International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation – 6 February

Dear World – THIS IS A WAKE UP CALL.

The United Nations website has a message from the Secretary General
“The Sustainable Development Goals contain a specific target calling for an end to FGM. When this practice is fully abandoned, positive effects will reverberate across societies as girls and women reclaim their health, human rights and vast potential.”
http://www.un.org/en/events/femalegenitalmutilationday/

The following article is a Tablet of Truth which is spelling out what we ALL need to know about Female Genital Mutilation.

Over 8000 words, written by a man who has obviously done his research, so we can get the highlights of this “barbaric and inhumane procedure that makes no sense at all.”

Could it be possible that there is an underworld operating that will never make it to research or statistics and this means we only have the tip of the iceberg here being presented?

In other words – we are not aware of the real truth about the scale of this inhumane act.

Buckle up and be warned – you may be disturbed or not like what is being presented.

The question we should ALL be asking is –

How on earth is Female Genital Mutilation still going on in the 21st century?

Female Genital Mutilation
by Tim Bowyer

I had heard about Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) before, probably on the news or in a newspaper, but I didn’t give it any attention. It was one of those subjects that was horrible to hear about, but because it didn’t affect ME, I had no reason to give it any more thought.

Last year, I attended a presentation about FGM.

The presentation was quite short, about 25-30 minutes, but it opened my eyes to the true horrors of FGM and how, even in today’s society, it was still very prevalent.

A few weeks after the presentation while listening to the news on the radio, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that they now considered FGM to be a child abuse issue.

My first thought was, “Why is it only now that it is considered a child abuse issue?”

FGM is widely recognised as a human rights violation, but surely, it should have ALWAYS been considered a child abuse issue?

So what exactly is FGM?

FGM is more commonly known as ‘female circumcision’ or ‘cutting’ and by other terms such as Sunna, Gudniin, Halayas, Tahur, Megrez and Khitan among others.

It is generally carried out on girls between infancy and age fifteen, but has been known to be performed on young women up to age twenty.

FGM is a procedure where the female genitals are purposefully cut, removed, changed or damaged, with no medical reason for doing so. It is usually done by traditional ‘circumcisers’ or ‘cutters’ who do not have any medical background or training. It is generally carried out in non-sterile conditions using implements such as knives, scissors, razor blades, tin can lids and broken glass, which of course may lend itself to the greater possibility of infection.

There are four types of FGM: (1)

Type 1: Often referred to as ‘clitoridectomy’, this is the partial or total removal of the clitoris, (a small, sensitive and erectile part of the female genitals), and in very rare cases, only the prepuce (the fold of skin surrounding the clitoris).

Type 2: Often referred to as ‘excision’, this is the partial or total removal of the clitoris and the labia minora (the inner folds of skin) with or without the excision of the labia majora (the outer folds of skin of the vulva).

Type 3: Often referred to as ‘infibulation’, this is the narrowing of the vaginal opening through the creation of a covering seal. The seal is formed by cutting and repositioning the labia minora, or labia majora, sometimes through stitching, with or without removal of the clitoris (clitoridectomy).

Type 4: This includes all other harmful procedures to the female genitalia for non-medical reasons, e.g. pricking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterizing the genital area.

There are absolutely no health benefits to these procedures.

The harm they cause, on the other hand, is very extensive.

Short-term problems can include:

  • Severe pain
  • Excessive bleeding
  • Genital tissue swelling
  • Urinary problems
  • Fever
  • Infections
  • Wound healing problems
  • Injury to surrounding tissue
  • Shock
  • Death

Long-term problems can include:

  • Urinary problems/infections
  • Constant pain
  • Cysts and abscesses
  • Vaginal problems (discharge, itching, bacterial vaginosis)
  • HIV (the cutting of genital tissue with the same instrument could increase the possibility of contracting HIV)
  • Menstrual problems (painful menstruations, difficulty in passing menstrual blood)
  • Scar tissue and keloid scars
  • Sexual problems (pain during intercourse, decreased satisfaction, frigidity)
  • Infertility
  • Increased risk of childbirth complications (difficult delivery, excessive bleeding, caesarean section, stillbirth)
  • The need for later surgeries, e.g. if type 3 (infibulation) has been done, then defibulation will be needed, which is when the woman is cut open to allow for intercourse and childbirth. Sometimes genital tissue is stitched again several times, including after childbirth; hence the woman goes through repeated opening and closing procedures, further increasing both immediate and long term risks
  • Psychological problems: depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, low self-esteem, self-harm

There are many countries that still perform FGM as part of their culture or tradition.

According to the ‘WHO’, there are more than 200 million girls and women alive today that have been ‘cut’ in over 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia where FGM is mainly concentrated. (1)

Because of migration, there are now many more countries that have started to see the rise of FGM, even though it is illegal in most countries.

According to an article written by Alexandra Topping and Mary Carson of the Guardian newspaper, there was a report in 2013 on FGM by a coalition of medical groups, trade unions and human rights organisations, that estimated that there are 66,000 victims of FGM in England and Wales and warns that more than 24,000 girls under 15 are at risk. More than 2,000 victims of FGM have sought treatment in London hospitals alone in the past 3 years. (2)

FGM has been illegal in the UK since 1985, and, since 2003, it has been illegal for anyone taking a child out of the UK to be ‘cut’, with the perpetrators facing 14 years in prison.

Communities at particular risk of FGM in the UK originate from:

  • Egypt
  • Eritrea
  • Ethiopia
  • Gambia
  • Guinea
  • Indonesia
  • Ivory Coast
  • Kenya
  • Liberia
  • Malaysia
  • Mali
  • Nigeria
  • Sierra Leone
  • Somalia
  • Sudan
  • Yemen

In Scotland alone, the African population has more than doubled since 2001 from 22,049 – 46,742 and with the rising cost of air travel, the number of girls having FGM performed on them in the UK has increased.

What was happening before was that families would take their children back to their countries in the holidays and have the procedure done. But, because it was becoming more and more expensive to go back home, families would join with other families and pool their resources and bring a ‘cutter’ from their country to the UK, to perform FGM on a group of girls.

In September 2016, the BBC published an article about the lack of convictions of those who perpetrate FGM being ‘a national scandal’, as no one has been convicted in the 30 years since FGM was made illegal, say the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee. Only one prosecution has been brought to trial since 1985 and both defendants in that case were cleared last year. (3)

A woman from the West Midlands is the first person in the UK to be given a joint court order to protect her from both forced marriage and FGM. Zara (name changed to protect her identity), says, “I was 17 when my father’s family in South Asia started telling him that I should be thinking about getting married with an arranged wedding proposal coming up that same year. We were fixing a date when all of a sudden it was called off.” She later discovered the reason was because she hadn’t undergone ‘female circumcision’. Among the ‘traditional voices’ within her father’s community, FGM is often viewed as an expectation, and she was being labelled as “not respectable, not Muslim” for not having undergone it.

Her father had also begun to receive threats, including from family members, saying he was “not doing his job as a father” for allowing her NOT to have it.

Over time the pressure grew. With other potential marriages falling through for the same reason and with the fear of having to undergo FGM Zara developed mental health problems. “It got to a point where I stopped eating. I had no hopes for my future. I fainted quite a few times”, she says.

In the end, Zara booked an appointment to discuss FGM with her GP and was told that the process was illegal. Zara was told to contact the NSPCC who then referred her to West Midlands Police. Zara informed them that she believed she was at imminent risk of her father arranging a forced marriage and that she could be taken abroad to undergo FGM.

Zara’s father was questioned on FGM and forced marriage allegations, though he was not charged with any offences. (4)

When, Where and Why did FGM start?

There are many theories on the origins of FGM but it seems that no-one really knows the precise time, place or reason that FGM came about.

One source is from ‘Herodotus’ (484-425/413 BC). Herodotus was a writer who invented the field of study known today as ‘History’. He was known by the Roman’s as the ‘Father of History and he reported the practice of ‘recission’ as a Hittite (modern day Turkey), Ethiopian, Egyptian and Phoenician (modern day Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Jordan) custom. (5)

There was mention in a Greek papyrus dated 163 BC about FGM being performed on girls in Memphis, Egypt, when they reach an age of receiving their dowries, which supports theories that FGM originated as a form of initiation for young girls and women. Other theories support an ancient African puberty ritual. (5)

There are also writings by a Greek historian called Strabo. Strabo lived from 64 BC to 24 AD and he visited Egypt around 25BC. He writes in his 17 volume work, Geographica, that, ‘a custom zealously followed was that of circumcision of the boys and excision of the girls’, which he noticed as a depiction on the tomb of Ankh-Ma-Hor, a 6th Dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh (2380 – 2340 BC). (5)

In the 6th Century AD, a Greek physician by the name of Aetios says the ‘cutting was necessary in the presence of an overly large clitoris to prevent an erection like males and to deter lesbian relationships and to also prevent stimulating the appetite for sexual intercourse because of the continued rubbing against the clothes’. (5)

Another Greek doctor, Sommus, who lived in Alexandria and Rome in the 8th Century AD reported that ‘it was practiced to decrease female sexual desire’. (5)

Where infibulation (type 3 FGM) is concerned, its origins seem to stem from Ancient Rome where Fibulae (brooches) were used on female slaves, by piercing their labia to prevent sexual activity. That was thought to tire the male slaves and to prevent any pregnancies.

Fast forward several centuries to an article published in the Lancet in 1822 where the German surgeon, Graefe, claimed to have successfully treated, by excision of the clitoris, a girl suffering from “excessive masturbation and nymphomania”.

In 19th Century England, masturbation was considered to be responsible for several cerebral and nervous functional disorders ranging from epilepsy and insanity and a ‘clitoridectomy’ was regarded as a healing solution. (5)

In 1966 the American so called “Love Surgeon”, Dr. James Burt, started to perform clitoral dislocation procedures in health care institutions. He was of the belief that excision doesn’t prevent sexual pleasure but instead improves it. In his 1975 book called ‘Surgery of Love’, he wrote, “women are structurally inadequate for intercourse. This is a pathological condition amenable by surgery”. He claimed his surgery would turn women into “horny little mice” and claims that “the difference between rape and rapture is salesmanship”. (6)

The surgeries that Burt performed caused many issues including, sexual dis-function, infection and the need for corrective surgery in many patients and in 1988 there were several lawsuits filed. In 1989, he surrendered his licence. This allowed him to forego a medical board hearing, which may have produced more evidence against him. He later divorced and declared bankruptcy due to the lawsuits totalling $21,000,000 (million).

