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Questions about campaigns and data
4.10.2013. How can it be expained that rates of female genital mutilation are not dropping in one country despite campaigns to eliminate the practice while they decrease in another where no campaign has targeted the issue? How robust are figures when out of the same group of women 94 percent answer to have undergone FGM in one year, but only 84 percent say this when surveyed ten years later? These questions are posed by Henrietta L Moore and William Wyse in the medical journal BMJ referring to the recent Unicef report on FGM.
Read article: Female genital Mutilation/Cutting in BMJ 2013;347:f5603
Saudi Ministry Sheikh pro FGM?
19.9.2013. In a recent fatwa a certain Sheikh Al-Hajji Al-Kurdi from the Saudi Ministry of Awqaf & Islamic Affairs endorsed female genital mutilation in its “sunna” form which stipulates the cutting of the clitoris prepuce. He distinguished this allowed “Islamic circumcision” from forbidden “Pharaonic circumcisions”.
On the ground, however, it is common opinion that “sunna circumcision” includes the cutting of the clitoris.
A fatwa like this one raises serious questions about the prevalence of FGM in Saudi Arabia.
Female genital mutilation among Iraqi Kurdish women: a cross-sectional study from Erbil city
8.9.2013. A cross-sectional study was conducted in the primary health care centers and the Maternity Teaching Hospital in Erbil city, involving 1987 women aged 15–49 years. The self-reported prevalence of female genital mutilation was 70.3%, while it was 58.6% according to clinical examination of the women’s genitalia. Only 30% of the participants were aware about the health consequences of female genital mutilation. More than one third (36.6%) of the women support the practice and 34.5% have intention to mutilate their daughters.
Berivan A. Yasin, Namir G. Al-Tawil, Nazar P. Shabila and Tariq S. Al-Hadithi: Female genital mutilation among Iraqi Kurdish women: a cross-sectional study from Erbil city, September 2013
New FGM study in line with Wadi’s findings
(b) it excludes women above the age of 20 (with growing age there is a sharp rise in prevalence)
(c) in recent years there is growing awareness among people and Wadi observed a rapid downward trend in some areas,
(d) meanwhile FGM has been legally banned and become a punishable crime. It was observed in various African countries that under such conditions people are more likely to conceal the practice, especially when they are asked to report on their daughters for which they (at least in theory) could be hold accountable.
Not just a pinch of skin
18.8.2013. A film student made a film about the practice of FGM in the Bohra community in India. First it was seen with suspicion, now she won a national award.
Interview of the director by Yollande D’Mello (dna)
It started out as a college project that Priya Goswami, an alumna of National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, worked on in her final year. In March, the 25-minute documentary, A Pinch of Skin, about Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in India, won the National Film Award in the Special Mention category. dna caught up with her for a chat
Why did you choose this topic?
I stumbled upon an article that broached the topic and knew immediately that this would be the subject of my documentary. I had never heard about the practice of Female Genital Mutilation from friends belonging to the Dawoodi Bohra community or otherwise, and wondered why that was. I want to start a conversation. I’m a feminist at heart but I wanted to make an objective film.
How did you convince people to come on record?
I shot in Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Surat and Udaipur where people were either on board or not. We worked around their requests to use silhouettes, not shoot faces or simply record audio. I took whatever they gave me.
How does the film manage to capture emotions without any faces?
Everyone we spoke to had a vociferous opinion to be expressed. We let their body language do the talking. So gesticulating hands and tensed toes make up for facial expressions.
How did the practice of FGM begin?
It’s a myth. There is actually no mention of it in the Quran. Since the community was predominantly merchants, men travelled a lot. Removing the haraam ki boti, as it is called, was a way to control the sexual urges of women and keep them from infidelity. Read More.
U.N. pressures Indonesia to stop health workers performing FGM
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) 12.8.2013. Indonesia should stop allowing doctors, midwives and other health workers to carry out female genital mutilation (FGM) on children and babies as young as six months, the United Nations Human Rights Committee (OHCHR) has said.
The committee also urged the country to pass legislation banning any form of FGM and to put in place penalties that reflect the “gravity of this offence”, which campaigners say is a serious human rights violation. OHCHR made its comments on Friday in observations on the state of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The “medicalisation” of FGM – a term used for when the practice is performed by health practitioners – has emerged as a trend in several countries and campaigners say it is setting back global efforts to eradicate the ancient ritual. It is also seen as one of the biggest risk factors as it is often seen as legitimising FGM. Read more
Laws or education? – the debate how to eliminate FGM
07. 08. 2013
The recent Unicef report on female genital mutilation (FGM) has sparked a debate about the best way to eliminate the practice. As Thomas Reuters reports some campaigners stress the necessity of law enforcement while others are set on the empowerment of women. No one denies that both are important but the emphasis to be put on each is disputed.
Comparing Unicef’s figures by country must indeed lead to questions why FGM in some places declines while it does not in others. While Unicef found a general decline of FGM in the surveyed region, there are steep differences between countries. Burkina Faso is a success story with a high prevalence of 90 percent, but only 9 percent of girls and women supporting the continuation of FGM today. Senegal, on the other hand, seems to be somewhat of a set back. With also high prevalence of 79 precent it could be counted as a success that only 18 percent of women aged 45-49 want FGM to continue. Yet, the next generation seems to be much of the same opinion with 16 percent of girls aged 15-19 in favor of it. If awareness campaigns were successful it could be expected that support drops from generation to generation.
Both countries have outlawed FGM in the 1990s and have seen large campaigns against FGM in the last decades. Why then is there so little change in attitudes between generations in Senegal? Some campaigners, such as Equality Now, point to the fact that Burkina Faso has seen strong law enforcement while Senegal hasn’t. An SOS hotline has been installed that allows the public to call if they know FGM is being performed. The police arrive immediately on the spot to arrest the perpetrators.
