This campaign to collect information on FGM in the Middle East and Asia and support campaigns has been halted due to lack of funding. For updates on our projects in Iraq and Iran check our website wadi-online.org. For news on FGM in Asia check our facebook page.
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By Wadi, 14.07.2014
A first independent study on female genital mutilation in central/southern Iraq finds that 25% of the women in these regions were subjected to this practice.
The study was conducted in early 2014 in cooperation between physicians, women’s rights and civil society organizations. The researchers’ identities remain undisclosed due to securitiy concerns.
500 women in Wasit province and 500 women in Qadisyiah province were sampled for the study. The data collected suggests that most women are subjected to FGM in childhood, especially before the age of 10. The most often cited reasons for the practice are religious belief, cultural heritage and tradition; it is most commonly performed by a nurse or a midwife.
In light of the challenging security situation and social circumstances under which the study was conducted, the results are to be taken as preliminary indicators urgently demanding further research. Data presented by UNICEF last year suggested that FGM is almost inexistent in southern and central Iraq. The new findings cast considerable doubt on this conclusion and are calling for further thorough investigations.
Female genital mutilation is a grave human rights violation and a form of violence against women according to the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women. Its eradication is explicitly recommended by the international bodies for women’s rights.
The new study contributes to groundbreaking research work on the prevalence of FGM in the Middle East. Until recently official data claimed that FGM did not exist in the Middle East and was in general “an African problem”. In 2009 the German-Iraqi association WADI conducted the first comprehensive area-wide research on FGM in Iraq’s Kurdish provinces which found an alarming prevalence rate of 72%. A similar study conducted in Kirkuk (Northern Iraq) in 2012 revealed a 38% prevalence and gave irrefutable evidence that FGM is not restricted to the Kurdish areas.
Subsequently, the Stop FGM Middle East campaign was launched. It has made many efforts to uncover the true prevalence of the practice across Iraq, the region, and in other parts of Asia.
For more information contact Wadi:
WADI e.V.
Herborner Str. 62, D-60439 Frankfurt a. M.
Tel: +49-69-57002440, Fax: +49-69-975392640
E-Mail: info@wadinet.de
Wadi Office Iraq
Bakhtiary, Section 113, Street 34, House 21
Suleymaniah Kurdistan
Iraq Tel.: 00964-7701-588173
E-Mail: wadisul@yahoo.com
Daily News Egypt, Marwa Morgan,10.7.2014
The Egyptian Association for Comprehensive Development (EACD) is ardently opposed to female genital mutilation, a traditional practice of cutting a girl’s genitalia to ensure chastity. But when it sends doctors to speak to low-income Egyptians about the risks of getting their daughters circumcised, the nonprofit dances around the issue.
“We can’t tell people that FGM should be totally avoided,” said Abeer Hamdy, the NGO’s media officer. “It is so embedded in the culture.”
Guardian, Alexandra Topping, 23.6.2014
The Muslim Council of Britain, the country’s largest Muslim organisation, has condemned the practice of female genital mutilation as “un-Islamic” and told its members that FGM risks bringing their religion into disrepute.
The influential MCB has for the first time issued explicit guidance, which criticises the practice and says it is “no longer linked to the teaching of Islam“. It added that one of the “basic principles” of Islam was that believers should not harm themselves or others.
Hannah Wettig, the project coordinator of Stop FGM Middle East, held a lecture at Bold Talks Women Dubai on May 31, 2014.
14.06.2014 By StopFGMMideast
A new report was just filed to UNCHR about the prevalence of FGM in various regions of Iran.
Some excerpts, you can download the whole document here
FGM in the Kurdish regions
The Kurdish regions of Iran include Kurdistan, Kermanshah, Ilam and south parts of western Azarbaigan province. The majority of the Kermanshah and Ilam population are Shi’as while most of the Kurds in Kurdistan and western Azerbaijan provinces are Sunnis of Shafi’i branch of Islam. Although FGM is widely practiced between Shafi’is, the practice lacks a blanket pattern. In some rural areas it is more or less done on girls, while in the neighbouring villages no one is even aware of it. For example in Kermanshah province, in the Gheshlagh village of Mansour Aghaie regions FGM is practiced, while in the Tazeh Abad of Seryas village, part of Ravansar town no case had been reported.
13.6.2014. Hivos. For ten years, Hivos partner WADI has been campaigning against female genital mutilation (FGM) in Iraqi Kurdistan. Director Thomas von der Osten-Sacken finds that communities are slowly but surely turning away from this degrading tradition.
Not an ‘African problem’
The Iraqi-German human rights organisation WADI first came upon the harrowing consequences of FGM in the Kurdish Autonomous Region through its mobile teams. “At that time, it was thought that FGM barely existed in Iraq. FGM was seen as an ‘African problem’,” says von der Osten-Sacken. “Right now in publications people talk of about 140 to 160 million women who have been genitally mutilated worldwide. But Indonesia – the country with the largest Muslim population in the world – is not included, and it is estimated that about 80 percent of women are circumcised there. If you add Iraq, Iran, Oman, Yemen and Malaysia, you come to the conclusion that the number of victims of FGM is probably twice as high.”
By Rayehe Mozafarian, 07.06.2014
On his website, the Supreme Leader of the IRI, Ayatollah Khamenei presented a sentence on circumcision for both gender, female and male.
According to this sentence (Fatwa), female circumcision is not obligatory.
4.6.2014. By Hannah Wettig (Stop FGM Middle East). It was quite a surprise to us when an invitation to hold a presentation in Dubai on female genital mutilation (FGM) reached us. The government of the United Arab Emirates is not known for allowing controversial issues to be tackled. And this was no small presentation in the backroom of some organization, but a very publicized event in a theater with 500 seats. All presentations had to get an o.k. by the government.
So, I took the opportunity to see what’s on in Dubai. The talk about FGM in the Middle East and Asia was part of the whole day event Bold Talks Woman. Female journalists, singers, comedians, charity founders and business women got up on stage and talked about their mission, how they came to do what they are doing and what obstacles they had to overcome. (more…)
The Guardian, by Patrick Kingsley, 21.5.2014.
A doctor is to stand trial in Egypt on charges of female genital mutilation on Thursday, the first case of its kind in a country where FGM is illegal but widely accepted.
Activists warned this week that the landmark case was just one small step towards eradicating the practice, as villagers openly promised to uphold the tradition and a local police chief said it was near-impossible to stamp out.
Raslan Fadl, a doctor in a Nile delta village, is accused of killing 13-year-old schoolgirl Sohair al-Bata’a in a botched FGM operation last June. Sohair’s father, Mohamed al-Bata’a, will also be charged with complicity in her death.
19.5.2014.
Does Female Circumcision happen in Singapore?
Yes. In Singapore’s Muslim community, female circumcision involves nicking the prepuce, the skin covering the clitoris. It is markedly different from the more severe forms of genital mutilation. The procedure is usually done on babies or prepubescent children. Circumcisions in Singapore are done by female doctors at a handful of Muslim clinics. Anesthesia is generally not used.