It seems the fascination and abuse of the female genitals, especially the clitoris, has been going on for centuries.

FGM is nowadays largely widespread in North Africa, Asia and the Middle East and linked to Muslim culture, although it is not exclusively an Islamic practice. FGM is performed by Muslims, Christians, other religions and indigenous groups.

Western culture had similar views. Considering that Sigmund Freud, the Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis, in his ‘Sexuality and the Psychology of Love’ stated that “elimination of clitoral sexuality is an essential requirement for the femininity development”, or that Levi-Strauss, the French anthropologist and ethnologist and one of France’s foremost ‘thinkers’ of the 20th Century, said that ‘there is poetry and beauty in general mutilation and this constitutes an aberration only according to western morality’ (5)

Another noted psychiatrist and professor at VIII Paris University, Tobie Nathan, states that, “excision is a prevention mechanism, a tool, an extraordinary social benefit that the French society urgently needs to rediscover”. In his opinion ‘excised women are much more balanced and the incidence of mental illness among them would be almost nothing.’ (5)

The reasons for FGM vary from one area to another and include a variety of cultural and traditional reasons within families and communities using sexuality, fertility and religious beliefs along with many superstitious beliefs:

  • Although the practice predates both Christianity and Islam, some say it is a religious law.
  • Social convention (fear of being rejected by the community, a rite of passage for the young girl to be part of the community).
  • To prepare a girl for adulthood and marriage as girls who have not been ‘cut’ are seen as unsuitable for marriage.
  • It’s a belief about acceptable sexual behaviour. It is to ensure that the girl is still a virgin before marriage and as it is believed to reduce a woman’s libido. FGM is believed to help her resist extramarital affairs. Also if type 3 has been done, the fear of the pain of having the vagina opened up is seen to deter extramarital affairs.
  • It is believed to increase the marriageability of the girl if she has had FGM done to her.
  • The female genitalia are considered both dirty and unsightly.
  • It will ensure the female stays clean and will be more hygienic.
  • It is to increase male sexual pleasure.
  • It will prevent the clitoris from growing long like a penis.
  • You have to have had FGM to have a baby.
  • If the clitoris touches the head of the child during birth, the child will die.
  • Circumcision is the first step to control waywardness in girls.
  • That excision is a cure for infertility.
  • That an uncircumcised female always has difficulty at childbirth.
  • That women’s breast milk will be poisonous.
  • That it will take away bad odours.
  • That it will prevent vaginal cancer.

It seems to be a well-established view that FGM is not required by any religion or in Muslim law but yet there are many countries that practice FGM using religion or Muslim law to carry out this barbaric and inhumane procedure. One point of view is that although FGM is not recommended by any religion or found in any religious texts, it may have become symbolic in some communities as a demonstration of faith.

In Dagestan, the North Caucasus region of Russia, a Russian journalist, Marina Akhmedova, recently returned (June 2016), after interviewing survivors of FGM. Responding to a draft bill by a Russian MP that called for making FGM a criminal act with sentences up to 10 years, Akhmedova said ‘such strict measures would only be seen as religious persecution and could drive the practice underground’. “It is really difficult to help these women as they don’t consider themselves victims. If religious leaders say it is right for a girl to undergo circumcision, people will do it”. (7)

The human rights group, Russian Justice Initiative (RJI), published a report saying there was evidence that FGM was being performed in remote, mainly Muslim villages in Dagestan. It came to wider attention when two religious leaders responded with comments in support of FGM. (7)

Ismail Berdiyev, the mufti (an Islamic scholar who is an interpreter or expounder of Islamic law) and chairman of the North Caucasus Muslim Coordination Centre, said FGM does not contradict Islam and is a “purely Dagestani ritual” that is necessary “to limit the unnecessary energy” of women. He also suggested in a radio interview that all women should undergo FGM to curb their sexual feelings but later retracted some of his comments. (7)

Vsevolod Chaplin, an Orthodox Christian leader, in support of Berdiyev, posted on Facebook, stating that traditional practices should be allowed to continue without interference.

The RJI found that FGM is carried out predominantly in five mountainous areas on girls under the age of three but also on some up to the age of twelve.

The RJI’s group executive director, Vanessa Kogan, said: “The report would not have received nearly as much coverage if it hadn’t been for the outrageous statements made by Berdiyev and Chaplin. Their statements did not really contribute anything concrete to the questions surrounding the practice of FGM, but they spoke volumes about both Islamic and Christian leaders’ intentions to control women’s bodies and their sexuality.” (7)

What is very fascinating, is that throughout history, all the proponents of FGM have been MEN.

Islam has 3 main sources of Islamic Law:

The Holy Qur’an
Tradition
Ijtihad

These govern and regulate all aspects of a Muslim’s public and private life.
The science of these religious laws is called ‘Fiqah’ and the expert in this field such as a jurist is called a ‘Faqih’ (plural-Fuqaha)

There are 4 Schools of Law and each school is named after jurists or Fuqaha’s who lived in the first 3 centuries of Islam:

The Hanafiyya School
The Malikiyya School
The Shafiyya School
The Hanbaliyya School

Most Muslim’s regard these 4 Schools as valid interpretations of Islamic Law. Where The Holy Qur’an or Tradition is not explicit, the interpretation is made by one of the Fuqaha.

One of the Laws of Islam is ‘do no harm’. That is, do no harm to others or do no harm to yourself.

Indonesia is the largest Muslim majority nation in the world with 88 percent of the people adhering to Islam and the majority of those adhering to The Shafiyya School of Sunni Islam – it is the only one of the 4 Schools which describes female circumcision as obligatory by Islam – EVEN THOUGH FGM IS NOT REQUIRED IN MUSLIM LAW.

Indonesia banned FGM in 2006 with the government considering it a “useless” practice that “could potentially harm women’s health”. The ban was quickly opposed by the Indonesian Ulema Council, the highest Islamic advisory body in Indonesia. (8)

Again, the council is made up entirely of men.

In 2010 the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country’s largest Muslim organisation, issued an edict supporting FGM while a leading cleric told the NU’s estimated 40 million followers “not to cut too much”.

In November 2010 the government gave in to the pressure by Muslim organisations and lifted the ban.

An article written by Abigail Howarth of the Guardian, tells a shocking story of 248 girls having a mass ceremony in Bandung, Indonesia in 2006. It was not published until 2012 because it would have compromised the efforts of an Indonesian activist organisation that worked within communities to eradicate FGM and who had built up trust with the local leaders. (9)

The article tells of a mass ceremony to perform ‘Sunat Perempuan’ or “female circumcision” that has been held annually since 1958 by the Bandung based Yayasan Assalaam, an Islamic foundation that runs a mosque and several schools. The foundation holds the event in the lunar month of the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday and pays the parents 80,000 rupiah (£6) and a bag of food for each daughter they bring to be cut.

A week before the foundation’s ‘khitanan massal’ or mass circumcision ceremony, the chairman of the Majelis Ulama Indonesia, the nation’s most powerful council of Islamic leaders, issued this statement: “Circumcision is a requirement for every Muslim woman,” said Amidhan, who like many Indonesians goes by a single name. “It not only cleans the filth from her genitals, it also contributes to a girl’s health”. (9)

At the ceremony, Abigail asks the foundation’s social welfare secretary, Lukman Hakim, why they do it. His answer – “It is necessary to control women’s sexual urges. They must be chaste to preserve their beauty”

The ceremony takes place on a Sunday morning inside a school building in Bandung. It has a festive atmosphere with mothers in headscarves and bright lipstick chatting and eating cake and tea whilst Javanese music blares out from the assembly hall. There are over 400 people crammed into the school’s ground floor. It’s hot, noisy and chaotic, and almost everyone is smiling.

Abigail tells of a twelve year old girl called Suminah, who is NOT smiling. She looks like she wants to punch somebody. Under her white hijab, which she has yanked down, her eyes have the livid, bewildered expression of a child who has been wronged by people she trusted. She sits on a plastic chair, swatting away her mother’s efforts to placate her with a cup of party milk and a biscuit. Suminah is in severe pain, because an hour earlier her genitals were mutilated with a pair of scissors as she lay on a school desk.

The Hosken report is a report by Fran Hosken which was published in 1979 and provides case studies of FGM in several countries: Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Somalia, Nigeria, Kenya, Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Sierra Leone. (10)

WARNING – THE REPORT CONTAINS GRAPHIC DETAILS

This is a link to excerpts from “The Hosken Report”.
http://www.middle-east-info.org/league/somalia/hosken.pdf

The excerpts are talking about just three different countries:
Somalia
Nigeria
Mali

As stated earlier, it appears the ‘origins of infibulation’ (type 3 FGM) has its roots in Ancient Rome. Piercing the labia together with a brooch would have been very painful but, how and why, has it got to what it is today?

I know from personal experience, if I cut my finger, it stings quite a bit.

What would it be like to have parts of our body intentionally cut off?

To have your clitoris cut out and other parts of your genitalia cut away?
To have your labia sewn up or held together with horizontally-inserted thorns?
To have your legs bound together and left lying down for several weeks?

If you survive, and the wound has healed, it will leave a tiny opening for the passing of urine and menstrual fluid and on your wedding night, which for many girls will happen before she is even 10 years old, the groom will have to open you up (which is done with a dagger or sharp instrument) so he can have sex with you.

The pain experienced by these young girls and women who undergo this procedure is incomprehensible.

The report states that in Somalia, ‘infibulation is practiced by most of the population, wherever they live’.

The reason WHY?

Because Somali men refuse to marry any girl that has not been infibulated. They will not marry an “open bride”.

Without marriage there is no future for a girl.

The following are personal stories, from the many there are, from women who have had FGM procedures done to them.

“I didn’t know exactly what was going to happen to me, but after I saw the blade I knew they would definitely hurt me, because that blade is not something to play with,” says 25 year old Manika, who had her genitals severed with a razor, without an anaesthetic, when she was only eight years old in Gambia. “It’s a pain you can’t even… it’s taking a knife and cutting someone’s flesh”. (2)

Baldeh was seven when she was mutilated. “Some women held my legs, other women held my hands,” she says. “I was blindfolded and I felt the sharp cut, I felt everything”.  The only “medication” she received was being told to sit in warm salty water. “I can never forget that. If you want to pass urine that’s the worst because you are sore and you’ve got no medication, not even a band-aid. It’s just an open wound. It was the most horrible thing I can remember”. (2)

Khadija was ten years old when she begged her mother to be circumcised. “All my friends have had it done and I don’t want to be the odd one out,” she pleaded.  She believed that it was just something the girls had to go through to join the “circumcision club”. “My mum never gave me a reason why she kept saying no, but once I’d had it done I understood why she was reluctant”. (11)

Khadija was eleven and still living in war-torn Somalia when her mother gave in and Khadija underwent FGM.

