Berhane Ras-Work

Berhane Ras-Work (born c.1940) is an Ethiopian anti-FGM activist. She was the founding President of the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (IAC).^[1]

Life

Born Berhane Asfaw, into a Christian Ethiopian family, she attended a European-run primary school and at the age of fifteen went to boarding school in Addis Ababa. She gained a BA in education at the Jesuit University.^[2] After marrying a US-trained engineer, Terrefe Ras-Work, she accompanied her husband to Geneva in 1970.^[3] She gained a MA in International Relations from the Graduate Institute of Development Studies in Geneva.^[4]

A television program "started her thinking" about female genital mutilation, and what could be done to raise consciousness and confront the issue.^[3] In 1977 diplomats and activists living in Geneva founded the NGO Working Group on Traditional Practices Affecting the Heath of Women and Children. This was a precursor to the IAC, which was founded in 1984. Ras-Work was elected the first IAC President at the inaugural meeting in Dakar.^[5]

In 1995 Berhane Ras-Work received the United Nations Population Award.^[4] In 2010 she was awarded the Grand Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria.^[6]

Works

• (ed.) Traditional practices affecting the health of women and children in Africa: report on a seminar. Dakar: Ministry of Public Health, 1978
• 'Female genital mutilations', Voices from Africa, No. 4, pp. 89–96
• 'Violence against women as a traditional practice', in Yvonne Preiswerk and Mary-Josée Burnier, eds., Tant qu’on a la santé: Les déterminants socio-économiques et culturels de la santé dansles relations sociales entre les femmes et les hommes, Genevalie: Graduate institute publications, 1998
• the unbidden pain. Janus publishing co, 2014. ISBN 978-1857568097