Yet, Tostan, a large non-governmental organization in charge of the Anti-FGM-campaigns in Senegal, defends its approach to eliminate FGM through the empowerment of women – teaching literacy, health and human rights.
WADI and the Stop FGM Mideast campaign stress that empowerment of women and law enforcement including all legal issues must go hand and hand. Particularly, in countries with a strong tradition of religious laws regulating people’s lifes, the state must take a decisive stand against female genital mutilation. Otherwise, any awareness campaign risks to be challenged by a local Imam or other cleric who might not be in accordance with higher religious authorities but is listened to in the absence of state.
The Bristish Guardian will have a live discussion on a related topic on August 8th: Live Q&A: finding strategies to end harmful behaviours and beliefs
Clear Signal against FGM: Egyptian Dar Al Ifta snubs Islamists
17.7.2003 by Stop FGM Mideast
The highest religious authority in Egypt has – once again – condemned female genital mutilation. In the current climate with fears rising last year that then ruling islamists could decriminalize FGM, this is an important signal and success in the struggle against FGM. Yet, the practice remains widespread in the country.
A representative of Dar Al-Ifta, an official body responsible for issuing religious edicts based on the rulings of the religious Al-Azhar University, has told a summit in Cairo that FGM is “not a religious duty” and should be prohibited. Mohamed Wessam Khedr addressed representatives of the Egyptian government, Al-Azhar, Unicef and the Egyptian Coalition for Children’s Rights on June 20st, Daily News Egypt reported. “FGM is practised in a harmful way that makes us say that it is forbidden in Islam,” he said. The meeting was held to commemorate Egypt’s inaugural National Day to Fight FGM – established in 2007 after a girl died during the practice.
The Al-Azhar, situated in Cairo is probably the most respected Islamic university in the Muslim world, condemned FGM already in 2006. At a conference taking place at the University, theologians from different Muslim countries concluded that female circumcision is forbidden by Sura 95, Verse 4 of the Koran: “We have created man in the most perfect image.” A joint statement read: “Female genital circumcision is harming women psychologically and physically.”
The practice was criminalized in Egypt in 2008, with those found guilty standing to receive between three months and two years in prison. They can also be fined up to 5,000 Egyptian pounds (543 Euro).
Nevertheless, FGM remains widespread. More than 90% of women are assumed to have undergone the torture of FGM – not least due to the lack of law enforcement and special legal provisions (FGM is still permitted under the pretext of dubious „medical reasons“).
After the fall of Mubarak the new government dominated by religious forces as the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists raised fears, that it might come to a backlash regarding FGM, even to an abolishment of the anti FGM-Law. The official positions were to say at least ambiguous. A Salafist MP claimed the practice to be part of the propehtic Sunna and proposed a new law, Egypt Independent reported. The Muslimbrothers remained mostly tacit on the topic, yet sponsered a charity medical campaign during which FGM was performed. The recent death of a 13-year-old Egyptian girl during an FGM-operation in a private clinic led to a broad discussion.
Against this background the renewed religious ruling against the practice of FGM is not to be underestimated. It is a clear signal from within an important part of the religious establishment towards islamist forces, that the controvers discussion about FGM has finally arrived in the Muslim societies itself. The claim of radical islamist forces to define the “right” muslim answer towards FGM is contested by the highest religious authority in Egypt. This development also contains an important lesson for uncritical Western observers: The practice of FGM is not a fate for some people, based on unalterable “cultural” or “religious” traditions or beliefs. Yet it also reminds us, that ending FGM will be a long term process, which has to be monitored constantly.
FGM slowing down? The UN asserts it, the Indonesian case contradicts it
15.6.2013. Mirielle Valette explains in the French feminist magazine Sisyphe why the United Nations figures about female genital mutilations are too low. Giving details about evidence from several Asian countries, she questions why the UN does not update their assumptions about FGM.
by Mireille Vallette
The UN communication with regard to sexual mutilations is deceitful. It underestimates the number of excised girls, ignores the reality of excisors countries such as Indonesia, and maintains strict taboo of the religions role. Without it, reality would appear naked : some 300 mio Muslims are concerned by excision and without an active intervention of religious leaders, the scourge will not disappear.
Investigation and call for a mobilization !
Unicef provides annually the status about the situation of female genital mutilation.1) It is estimated that some 130 million women worldwide have endured it and that three million girls are subject annually to the circumciser’s knife or to any other kind of mutilation. Figures are far below reality.
Unicef also announced that these mutilations are decreasing everywhere. It is also false : in some countries, the scourge increases. The agency also asserts that in 25 years, mutilations will have disappeared. A dream…
The implicit assumption of these statistics is that excising countries are known and identified. Howewer, only Africa (and Yemen) fall into this accounting. Does only Africa excise ? No, but to collect representative data and integrate them, Unicef needs the approval of the governments.
What happens in the Middle East and Southeast Asia ? About the first, we do not know much and the second contradicts the findings of Unicef. In Indonesia and Malaysia, the feminine genital mutilations (FGM) are common, and rising. Moreover, they contribute to the increasing medicalization denounced by the WHO in other countries.
Egyptian girl dies undergoing circumcision
“We left our daughter with the doctor and the nurse. 15 minutes later, the nurse took my daughter out of the operation room to a nearby room, along with three other girls whom the doctor was circumcising,” Mohammed Ibrahim, a farmer, told Egyptian daily al-Masry al-Youm.
“I waited half an hour, hoping that my daughter would wake up, but, unfortunately, unlike the rest of the girls, she did not,” he said.
See also: Now: Female genital mutilation in Egypt – The tragedy of Suhair al-Bateh reopens the question of female circumcision