In a terrible way, the war probably helped Khadija. She says “After a girl has been cut, they get stitched up and then things are opened up on her wedding day. I didn’t have the worst kind done because with that one, they have to tie your legs together afterwards to help the wounds heal. I needed to be able to use my legs to run away because of the war.”

Khadija describes the events of her procedure as her mother stroked her hair, “Faridad (good girl), said an old woman who appeared holding in her hand a broken razor blade. She bent over me, then, an explosion of pain erupted. It felt like I was being skinned alive with the breath driven out of my body. The hot searing pain forced a scream from my throat, my legs coiling into a spring that made the grip of the two women tighten even more. Khadija says that most of the women who carry out the initiation are not well educated and sometimes end up cutting a vein, causing the girl to bleed to death.

A few years later Khadija fled Somalia with her aunt and claimed asylum in the UK. Khadija started school and assuming that FGM was normal, asked one of her friends if she had been cut. She began to realise that not only had none of her friends been circumcised but, most girls of her age did not know that this practice even existed.

“In Somalia, it’s taboo to go against female circumcision. But when I came to England, I started to realise that the kind of tradition we were abiding by IS NOT THE PATH HUMAN BEINGS SHOULD FOLLOW.” (11)

“If I was still in Somalia I wouldn’t even think of speaking up about these things because my life would be at risk.” (11)

Hibo Wardere, is also from Somalia but now lives in the UK. She was six years old when she was held down and cut. She can’t go back to Somalia because she has spoken out against FGM.  She wants to ask the woman who carried out the procedure some questions: (12)

  • Each girl has a distinctive scream, so how does she cope with hundreds and millions of screams in her head?
  • How does she cope with our blood in her hands?
  • How does she cope with what she has done to us?
  • How does she cope with the maybe hundreds of lives she’s taken because she’s cut the wrong vein?
  • How does she cope with all this?

Hibo tells what happened to her.

“It’s a horrific memory. It’s a memory that you can’t erase and it stays with you for life”.

“Out of nowhere I’ll be watching EastEnders, seeing what’s going on in the pub, then all of a sudden I can smell my own blood. I can see my own flesh”.

“I can see myself struggling and screaming for mercy”.

“My mother was standing there, my aunty was holding me, cutters and helpers were holding me and she was cutting everything off”.

“I had type three FGM which means your clitoris is gone, vagina lips are gone, everything is gone. On top of that they stitch you and they leave you with a tiny hole which you are supposed to be weeing from and menstruating from and in the end – have intercourse from”.

“You are absolutely consumed with pain from head to toe. You literally do not know how to cope with it. Many girls died. I prayed to die that day”.

“You feel unloved, alone, isolated. You feel worthless, a shell of yourself, you’re not a child anymore. You lose trust in others. It’s a nightmare and it’s the beginning of it”.

“Physically you are never out of pain because of the damage they do”

“When I hit puberty my whole nightmare began because my period wasn’t coming out right and every month I was in so much pain”

“It’s a nightmare. I don’t know how to get out of it, even if I talk to therapists, it’s still there”.

“You kind of learn how to cope with it. You don’t have a choice”.

To most of us in the western world, FGM is seen as an inhumane, barbaric procedure. But there are those that still see it as a joyful ritual that they go through as part of a marriage or coming of age ceremony.

The American magazine, ‘The Atlantic’, published an article in April 2015 about “Why Some Women Choose to Get Circumcised”. (13)

Their reporter Olga Khazan interviewed Bettina Shell-Duncan, an anthropology professor at the University of Washington, who, in 1996, went to Northern Kenya to do research on anaemia iron deficiency in an ethnic group called the ‘Rendille’. She started to talk to the men and women about major health problems with many problems being listed.

They also started saying “We don’t have enough antibiotics for our weddings”.

She was confused as to what they meant by this which led to her finding out about female ‘circumcision’ and how the young women would voluntarily and joyfully go through with this procedure as it was part of the wedding ceremony. Shell-Duncan says that type 2 circumcision was done on this young woman and she sat there “proud and stoic and unflinching, which is a really important part of showing your maturity”. It shows if you can withstand the pain, you have the maturity to face the hardship that is coming to you as a woman.

For those of us who haven’t had centuries of tradition/ritual passed on through each generation, we can see how wrong FGM is. But when it is such an integral part of a woman’s life, part of their culture and then someone tells them they can’t do it anymore, that it has been outlawed, you can understand their resistance.

Could it be possible that forcing women to stop the practice will only serve to send it underground which then would make it more hidden and probably more dangerous for the young girls or women?

So what is FGM really about?

With the 3 main types of FGM, as classified by the WHO, the minimum violation is to cut out part or all of the clitoris.

As the clitoris seems to be the starting point in this horrendous practice, let’s talk about the clitoris.

For some reason talking about the clitoris is considered to be a taboo subject, but it is still only a part of our human body, which like every part of our body, is there for a reason.

But why is the clitoris considered a taboo subject?

Could it be because of the ancient belief that the clitoris is too similar to the penis?

Is it simply a case of misogyny or is it just that women are not seen as equal to men and shouldn’t have the same experience of pleasure?

Or could it be that men don’t understand the clitoris and are afraid of it?

The fact that the clitoris is seen as a taboo subject and that some women, let alone men don’t talk about it or even know where it is, lends to the fear surrounding the clitoris.

The clitoris is a female sex organ. It is several centimetres long and lies inside the body with only the glans (head) being visible. It develops from an outgrowth in the embryo called the ‘genital tubercle’. Initially undifferentiated, the tubercle develops into either a penis or a clitoris, depending on the presence or absence of the X or Y chromosome.

The glans is roughly the shape and size of a pea and contains around 8,000 nerve endings but interacts with over 15,000 other nerve endings throughout the pelvis. The glans of the penis contains about 4,000 nerve endings. In comparison, this makes the clitoris a very sensitive area.

Where other organs have a function, e.g. pregnancy, menstruation, urination, it is said that the clitoris is the only part of the human body whose sole purpose is pleasure.

Upon conception all babies share the same exact genital tissue so the penis and clitoris are very similar in that they have a glans, a foreskin (the prepuce or clitoral hood), and a shaft, which, of course, is not visible with a clitoris. The clitoris also swells up when aroused.

Like the penis, the clitoris comes in a variety of sizes, with the glans being very large with some and with others protruding a lot more than just the glans, which makes it look like a mini penis.

According to the ‘Intersex Society of North America’, “Intersex is a general term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy, that doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male. For example, a person might be born appearing to be female on the outside, but having mostly male-typical anatomy on the inside. Or a person may be born with genitals that seem to be in-between the usual male and female types – for example, a girl may be born with a noticeably large clitoris, or lacking a vaginal opening, or a boy may be born with a notably small penis, or with a scrotum that is divided so that it has formed more like a labia”. (14)

‘Intersex’ people are only just coming into the public awareness and are becoming more accepted. Approximately 1 in 1,500 – 2,000 babies born today are now classed as ‘Intersex’. Once known as hermaphrodites, ‘Intersex’ people have been around for a very long time and in those days you can only imagine how these children were dealt with. (15)

The Hosken report talks about the Efik tribe who live near the town of Calabar, Nigeria. The Efik people say that “circumcision is the first step to control waywardness in girls” and “uncircumcised girls are considered to be abnormal,” since, according to the belief, they have both male and female organs. “These girls are regarded as unclean and are always subjected to public ridicule and abuse. The members of their families are also subjected to this same ridicule.” (10)

It also talks about one of Mali’s ethnic groups called the ‘Dogon” where excision is obligatory. They believe that each girl has male and female characteristics and the same goes for the boys. They say it is necessary to destroy the male characteristics in a girl, the clitoris, before she becomes a woman and the female characteristics in a boy, the foreskin (prepuce), before he becomes a man.

No one knows when, why, or how FGM started. As stated earlier, the oldest source seems to be the depiction on the tomb of Ankh-Ma-Hor, nearly 5,000 years ago, but in reality it could have started thousands of years before that.

Also of importance is that no one knows what type of excision was done. It may have been just the prepuce that was cut off. The fact that the males were circumcised as well may suggest that it was purely for hygiene but how and why has it become what it is today?

Could it be possible that whenever it started, it was because men had an issue with the fact that men and women weren’t all that different after all?

Could it be possible that they realised the clitoris was the seat of women’s pleasure and decided to rip it out?

Could it be possible that this was a way to subjugate women

Could it be possible that women were seen just as vessels to produce children and pleasure was not necessary for that?

The reasons why FGM is committed and the types of FGM committed varies from one country/culture to another. A lot of the reasons are for the benefit or pleasure of the man.

A lot of focus for FGM is fidelity, to preserve the girl or woman for the man.

What about the fidelity of the man?

Why is the man not having bits of him chopped off to prepare him for marriage or to make sure he is suitable for marriage?

Why is the man not having bits of him chopped off to stop him from having extramarital affairs?

Why is the man not having bits of him chopped off to make sure he is able to produce children?

Why is the man not having bits of him chopped off as a ‘rite of passage’ into adulthood?

Why is the man not having bits of him chopped off to make sure he remains a virgin?

Why, apart from the foreskin, is the man not having other bits of him chopped off for hygiene reasons?

The consequences of FGM are far reaching. Many women are unaware they have had FGM done to them because they were either too young or they have blocked it out. When they come to realise that they have had the procedure, maybe due to being educated or even when it is time for them to get married, it brings up a gamut of feelings:

  • Resentment
  • Anger
  • Lack of Trust
  • Fears around Intimacy
  • Humiliation
  • Flashbacks
  • Ashamed of how they look
  • If Type 3 (Infibulation) – the fear of having to be cut open again
  • Unwilling to have intercourse for fear of pain
  • Feeling less of a woman

A Malian woman of 29 with a degree in literature shares her story: (10)

“I have no memory of my own excision and infibulation as I was operated on when I was very young. I only became conscious of my condition when I was twenty, just before my marriage. I have lived in a traditional environment where sex and sexuality were taboo subjects. When I became aware that I was excised and infibulated, I was appalled and revolted. I wondered what to do. I would not allow myself to be opened with a knife the day of my marriage, as is the custom…I wanted to get the operation done in a hospital.

