Corpun file 4770

Panafrican News Agency, Dakar, Senegal, 16 December 1999

Malian Girls Face Various Abuses At Schools

BAMAKO, Mali (PANA) - Malian girls are victims of various types of abuses from corporal punishment to sexual violence in the country's schools, according to a survey conducted by the Association for the Progress and Defence of Women's Rights.

Some 77 percent were abused verbally, 59.4 percent were victims of sexual violence, 39 percent have suffered corporal punishment and 14 percent talked of sexual discrimination, the association said.

The survey was conducted in four primary and in four secondary schools among 238 students who responded to the association's questionnaire.

The girls said the abuse came from school administrators, teachers and male classmates.

"This leads one to believe that everybody has a stake in a situation which is developing at the detriment of the young girls," Fatoumata Sire Diakite, the association's president, said.

The association, she added, decided to highlight this type of violence faced by the young women in order to sensitise the public to held stop the malpractice.