humility without Western arrogance, with respect for religion. I also prayed with the clergy and that’s how I started talking. UN diplomats or German ambassadors don’t seem to be able to do that. So it is an advantage as a lone fighter like us to be independent of a state or a party spirit. In any case, we were able to win over the Grand Sheikh of Azhar and the Minister of Religion of Egypt. Now I approached the Grand Mufti, Prof. Ali Gum’a. In Egypt, he is responsible for theological law in the Ministry of Justice, he can pronounce or overturn death sentences, even ignite or end wars. Only Allah is above him. I knew that he was principally against mutilation, I introduced him to the idea of the scholars’ conference and asked him if he would support it. When I told him that Target could pay the costs, he agreed, made the Azhar University conference room available to us, and even took over the patronage. And so this group decided to declare the custom a sin.
What’s next now?
We have now written the results of the conference with a foreword by the Grand Mufti in a golden book that will serve as a template for the preachers in the mosques. Every imam in all 35 countries where genital mutilation is common should get one so that he can deliver the message. We want to print four million copies. We’re even going to release a gold DVD because people trust filming of their spiritual leaders even more than the printed word.
How many books have you already finished?
Only 110000. So far, there was not enough money for more. We deliberately designed the book to be noble, not like a vocabulary book for ten cents that broke after three readings. The golden book is something that should exist alongside the Quran, it is made of synthetic leather with a magnetic clasp, color photos and golden decorations. One costs four euros to manufacture, plus shipping and customs as well as costs for the ceremonial handover. We will not be able to raise this through donations alone. We hope to find sponsors. Maybe we even get the money from an Islamic hand. Because it not only benefits women, but also the image of Islam. You would no longer have your image in the West determined by terrorists, but you could show the world that you can do good with the power of religion.
Did you actually meet the former supermodel and author of “Desert Flower” Waris Dirie yourself?
Yes, after our first success with the Afar in Ethiopia, a journalist from the Hamburger Abendblatt organized a meeting for us. She enthusiastically congratulated us. Since she was still a special ambassador for the United Nations at the time, I had the idea that she might be able to help us get the presidents of Africa with our film. She took the film with her and definitely wanted to do it. We then heard nothing for months, and when asked, she said she hadn’t been able to achieve anything. After three quarters of a year, I stopped asking because I thought she might not have the relationships. Instead of a tip, we found our film on their homepage: All references to Target were cut out, in the opening credits it was even said that the film was made under difficult conditions in collaboration with the UN, and in the end she dances half naked through the picture and advertises her perfumes and books. I threw up.
What did you do?
We immediately called their manager, who rejected us arrogantly. We sued her and she had to take the film off the web. For me, this woman is finished. I can only help her that I even came up with this subject through her.
Are there any other plans?
Yes many. My absolute dream is to put a banner with the message “Genital mutilation is a sin” during the main pilgrimage over the sacred place in Mecca. There are four million pilgrims coming, word would spread like wildfire around the world.
Is this realistic?
We need good advocates with whom we can convince the Saudi king. I would say the probability is not zero. We’re working on it.