I went to see some physicians but each time my request was refused. I faced a complete social barrier. Everybody I asked was against this operation. Those in the hospital looked at me as if I was out of my mind. One of the doctors told me… “You want to lead a life of debauchery, and for this, you are asking for my complicity.” He almost threw me out of his office. The day of my marriage approached. My chances to escape the knife decreased. In the end, the evening of my marriage, I had to submit and suffer my misfortune.”

Some women elect to have surgery, which may reverse some of the damage, but it cannot restore sensitive tissue that has been removed.

The mental health repercussions of FGM cannot be underestimated, with the psychological wounds in many cases being deeper than the physical one.

FGM is a barbaric and inhumane procedure that makes no sense at all.

It is said it is done to increase fertility and to make childbirth easier, but the reality is that it can cause infertility and it can cause childbirth complications.

Hoda Ali, a London nurse who underwent FGM in Somalia when she was 7 years old, is today going through an early menopause at the age of 37. Hoda spoke to the Guardian newspaper about the horrors of going through Type 3 FGM. ‘She says it was partially medicalised in that her parents could afford to buy sterile blades, syringes and anaesthetic and insisted that the cutter use them on her and her 6 year old sister.’ (16)

“The only pain at the time was the anaesthetic going in. I felt the tug of my clitoris and labia being removed and I remember the feeling of being stitched up.”

The pain came later, four years later when the agony deep in her stomach prevented her from sleeping. At first the doctors thought that she had a cyst, but after a second scan they found the lump was a build-up of menstrual blood that had nowhere else to go. The next six years consisted of numerous operations and months in hospitals and finally when there could be no more operations the doctors had to insert a small vacuum into her cervix, to remove the internal build-up of blood.

In her early teens, whilst on the run from the war in Somalia, Hoda ended up in an Italian hospital where at the age of 17 she woke up one morning to find her bed covered in blood.

“It took six years for me to be able to have a natural period. I was allowed to go home but the damage was done. I can’t have children.”

“So tell me how was that safe? How was partly medicalised FGM safe?”

Without women, there can be no childbirth. The future health and wellbeing of an entire society is being affected because women are being mutilated.

The fact that it sometimes causes death seems to be of no consequence and obviously defeats the purpose.

As soon as the first person died from FGM, why weren’t questions being asked as to the validity of this practice? And if they weren’t asked then, why are they not being asked now?

The men help to perpetuate FGM by insisting that they will not marry women unless they have had the procedure.

In a lot of the rural communities there are many women who make their livelihood from being a ‘cutter’ so there is a big incentive for them to carry on the tradition. In poorer countries, doctors and midwives supplement their salary by selling their services.

A professional woman from Mali, who now lives in France with her husband and two children, who were born in France, decided that they would not allow their children to go through FGM. She returned to Mali with her children and her mother asked if the children had been operated on and she said no and that she was against it. During the children’s holiday, she left them with her parents after finding some work. Coming home one day, she found that her mother had had the children infibulated. (10)

In the most bizarre way the older women, the grandmothers and mothers, who have already gone through the agonising procedure of FGM, have become the main perpetrators and practisers of FGM so as to keep the tradition going. After experiencing the pain, the consequences and the emotional trauma associated with FGM, why would they allow, or want, this to happen to anyone else?

The campaign to stop FGM is increasing.

With FGM being banned in most countries, communities are either not taking any notice of the ban or, they are finding ways to carry on the practice.

What makes it worse is the fact that the governments are not enforcing the bans.

FGM has been banned in Egypt since 2008 but it is still widely practiced in Egypt, which has one of the highest prevalence rates in the world.

In November 2006, Islamic scholars from all areas of the Muslim world met at the Islamic Al-Azhar University in Egypt to discuss FGM with the end result being a ban on the practice. (17)

Professor Ali Goma, the Grand Mufti of Egypt, stated, “The Female Genital Circumcision practiced today harms women psychologically and physically. Therefore, the practice must be stopped in support of one of the highest values in Islam, namely to do no harm to another – in accordance with the commandment of the Prophet Mohammed – “Accept no harm and do no harm to another”. Moreover, this is seen as punishable aggression against humankind.” (17)

Here we have the highest leading Islamic authority, the Grand Mufti, espousing the banning of FGM, yet the practice prevails.

Recently there was the case of the first doctor to stand trial and be sentenced on charges of FGM after the death of Suhair al Bataa, a 13 year old girl from Egypt. The girl’s father, who took her to the clinic, is also standing trial. When Suhair’s uncle was asked if it was right to subject Suhair to FGM, his response was, “Yes of course. It has been done in the countryside for a long time. People here are used to it. Without circumcision, girls are full of lust.” (18)

This case has started a debate among the liberal minded, but for those stuck in the traditions of old, the death of Suhair hasn’t changed their minds. In Suhair’s village, one old woman said, “What’s all the fuss about?” “Why did you come here? A thousand or so girls were circumcised after she died.”

The Egyptian doctor, Raslan Fadl, who performed FGM on Suhair served only the minimum 3 months of his sentence because the law allowed him to negotiate with Suhair’s family, because until recently the law said that it would have been seen as a misdemeanour rather than a crime. The law has now been changed and the penalty now is between 3 and 15 years in jail. Because of the law, as it was, he was able to buy his freedom.

According to Philippe Duamelle of UNICEF, the number of girls that die from FGM in Egypt is unclear because deaths are being recorded as haemorrhages or allergic reactions to penicillin. (18)

Suhair died of medicalised FGM in June 2013. In May 2016, seventeen year old Mayar Mohamed Mousa died undergoing medicalised FGM in a private hospital.

According to a report by ’28 Too Many’, what is of growing concern is that FGM procedures are being legitimised under the guise of ‘health care’. FGM is being carried out in hospitals or clinics under medical supervision. (19)

There are some who believe that having the procedure done in a clinical environment is the way forward, to make it safer and more hygienic.

Taking it to hospitals or anywhere to make it safer is not the answer – stopping it completely is.

There was a missed opportunity here with the imprisoning of the Egyptian doctor to send a message that FGM will be not be tolerated and will be met with serious penalties, but he was allowed to walk free after 3 months because money became more important than a person’s life.

The abuses perpetrated towards women in different countries and cultures are manifold and will be the subject of another article.

This article is focused on Female Genital Mutilation, but also of concern is Male Genital Mutilation, known more commonly as circumcision, and likewise, will be the subject of another article.

In many countries and many communities, there are activist groups that are taking the message to the towns and villages that FGM is very harmful.

There is the ‘International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation’ on the 6th February which is a global programme led jointly by UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) and UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund).

The message is getting out there slowly but the attitudes of both the men and women who insist on performing these procedures is the biggest stumbling block. Trying to change thousands of years of tradition will not be easy.

Culture, religion and tradition are all contributing to the prevalence of FGM and all need to be addressed at the same time with more education needed, especially in the rural areas.

We will probably never know the true origins of how FGM came to be, but what it is now is indicative of man’s inhumanity.

Female Genital Mutilation, especially Type 3 Infibulation, is a cruel and obscene procedure that appears to be created by men to control women.

Female Genital Mutilation is, in most cases, carried out on young girls and women without their permission and against their will.

Female Genital Mutilation is quite often referred to as ‘Female Circumcision’.

Let’s get real here – whatever you want to call it – it is not ‘circumcision’ –

It is pure and simple – MUTILATION

References:

(1) (2016, February). Female Genital Mutilation. World Health Organization.
Retrieved January 28, 2017 from
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/

(2) Topping, A. & Carson, M. (2014, February 6). FGM is Banned but Very Much Alive in the UK. The Guardian. Retrieved January 28, 2017 from
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/06/female-genital-mutilation-foreign-crime-common-uk

(3) (2016, September 15). Lack of convictions ‘a national scandal’. BBC.
Retrieved January 28, 2017 from
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37364079?SThisFB

(4) (2016, June 23). The Woman Saved from Her Father’s FGM Plans. BBC. Retrieved February 4, 2017 from
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36587667

(5) Faioli, R., Franco, G. & Morrone, A. (2015). Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting. Atlas of Vulvar Dermatosis and Dermatitis. Roma, Italy: CIC Edizioni. (p.397)

(6) (2013, December, 27). The “Love Surgeon” was Nothing but a Brutal Butcher. Medical Bag. Retrieved January 28, 2017 from
http://www.medicalbag.com/despicable-doctors/the-love-surgeon-was-nothing-but-a-brutal-butcher/article/472376/

(7) (2016, August 23). Tough Prison Sentences ‘Will Not End FGM in Dagestan’. The Guardian. Retrieved January 28, 2017 from
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/aug/23/tough-prison-sentences-will-not-end-fgm-in-dagestan

(8) Stop FGM Middle East. Indonesia. Retrieved February 4, 2017 from
http://www.stopfgmmideast.org/?s=indonesia&submit=

(9) Haworth, A. (2012, November 18). The Day I Saw 248 Girls Suffering Genital Mutilation. The Guardian. Retrieved January 28, 2017 from
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/nov/18/female-genital-mutilation-circumcision-indonesia

(10) Hosken, F.P. The Hosken Report: Genital and Sexual Mutilation of Females, Fourth Revised Edition. (Women’s International Network News: Lexington, MA, 1993). (pp. 114-115, 192-202, 216-218) (notes omitted). Retrieved January 28, 2017 from
http://www.middle-east-info.org/league/somalia/hosken.pdf

(11) Taylor, D. (2013, January 22). FGM: ‘I Want to Help Other Girls.’ The Guardian. Retrieved January 28, 2017 from
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/jan/22/female-genital-mutilation-help-girls

(12) Brown, L. (2016, July 21). FGM Survivor: These Are My Questions to the Woman Who Cut Me When I Was Six. Newsbeat. BBC. Retrieved January 28, 2017 fromhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/36833810/fgm-survivor-these-are-my-questions-to-the-woman-who-cut-me-when-i-was-six

(13) Khazan, O. (2015, April 8). Why Some Women Choose to Get Circumcised.
The Atlantic. Retrieved January 28, 2017 from
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/04/female-genital-mutilation-cutting-anthropologist/389640/

(14) (n.d). What is Intersex? Intersex Society of North America.
Retrieved February 4, 2017 from
http://www.isna.org/faq/what_is_intersex

(15) (n.d). How Common is Intersex? Intersex Society of North America.
Retrieved February 4, 2017 from
http://www.isna.org/faq/frequency

(16) Carson, M. & Daly, C. (2016, June 16). The Sickening Trend of Medicalised FGM. The Guardian. Retrieved January 28, 2017 from
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jun/16/the-sickening-trend-of-medicalised-fgm

(17) (n.d). Fatwas against FGM. Stop FGM Middle East.
Retrieved January 28, 2017 from
http://www.stopfgmmideast.org/fatwas-against-fgm/

(18) Guerin, O. (2014, May 12). Egypt: Deadly Risks, but Female Genital Mutilation Persists. BBC. Retrieved January 28, 2017 from
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-27322088

(19) (2016, June 16). FGM – End it. Don’t Medicalise it. 28 Too Many.
Retrieved January 28, 2017 from
http://28toomany.org/news/fgm-end-it-dont-medicalise-it/

 

 

 

Share

Comments 44

  1. I wanted to share how this FGM article affected me and how I feel you’ve pulled us all up several notches, Tim.

    The article blew me away on multiple levels. It made me have a deep cry.
    One of the biggest things for me was the care with which you wrote it.

