The role of Open Data as a social justice entity
Conference Presentation
2018
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International Data Week 2018 - CODATA
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Abstract
This conference paper presents the role that open data is playing in creating open maps to rescue girls that are schedules for female gender mutilation (FGM), thus giving hope to a girl child in Tanzania. Literature indicates that there have been reports of young girls losing lives during or becoming disabled after the FGM procedures in many occasions; and the creation of open maps through the use of open data has made it possible to locate girls that need rescue from scheduled procedures. FGM practice aims to ensure premarital virginity and marital fidelity, as FGM is believed to reduce a woman's libido, which is also believed to help women resist extramarital sexual acts. FGM is on its own a social injustice practice that is intended to glorify men at the expense of the health and lives of the girl children. Open data, has therefore, presented an opportunity to save girls from the harmful FGM practice.