    It is such a powerfully researched and powerfully expressed piece of writing and it cuts (pun intended) to the very heart of an immense topic.
    But it does it with such sensitivity, not holding back from the horror, never hooking you with emotion, just laying bare the truth. And for you as a man to call out those things about male control was huge for me. It did something to me energetically. The questions about why is it not the man having parts of his body cut off: wow. And the section talking about the clitoris – talking about it with zero shame, completely un-sexualised, totally respectful, sharing details most just do not know and wouldn’t think or dare to ask.

    The entire article is deeply healing, but just reading that section alone deconstructs so much. In fact, that’s what it’s like: each part of the article feels like a complete package in itself, then taking all the parts together: boom.

    Talk about brotherhood. Talk about responsibility. Talk about calling us all to Truth. And then I feel for you in reading this, it’s also not a big deal – it’s just part of what you do.

  2. Reading this blog was quite disturbing despite, as a midwife meeting women with FGM and caring for them after child birth.

    One particular Maternity hospital I was based at in Sydney had a Midwifery Consultant specifically for these women. This had been my first ever encounter of a postnatal (after birth) woman with FGM and to see her in pain after childbirth was sometimes expected.

    For a woman, labour is painful in its own way and pain following birth can be managed by common effective painkillers but what was challenging to see was the excruciating pain this woman was in despite the way she laid on her bed. Her eyes told the trauma and terror of the day she was cut (however old she was at the time ) and it felt as though she was re-living and re-exposing the pain of the FGM.

    Even as a health professional, I was unable to ask the mother anything about that day, it was as if the woman was saying ‘this is my life I was born in and this is what happens, so I have to accept it’.

    Even when the other women from her community came to visit this mother, they were laughing and joking irrespective that this woman was in agony, it was as if this is their norm.

    I pondered on the the kind of relationship forming between the mother and newborn?
    Could she actually attend to her newborn tenderly and connect when she was in that amount of pain, I would assume not.

    Thank you Tim Bowyer for bringing extensive amount of research and information about FGM that people are probably unaware or even heard of.
    I learnt more reading this blog than what has been taught at the hospital.

    1. You make a good point Shushila, about how the woman’s eyes held the trauma and terror from the day she underwent the FGM procedure.

      It’s impossible to imagine the pain and fear these girls/young women go through, whatever age they are, and to know that whenever their attention is brought to that area, all the pain and anguish comes flooding back.

      The pain from having FGM may eventually subside but the psychological scars will always be there.

  3. It is time for men to step up and take responsibility for his actions past and present. Their are many examples in history of mens inhumanity towards women and I see and feel it in American society today. Why are men so afraid of women?

    As man for 65 years I have felt this uneasiness around women and I really do not understand it. I have easily had my most rewarding relationships with women and have seen what they bring to the world. They are essential to the true evolution of our world.

    1. Great question Ken Elmer – “Why are men so afraid of women?”

      I’m sure the most macho of us ‘MEN’ will never say they are afraid of women but actions speak louder than words.

      From domestic violence, enforced prostitution, workplace discrimination, misogyny… to abuse women in the way that they are abused, clearly shows that some men need to control and manipulate women by exerting their physical and mental dominance over them but, in truth, it just shows how much women are really feared.

      The contempt that is shown to women is still clearly visible and until men see women as more than sexual conquests or a means to propagate our species, the true beauty of a woman will never be seen.

  4. Dear World, this is a wake up call, for yes we have fallen asleep.
    We have let ourselves be lulled by the comfort of our homes, our TV shows and gaming. We are lulled asleep to the abuse that is running riot in the world and it’s time we woke up to see it before we are so enmeshed by abuse in our lives that we don’t notice it. . Abuse is a funny thing, if we get used to a small amount of it, we have a bit more and get used to that, as so it goes until we are living with so much abuse in our lives and in the world yet we don’t notice – we simply feel a low grade misery each and every day and try and numb it with food, drink or drugs.
    FGM is a wake up call. It is abuse that happens across the globe and right here on our doorsteps. If we turn away and say ‘that’s not my business’ we also turn away from the love in our own lives and shut it down. Everything affects us. We cannot ignore the abuse of another without harming ourselves.
    It is time for us all to wake up.

    1. I agree Arianna, we have become so accustomed to seeing and hearing about Mans capacity to harm another human being with hardly a lift of our heads out of the TV, social media or newspaper that a wake up call is what is definitely needed.

      FGM is just one of the many abuses that is going on in the world.

      When are we going to start to ask questions as to why there is so much abuse in the world?

      How much pain and suffering do we have to see or hear about before we feel we need to make our voices heard?

      Are we content to sit back and NOT take any notice because it DOESN’T really affect us?

      What if it DOES really affect us?

      Is it possible that we are adding to all the abuse in the world because we are doing nothing about it?

      As Arianna says, abuse is a funny thing – we are quite happy to ignore all the abuse that is going on around us and in the world but as soon as the abuse affects us directly, we want the whole world to know about it.

  5. Jane Cummings the Chief Nursing Officer of NHS England said recently “No area of England has finished the work needed on FGM” and she also said “Everyday health professionals deal with complications and consequences for women and girls who have undergone FGM, which is the removal of all or part of a female’s genitals for no medical purpose. This often results in recurrent bladder infections, cysts, painful periods, childbirth complications and mental health conditions.
    A report from City University in 2015 showed that across every local authority area in England or Wales, there are families affected by FGM. Nearly 6,000 women who had FGM were treated in NHS services during 2015-16.”
    https://www.england.nhs.uk/2017/02/jane-cummings-31/

    This is 2017 – and we are flush with modern technology, research, pharmaceuticals, more safeguarding than we ever had. So the fact that Jane Cummings says that in EVERY local authority area in England and in Wales we have families affected by FGM is absolutely shocking.

    1. Thank you Jane for bringing this news story for us all to wake up.
      Think about it – FGM has migrated from Africa, middle East and Asia so it is now a global problem and affecting many more nations.
      The health complications that you mention are obviously going to happen as this is a barbaric act which makes no sense.
      The figures are shocking and most of us will either thank God it is not one of us or that we are not born into a family like this or turn the other way as we don’t really want to hear or know anymore about this topic.
      Female Genital Mutilation is inflicting great harm on another human and there is no getting away from that fact.
      WHY are we allowing such horror to continue on our watch as custodians of this earth plane of life?
      If we continue to use our nations resources just to remedy and correct – is that enough or do we need to get to the root and have this stopped by coming together and uniting so that a global understanding can begin to turn the tides and bring a stop to FGM.

  6. It is crazy the things that the media are covering when their are things like FGM still going on in the world. If we want things to change, we first need to know what is really going on in the world.
    Why does the media produce the stuff that it does? Because that is what the public want. It is time to take responsibility for the world by taking responsibility for our own lives and our actions. We can make a difference!

  7. Do we really know how gruesome Female Genital Mutilation is? Created by men, for men? Thanks for writing this Tim, every man on the planet needs to read this, and some of the women that have this ingrained into their way of being.
    It is so despicable that we don’t want to hear about it, we would rather stay in our comfort zones and pretend that it does not exist. We should be discussing it at the dinner table because it is real-life for millions of affected women around the globe. Instead, we discuss, what we bought at the shops or how our football team is doing, or some other inconsequential subject.
    Is it not time to get real and address the atrocities that are going on out there in the name of culture and religion?

    1. I totally agree Christopher, we should be discussing this at the dinner table.

      And not just this subject.

      With all the abuse that is going on in the world and all the medical conditions that we are being diagnosed with, there is plenty to talk about but as you say we make the trivial stuff more important than what is truly affecting our world.

      Topics like FGM need constant airing to make sure it remains in the public’s awareness and to make people aware that this atrocious procedure called FGM still exists and it is going on right under our noses.

  8. Those of us who are not enmeshed in the beliefs or fears that hold FGM in place have more freedom to feel, think and talk about this than those directly affected by it so it is really huge to talk about this…

    I feel we all hold a responsibility to examine the concept of betrayal that has allowed FGM to continue to exist. I have to ask myself, in what ways have I been betraying my own heart?

    These girls and women have experienced utter betrayal by their own communities, in the hands of their own families, by their own fathers and mothers who then carry the burden of having stood by in non-response to their own daughters cries for merci…

    …but don’t we betray them even more by standing at a ‘seeming’ distance saying nothing when we know without any doubt that FGM is blatant and horrific abuse, when we know it should not be allowed to happen anywhere to anyone and we know it is not needed in any way?

    To speak the truth as Tim Bowyer does here is to begin to liberate us ALL from the consciousness that has allowed FGM to exist and to continue to devastate individuals and humanity.

    When we speak the truth about FGM it is for those who are in danger, for those who have been so deeply violated and for those entrapped in it as perpetuators and family members who are inculturated to collaborate with the horror of it.

    Reading this blog and others on this website has helped me realise that there is power in speaking truth and that we hold a responsibility to do so and to not push truth aside in favour of our own immediate comfort.

    I can feel that when I honour what I know in my heart is true I also honour the truth that is the birthright of all people everywhere.

    1. Great comment Jo Elmer.

      You are spot on when you talk about speaking the truth holding a responsibility and not letting comfort get in our way.

      Its so easy to sit back in our armchairs in our very comfortable lives and not be concerned about whats going on in the world simply because it doesn’t directly affect us.

      But what if the reality is something different?

      What if the reality is that whatever is going on in the world does affect us all?

      What if we are all connected in some way?

      If so, wouldn’t it make sense that we will be affected by whats going around the world.

      And if so, is it possible that it then becomes our responsibility to change things?

      Is it possible that just simply writing about what we feel that is not the truth, will be enough to start to change things?

      As Jo Elmer says, ‘there is power in speaking truth’ and if it means just one young girl or woman doesn’t have to suffer the horrific procedure of FGM, then it has to something that needs to be made a priority.

  9. Before researching this blog, I had no idea of the extent that women suffered because of so called tradition, culture and mans inhumanity.

    It seems that women are treated with very little respect and are only there to produce babies or for the sexual gratification of men.

    It is only until men see women as equal, will the atrocities towards women cease and writing about what is going on in the world to bring awareness, is the first step.

  10. Our society is really just one bandaid.

    With all the issues we have in this world, I cant think of one where there is any true healing going on.

    Whether its greed, cyber abuse, FGM, obesity, diabetes, all forms of cancer, domestic abuse, corruption, the list goes on, the bandaid approach is to throw money and or resources at it in the hope that it will go away.

    But as history as shown, it never goes away completely. And if it does go away , it soon pops up in another guise.

    Until we as a society start to make it less about ourselves and take a lot more interest in what is going on in the world, in the countries, in the cities and the communities and start to ask questions as to why we have these issues, then ‘our issues’ will remain and will keep on getting worse.

  11. It would be horrendous and should make front line news if just 2 girls or women were alive today who had been attacked and mutalated in this hideous way.

    ‘WHO’ says “there are more than 200 million girls and women alive today that have been ‘cut’ in over 30 countries…” how can this be?…

    We have not even begun to call the sexual acts after FGM rape… but isn’t that the entire point of this procedure? To ensure the specific sexual ‘experience’ the men are enculturated to think they want or need from their wives?

    Would any woman of-her-own-mind willingly consent to intercourse after experiencing this trauma to her genitals with no care or healing following the abuse and in particular in cases where the vaginal opening has been sewn up to be so small, it has to be forcefully punctured with a goat horn or a knife before her ‘husband’ can enter her?

    This is not only rape but a style of culturally endorsed ritual-abuse, which is then continued by violent rapes.

    These girls are often married when still children.

    Let every one of us who is free to speak up, be sure we are not turning a blind eye to advertisements which propagate the mind-set and consciousness of ritualistic sexual abuse or oppression and/or dehumanisation of women.

    We all know when things do not feel right to us.

    Let us talk openly and truthfully about the harm in this kind of advertising.

    These kinds of advertisements may not seem ‘real’ or physically threatening to us but they represent a specific and cruel mind set which when allowed is fuelled by images and fantasies which then feed thoughts, intensions and actions around the world and this is very real and extremely harmful to us all, especially those of us who are in extremely dis-empowered, vulnerable situations.

  12. Since reading this blog, I have been noticing how insanely strong an influence culture has on us.

    FGM is such an extreme example of this, where actual torture and mutilation have been normalised over time. For those outside that culture looking in, we are incredulous and horrified, but inside, you wont see or acknowledge the atrocity.

    Is this not the most horrendous but true example of how we let culture affect us and how we sell out hook, line and sinker?

    It’s like mind conditioning, with our consent.

    Why do we do this? Why do we so desperately want to belong that we will do pretty much anything to fit in and will stop even questioning our behaviours and just go along with what we think is expected?

    Can we start to see where we are doing this on a ‘small scale’ in our own lives and take a stand there? Start questioning everything we’ve been doing or accepting on auto-pilot that’s just not right or true. Start to say no to abuse in even its smallest form.

    1. I agree JS, culture has been allowed to have its way with us for such a long time now.

      Our propensity to follow ‘culture’ is quite insidious as we have generations of families that feel obliged to follow what has been going on for years.

      If one thing is certain, it is that things change over time. What was once considered normal or acceptable (although FGM should never have even been considered normal or acceptable) can no longer be seen that way as we change and evolve.

      Whether culture is seen as a good thing or not, it is, as you say, up to each and every one of us to start to question what, why and how we have been doing things and are doing things now.

  13. Thank you for writing this article Tim. FGM is not something that we generally think about at all and to be honest I held the view for a long time that it only happened in far distant lands.

    Statistics have shown that in England, a case of FGM is discovered or treated at a medical appointment every hour. (April 2015 – March 2016)

    http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/female-genital-mutilation-fgm-case-per-hour-uk-nhs-circumcision-a7564571.html

    This statistic and those in this article make it very plain to see that this practice is affecting women all over the world including those in our communities.

    We can choose to turn a blind eye or as Tim has done here take time to write and raise awareness about what is actually going on in our world.

    Thank you Simple Living Global for having this platform so that articles like this have a place where the Truth can be told unhindered.

    1. You are right Shevon, most peoples first reaction when FGM is mentioned, is probably of a third world country and it really doesn’t affect me.

      The reality is though, FGM is becoming very widespread with emigration being so much more accessible and the fact that some communities have FGM ‘parties’ where lots of girls go through the procedure at one time, and even in a country like the UK, it is possibly going on right under our noses as your statistic above shows.

      Another reason why FGM is becoming more prevalent is the fact that even though FGM was made illegal in the UK in 1985, there still hasn’t been one single conviction for FGM.

      Until those who commit FGM are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and given custodial sentences, there will always be an attitude of arrogance in thinking that they can get away with it.

  14. I read that FGM ‘parties’ are being held in the UK. A ‘cut’ specialist is flown over and women bring their children to be mutilated all at once, followed by a ‘celebration’.

    So not only are girls flown out of the UK for FGM during what is apparently known as ‘cutting season’ over the school summer holidays, but they are now shipping in ‘cutters’ to do the job here.

    The report speaks of one 8 year old girl who was suspected of playing truant at school when in fact she was taking 1 hour to go to the toilet because of how she had been brutalised and the agony she was in.

    Last year, the Home Affairs Select Committee called the lack of prosecutions for FGM and lack of true statistics a ‘national scandal’.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-38290888

  15. FGM was made illegal in the US in 1996.

    In the US in 2006, an Ethiopian immigrant who mutilated his daughter with a pair of scissors was only charged with aggravated battery and cruelty to children, not FGM.

    The following link tells of a US doctor, Jumana Nagarwala, being charged with FGM on several children in what is the first case of its kind in the country.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39597062

    If convicted, she could face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

    This is not the first time a doctor has been charged with FGM. In 2013 an Egyptian doctor, Raslan Fadl, performed FGM on 13 year old Suhair al Bataa and she died. The doctor was sentenced to prison but only served 3 months because he was able to come to a financial agreement with Suhair’s family.

    So here we are again with the opportunity to send a message that FGM will not be tolerated and there will be consequences for anyone that performs this barbaric and pointless procedure.

    This case only came to light because the authorities were tipped off.

    In the UK, the NHS started to collate data in April 2015 about the number of girls and women coming to the NHS who have been a victim of FGM at some point in their lives.

    The figures show that 8,718 have been identified as FGM victims with 68 females saying the procedure had been carried out in the UK.

    This shows that FGM is still very much hidden and any suspicions of young girls having had this procedure must be reported.

  16. It is ridiculous to feel that our world is OK, when there are things like FGM still going on in the world.
    It takes a deep level of denial. If we do not think about it it will go away.

    Anyone, even the people doing the operation, deep down know that FGM is atrocious. We just go along, and assume their is nothing we can do.

    That giving up mentality will never change anything. And it allows a deep level of shame.

    We can not not care about our fellow humans. It is ingrained in us to help others.

    The key is to first get our own lives back on track. Then we can effortlessly do what is needed.
    Simple Living Global has presented a way of living that has turned my life around.
    I am ready to do whatever is needed to support my fellow brothers and sisters.

    And these are not just words, I am remembering and feeling my power and amazingness.
    Bring it on! I am ready.

  17. Radio 4 has a programme called ‘Woman’s Hour’ and on the show was the FGM campaigner Hibo Wardere.

    Hibo featured in this article as someone who had Type 3 FGM performed on her when she was six years old in Somalia.

    Hibo has been in the UK for some time now and has always blamed Africa for what happened to her but recently she decided to go back to Africa. She went to Senegal and she talks about how charities over there are making great strides in getting FGM stopped. There is also success in other countries as well.

    Many villages have been educated in the truth of FGM and even the men are getting on board.

    This is a much welcome piece of news and it shows that education is the only true way to stop this barbaric treatment of young girls and women.

    If writing and exposing the horrors of FGM stops one child from having to go through this horrific procedure, then that can only be a good thing.

  18. This certainly is a wake up call. Thank you for your extensively researched blog Tim. I found it deeply disturbing to read the full extent of this barbaric procedure and that it is so prevalent world wide and being practised in countries where it is illegal. The excruciating pain these women and children go through and life long complications and trauma is beyond perception.

    It makes me question how many women and children I pass on the street in day to day life have been through this inconceivable procedure?

    All abuse needs to be outed, your blog shares the severity of abuse FGM is. To read your comment above brings light to your horrific report that through education things are starting to change in a country where it is life times of beliefs and tradition old and that men are getting on board with it, as you say, is a huge shift that needs to continue… world wide.

  19. I read a news report yesterday saying ‘ the NHS recorded 5,391 new cases of FGM were recorded in England in the past year, data reveals, and almost half involved women and girls living in London, NHS Digital found’

    ‘A third of the women and girls born in Somalia and 112 cases UK born nationals’

    It is illegal in England yet still so many new cases.

    1. YES and here is the news link to that article
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-40491311

      There are harsh penalties for anyone found performing this act, with a jail sentence of up to 14 years on the cards but as of yet we have no convictions in the UK.

      This news link from the BBC has a confidential freephone number for the NSPCC for anyone that wants to report concerns about anyone who has experienced Female Genital Mutilation or is at risk.

      Having confidential helplines like this are a great start in raising awareness and allowing people to speak out so that this practise stops being so hidden.

  20. Apparently 200 under 18 year old girls in the U.K. had labiaplasty last year, some under 16 and girls as young as 9 are asking for it. A doctor is expressing alarm at the trend which is linked to girls feeling their vaginas need to look a certain way.

    To be clear, these are not necessary operations. These are girls wishing their vaginas looked ‘better’.

    To me this is appalling. Truly appalling.

    What is happening in those girls’ lives and in their heads that they are judging their vaginas – that deeply sacred part of their body – as not good enough?

    Where are they getting this from?

    What is happening with the parents that these operations are going ahead?

    How is this different to FGM?

    What part does pornography have to play in this?

    Do the men (and fathers) who use porn see the harm it causes?

    https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/40410459

  21. As with any physical abuse, FGM is a huge topic since there is a great deal of mental, emotional abuse that goes with it and will one day need to be healed.

    We can not expect those who are enmeshed in a mindset that either condones or is controlled by FGM to stop it, so that leaves those of us who can see, feel and know that the practice is a heinous child/human abuse and human rights violation.

    We like to think we are not part of this abuse… but what if, by not claiming who we are as women we do play a part?

    When I look deep within and consider that when I live as less than the full claimed woman that I can be I am contributing a void or a gap to the collective consciousness where evil can come in.

    Why does evil thrive on Earth?
    What are we all doing that constructs a global environment in which FGM can exist?

    We can work to bring awareness and perspective to the subject… but could it be more powerful to work on standing up in our womanly-ness?

    Can we heal the ill chauvinist momentum by not hiding, not subverting, compromising to be more male-like, less feeling, less knowing than we truly are?

    If we will consider the possibility that everything about us, how we think and move, what we do and express, is communicated to every other person in the world than we can conceive of the responsibility we may just hold…

    We can then ask ‘Am I, as a woman commanding respect by the way in which I carry myself?’

    ‘How are women viewed and valued in any and every part of the world?’ and ‘How am I, as a woman, viewing and treating my own body and am I allowing myself to feel, live and express my femaleness in full?’.

  22. Not one single person should ever be tortured in this way so we can at least take a moment to study why it exists and why 30 years of a law banning FGM in numerous countries have done nearly nothing to stop it?

    Wars have been declared over so much less and yet the world has known about FGM (large scale ongoing torture of girls and women) for a very long time and we have done so little about it…

    History shows us that war causes its own horrors, so much so that we always have to ask if the repercussions were worth it… and often war is not effective in getting the desired results as in wars against other countries (which do not bring peace between people), the war on drugs, the war on cancer or human trafficking…

    …so what if we consider a responsible alternative to war?

    Could there be another way to bring change?

    Can we consider the possibility that each one of us is contributing a global societal climate?

    What if we consider that our every thought, emotion and choice contributes to a group consciousness?

    If this is true than we have let things get very dark and that that darkness is hurting the most vulnerable people first…

    What will it take for us to start to take responsibility for what is happening in our own body, our own family and in our own world?

  23. An article in the ‘London Evening Standard’, 10th November 2017, talks of the “Rallying cry of unity in the fight to end FGM.”

    In a breakthrough for the campaign against FGM, the three candidates in Somaliland’s presidential election – all of which are men – have said that they will seek to ban the practice.

    About 98% of women in the former British colony, which declared independence from Somalia in 1991, have undergone FGM.

    This is a huge step forward for the abolition of this cruel and barbaric procedure.

    The many campaigners for the abolition of FGM are doing a great job in bringing awareness of FGM and that it is child abuse and very harmful and that it is not a tradition or religious rite that needs to be carried on.

    Activists, health workers, educationalists and Islamic scholars are educating rural and urban communities about FGM and advocating for its end. Women who have been “cut” are now saying they will not do it to the next generation

    Many midwife students in African countries are not only being taught about the health complications of FGM but also how to spread the word about ending it.

    A positive consequence of this is that it will make it harder for anyone living outside of Somaliland to go there and have the procedure done.

    There is still a long way to go but it is very encouraging to see the progress that has been made in only a short time.

  24. An article in the Evening Standard, 2nd February 2018, talks about an FGM survivor who won a ban on FGM in The Gambia.

    Jaha Dukureh, named one of the world’s most influential people by Time Magazine in 2016 after leading a campaign to outlaw the practice in The Gambia, says she drew inspiration from the work of London campaigners.

    Jaha was cut as a one-week old baby having had the most extreme form of FGM – type III infibulation – but did not realise the full extent of it until she was sent to America at the age of 15 for an arranged marriage to a man in his forties.

    Her clitoris and labia had been removed and she had been stitched together and almost totally sealed. She underwent a procedure to de-infibulate her, which she described as like going through FGM all over again.

    She is responsible for the first national survey to measure the prevalence of FGM in the US, helped make it a crime to transport American girls abroad for FGM and led the successful campaign to have FGM banned in The Gambia.

    Jaha, who now lives in The Gambia, is organising an anti-FGM march in the country to mark International Day of Zero Tolerance on Tuesday.

    She said: “In Gambia, you used to not be able to talk about FGM. It would have been unimaginable for us to do anything at this level a few years ago. But we are expecting more than 1,000 people and students have been given permission to join us.”

    On what motivates her to keep campaigning despite facing anger and threats, she says: “Not a day goes by that I don’t get a message from a young woman or husband telling me that because of my work, they realise the pain their wife is going through, or telling me how much they are suffering. They are my motivation and the reason I can’t give up. I will continue to speak for the 200 million women around the world who have been cut.”

    Time Magazine praised her for refusing to “let horror be silenced.”

    The International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM is on the 6th February and a film about her life is being screened to mark this day.

    It’s fantastic news that that the message that FGM is not acceptable and that it is not going to be tolerated is gaining more traction. Getting FGM banned for a whole country is a tremendous achievement.

    Jaha said that she was inspired by the work of London campaigners.

    This just goes to show how important talking about this horrific subject, or indeed, any subject is. If it wasn’t for the London campaigners, there would be no Jaha and The Gambia would be a lot worse off.

    Another encouraging sign is that the husbands are realising the pain and suffering their wives are going through.

    The men in these communities have a far bigger role than they realise in eradicating this barbaric procedure.

    FGM is a procedure that has no medical benefits but has been shown to cause great harm for the young girls and women.

    It is a procedure that was introduced by man and is purely for the man’s benefit.

    The more men that come round to the thinking that FGM is harmful to their wives, the quicker we can rid the world of this cruel and dangerous behaviour.

    The next subject to be looked into needs to be on this absurd custom of arranging marriages of young girls to middle aged men.

  25. Thank you Tim for reporting this up to date news story.

    TODAY IS INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ZERO INTOLERANCE FOR FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION – 6 February 2018.

    What is clear is that when we open up discussions and talk, there is a great opportunity for change.

    Our world is not aware of everything that is going on and most would agree, WHY do we need to know what is going on everywhere?

    The truth is we are all part of the whole and so we can take note, pay attention and at least get talking, or we can ignore it as it is not affecting us in our immediate world – in other words, this is all going on out there and not on my doorstep, thank God.

    What if a powerfull blog such as this, written by a man, does hold a vibration that can be felt by all but only a few choose to align and respond by way of comments?

    What if these small digital footprints start to expand and with social media and other platforms it gets out there to more and more people?

    There is no fighting here or campaigning or rallying or trying or pushing or forcing.

    Just simply stating the facts, of what is known in our world and spelling it out so others can at least have more awareness.

    Writing forensic blogs such as this hold a quality that requires a commitment and dedication for wanting change in our world, where so much is wrong and if we who know we can express in this way hold back, then what chance is there ever of true change.

  26. Hearing from 2 New York-based women yesterday about how common circumcision is in America – that, certainly when they were growing up, it was considered to be necessary for health reasons.

    One of them described a recent circumcision gathering for a new baby and how common this is.

    The baby had a wine soaked rag put in its mouth while its foreskin was cut off and the invited guests to the ‘celebration’ looked on.

    If this is for health reasons, why is it not done in hospital under anaesthetic?

    Is this different to FGM or is it an act on the same scale of mutilation?

    It has me asking again, how have we arrived in a place where these acts are so normalised in communities?

    Do we need to look again at what we are doing?

    1. Thank you for sharing this JS. I feel that it is so important to hear real life reports of what is going on in our world today.

      Culture plays a big part in our movements and behaviours and I know that there have been many things done in the name of culture which are deeply harming to the human body.

      For some reason we forget that there is a person that we are dealing with when it comes to cultural beliefs/expectations and acts like Female Genital Mutilation and the circumcision that you describe are common place as a result.

      When will we start to live in a way that has decency and respect as the very baseline of the way we treat and see each other?

      Surely if this were the absolute minimum standard, barbaric acts would not exist at all.

  27. An article in the Evening Standard, 19th June 2018, talks about the ‘first walk-in clinic for FGM survivors opens at east London hospital’.

    The service provides an FGM specialist gynaecologist and midwife, an FGM trained sample-taker and access to an interpreter as well as psychological support for women that live in surrounding boroughs.

    De-infibulation, a procedure that helps divide scar tissue, is also available.

    The gynaecologist that runs the clinic, said survivors often avoid being examined because of “fear and psychological trauma”.

    FGM, which has been illegal in this country since 1985, is most often carried out on girls between infancy and age 15.

    In 2015 legislation made it mandatory for teachers, doctors, nurses and social workers to report cases of child FGM to the police.

    There were almost 5400 newly recorded cases in 2016-17 and almost half of these were in London, according to NHS Digital figures.

    There have however, been no convictions in the courts.

    The fact that there is now a dedicated clinic at a hospital, with all of the ancillary staff, for FGM, indicates that FGM is becoming more prevalent even with the fact that it has been made illegal since 1985.

    What is more shocking is the fact that, in over 30 years, there still haven’t been any convictions.

    Surely the fact that we now have had to provide a dedicated clinic for the sufferers of FGM, it should make it very obvious to those in authority that FGM is to be taken a lot more seriously than it has been, up till now.

    The question I would like to know is, Why?

    Why isn’t FGM taken seriously?

    Why has there been no convictions for this truly harmful, debilitating procedure?

    Why is FGM allowed to go unpunished in a so-called modern society in this day and age?

    Why are we up in arms if we are denied our freedom of speech but yet, remain abnormally silent when we are presented with the horrors of something like FGM?

    FGM used to be associated with what many would consider third world backwater countries, but now it is in our faces, it is in the fact that nearly half of all newly recorded cases were in London, it is in the bricks and mortar of this purpose built clinic.

  28. Talking to a wonderful Somali lady yesterday about FGM.

    She shared her experience of female circumcision age 7 and how it was so normal to go through that.

    She had full anaesthetic and it was done in a hospital environment. She said many cultures do not agree with this and do the cutting in horrific conditions which she said was much worse.

    She told me the practice of FGM originated from Egyptian times as a way to control the women and entirely for the pleasure of the men – the vaginas were sewn tight when the labia were tucked inside. The practice spread far and wide from there.

    She said culture is stronger than religion where FGM is concerned and she now works with an organisation to bring awareness in order to bring a stop to this mutilation.

    She said so much can be done by the government to stop this, eg border control. Instead of only checking your bags at customs, check the girls who are coming back from an extended stay in known FGM countries and arrest everyone who has subjected their child to that.

    She said there have been some arrests eg via schools reporting suspicions and this is the way to bring change – via a deterrent that you know FGM is a criminal act and you will go to prison. No excuses.

    She also shared how some mothers have started an FGM ‘lite’ version, where the clitoris is cut and left to bleed (rather than the clitoris being cut out and the labia cut and sewn in). This way they can say they have followed the rules and their girls are clean.

    She was clear this is not the answer. No form of mutilation is acceptable.

    She was heartened to hear about this blog and the man who wrote it.

    Perhaps she will comment here more on her own experiences and perspectives and how we can each help to bring about change, to stop the mutilation of the next generation of our women. That further insight would be hugely appreciated and much needed, as is her important work.

    This needs our attention and care. Every single one of us.

  29. Daily Mail – 18 August 2018

    A man and woman have been accused of subjecting a three year old girl to female genital mutilation.

    The child needed emergency surgery after being left severely wounded.

    This is only the 3rd time that charges of female genital mutilation have gone to court.

    The previous two cases have resulted in acquittals.

    This case has been sent to the Old Bailey – England and Wales’ Central Criminal Court.

    The article states that ‘Prosecutors are desperate to secure their first conviction for an offence first made illegal in this country in 1985…a lack of willingness among victims, family members and friends to alert the authorities has hindered investigations. The Government has pledged £35 million to eradicate female genital mutilation and in 2015 it was made a requirement for medical staff, teachers and social workers to report cases…

    Prosecutor Paul Okabu said: “This is a serious matter that is highly unusual and complicated in many ways. Female Genital Mutilation is a serious offence but also is a cultural issue”‘.

    It would be very easy to read this story and bad mouth the alleged perpetrators and then switch off, but what if we changed our approach and began to ask questions about what we read or hear in the news?

    What if we question why things are happening?

    Have we ever actually considered what is going on under the surface, that leads to this type of barbaric attack?

    What would lead any of us to harm another in this way?

    Is there more for us to understand here regarding the cultural influence?

    Whilst seeking to eradicate female genital mutilation is a good deed – what if it will never be eradicated, until we truly understand why it is happening and make changes from that standpoint?

  30. The Mail on Sunday – 16 September 2018

    First Clinic for Young FGM Victims Sees Just 5 in a Year

    In total the service has treated just 43 patients since it opened in 2014.

    Some are questioning how prevalent the practice is in the UK due to the low numbers seen at the clinic.

    To date there has been no prosecutions for FGM in the UK.

    The clinic is for girls aged under 18 who have undergone FGM. The service is run by a consultant gynaecologist and a consultant paediatrician. It operates once a month, within University College Hospital London and examines girls who have been referred by police, GPs or social services to see if they need medical or psychological help.

    The latest nationwide statistics show that 16,455 women and girls seen by doctors in England since 2015, had undergone some form of FGM. However the NHS report stated that of recent patients – 87% endured FGM in Africa, whilst most cases undertaken in the UK are legal piercings on consenting adults.

    Do we need to be asking more questions here?

    Does it actually matter where the FGM has taken place?

    Why do we need to quibble about whether a person should be included as a statistic as the practice may have occurred abroad?

    In truth what difference does this make?

    Is it not enough that we are aware of cases where women have been horrifically cut and interfered with, regardless of where this has occurred?

    Does it mean that we turn a blind eye or not take it as seriously if the country of origin was not in the UK?

    Is it not alarm bell raising to have one woman having gone through FGM, before we go any further?

    Why do we only regard something as serious when there are large numbers?

    Do we need to start asking questions like this?

  31. An article in the Independent newspaper, 1st February 2019, talks about how the mother of a three year old girl has become the first person to be convicted of FGM in the UK.

    The reason this case came to light is the mother had cut the girl at their London home but had to call 999 because the girl was bleeding heavily. Whilst the investigation was going on, the mother attempted to cast spells against the prosecutors and police officers.

    FGM has been illegal in the UK since 1985 and even though there have been several cases brought against people before, there have never been any convictions.

    Two previous prosecutions under FGM laws have previously failed along with a third prosecution for child neglect that included FGM. At present, police have around 300 protection orders for girls at risk of the practice in the past three years.

    More than 18,000 FGM survivors have been recorded by the NHS since 2015 but police believe the majority of these cases identified by health workers are historic and happened outside the UK.

    The fact that 999 had to be called because the girl was bleeding heavily just highlights how dangerous FGM is and, along with the prison sentence, could deter some from carrying out this horrendous and abusive procedure.

    This is certainly a step in the right direction but more prosecutions are needed to really get the message across.

  32. An article in the online BBC News, 4th February 2019, says that FGM is increasingly being performed on UK babies and infants.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47076043

    An FGM expert said that “it was almost impossible to detect as the girls were not in school or old enough to report it”. She said there was a lot of anecdotal data which shows FGM now being performed on babies. “These girls are not at school, they are not at nursery and so it becomes very difficult for any public authority to become aware. By performing it at such a young age, they’re evading the law.”

    In one report, in Yorkshire, a victim was just one month old.

    The National FGM Centre said there was anecdotal evidence from some communities that FGM laws can be circumnavigated by performing the procedure on girls at a much younger age. “The girls are unable to report, the cut heals quicker and prosecution is much harder once evidence comes to light and the girl is older. There needs to be much greater recognition of this issue across different areas of the UK.”

    Some of the issues here are that the authorities are unsure of what steps to take. Children’s services can be unsure when to intervene, doctors are not always reporting it to the police and some police officers do not always know what to do.

    Some people are worried about cultural sensitivities and worried about being branded racist.

    Although 939 calls were made to emergency services to report FGM between 2014 and 2018, only 36 referrals from the police have been received by the Crown Prosecution Service since 2010.

    In France, a lawyer’s work has led to more than 100 FGM convictions. In France, all children undergo regular genital checks until the age of six and doctors are expected to report any cases of physical abuse.

    Is it possible that, in the UK, we need to adopt this way of checking young girls?

    Is it possible that we, as adults, have to protect these young girls regardless of where they come from?

    To me, this seems a vital step forward that is needed to protect these innocent young girls and a step that is totally necessary.

    For those that may baulk at the idea of having their children checked in a very personal area and on a regular basis, we need only put ourselves in the position of a child that is likely to endure the pain that follows from this unnecessary barbaric procedure.

  33. The Telegraph – 21st October 2020

    Month Long ‘Cutting Season’ Sees an Estimated 2,800 Girls Subjected to FGM
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/women-and-girls/month-long-cutting-season-west-kenya-sees-estimated-2800-girls/

    Activists have seen at least 100 girls a day paraded through streets as dancing crowds celebrate a ‘successful’ procedure.

    Thousands of girls have been subjected to FGM during a month long ‘cutting season’ in West Kenya, amid fears the Covid lockdown has triggered a dramatic surge in new incidents.

    Every day for almost four weeks roughly 100 girls have been pushed to undergo FGM in Kuria, a district on the Tanzanian border.

    Videos shared online capture the celebrations that follow the procedure. Girls as young as nine are dressed in patterned fabrics, tinsel and balloons and paraded through the streets, surrounded by a throng of dancing adults and children.

    MANY MEN CARRY MACHETES TO DETER INTERVENTIONS.

    The founder of Msichana Empowerment Kuria, an organisation to end FGM says: “These parades are very loud, with music and dancing, but they are also very hostile. To begin with, families were concealing the practice, but by the second and third week girls were being paraded openly on the streets as there had been no repercussions.”

    She goes on to say: “School closures mean children are at home all day, so parents have an opportunity to cut girls without worrying that it will be noticed. Normally cutting takes place during the school holidays in November and December, but this year we’ve seen it happen in April too – and now.”

    Kenya has been held as a “beacon of hope” amid efforts to eradicate cutting across the globe. The Government made FGM illegal 10 years ago, while the president has committed to eradicate cutting by 2022.

    Instability has also contributed to the surge. Some community elders have reportedly blamed Covid-19 on a failure to uphold traditions, including FGM, that are believed to appease the Gods, while families in dire economic straits are cutting their daughters to gain a higher “bride price”.

    The chief executive of The Five Foundation, The Global Partnership To End FGM said: “At a community level FGM is about financial incentives and gains. When a young girl is cut it is not to protect against rape, as some claim, but to protect an asset – her virginity – so you can sell her at an higher price.”

    FGM is also lucrative for those behind the practice, cutters are paid around 1,000 Kenyan shillings, about £7, for every procedure they perform and in some areas community elders get a percentage of this cash.

    The chief executive of The Five Foundation said: “ We have to give women in Africa access to economic empowerment, education and sanitation to counter this, because right now they are being treated as a burden. There’s this idea their only value is in being mutilated and sold into marriage. I’m not sure why this isn’t shaking us to our core.”

    The chief executive of The Five Foundation – who was appointed by the UK government as an independent adviser on tackling violence against women earlier this month – adds that the Foreign Secretary should apply more pressure on Kenya to maintain vigilance around FGM, even as the pandemic draws attention and resources.

    She says: “ Kenya is a commonwealth country and the UK is respected in Kenya. We have a responsibility to help. I think we can offer a lifeline to these girls.”

    A Conservative MP and chair of the foreign affairs select committee echoed her message – “ Cutting season? A season to butcher young girls? This is wrong. We have powerful voices speaking out against FGM in the UK – but we need much more action internationally.”

    Governments in all countries are aware of the prevalence of FGM and most if not all countries have banned this disgusting practice – so why do incidences of FGM still hit the headlines?

    If there was nothing wrong with FGM, why are the men carrying machetes to deter interventions?

    This article has made a few references to FGM resurfacing because of the coronavirus pandemic but is it possible that the fact that the pandemic has given rise to this increase implies that, in truth, there has been no real reduction in the number of FGM cases and that everything had simply gone underground?

    Is it possible that, those who want this abhorrent procedure to continue – men and women – regardless of how much intervention there is, will do so at any cost?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *