June 10, 2009
I. Introduction
The article is a part of Martha Nussbaum’s work “Sex and Social Justice.” The discussions particularly evolve around the arguments presented towards the subject of the judgment of one culture to another. The article made use of one of the most debated issues internationally, genital mutilation. This paper will be analysing the said article by providing a summary and looking critically at the structure and the way the arguments are presented.
II. Summary
The issue of female genital mutilation (FGM) has been one of the most debated issues from the past years. Nussbaum’s article is an addition to the wide array of literature dedicated to the said topic. The article employed the case of Fauziya Kassindja, a Togo national who tried to apply for political asylum in the United States in order to get away from her relatives compelling her to commit FGM.
The arguments on the said article then turn to specific attributes brought about by the case. First noted by Nussbaum is whether Westerners have a responsibility or even the right to bring this practice to an end. The article basically presented several arguments why the Western countries should not disparage the actions of other cultures, especially if these are considered deeply ingrained and considerably a part of the traditions of the said culture. What Nussbaum see in the said arguments that the notion of culture has been utilised in the sense that there is a set of elements that basically delineate what is right and wrong. To some degree, she claimed that these arguments demanding Westerners to be indifferent to the traditions (hideous or otherwise) of other cultures is rather naïve in a way that it shuns its attention to the fact that other forms of cultures exist. This is further indicated by the indications noted in her argument relating to the fact that within the same cultures mentioned, there is some sort of opposition to the practice (FGM). As presented in the case of Kassindja, her father vehemently opposed of the practice of FGM despite the fact that is considered a requirement for marriage in their culture.
The article even took note of the claims of Tamir specifically on the claims against the practice of FGM is basically anchored on the deep-seated attributes of the Western society particularly related to sexuality of the individual. In the case of FGM, pleasure on the part of the female is removed. Nussbaum argues in this sense that compelling women to mutilate themselves as a part of what is seen as cultural conformity is basically inappropriate. This shows that the arguments presented by the said author are based on the freedom of women to express themselves with regards to their sexuality and their respective behaviours towards it.
III. Conclusion
Martha Nussbaum is considered in the academic community as among the “liberal perfectionists” of our time. (1998) Basically that means that her arguments are basically leaning towards the doctrine of state responsibility and the sensitive issue of autonomy among individuals. This is shown in the article discussed above. It is shown in such flair that Nussbaum presented it through arguments in feminist ethics and politics. The importance of the freedom of having to choose among individuals is shown in her arguments in such a way that one could in actuality appreciate and understand why such elements are needed in human existence.
Posted by Marivic Butod
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Combating Female Circumcision
June 9, 2009
I became an activist to stop female genital mutilation last year after reading a shocking survey from a secondary school in Rania, a town in Sulaimaniyah province. Every single one of the girls in the school reported that their genitals had been cut.
Female genital mutilation is an epidemic in northern Iraq, particularly in remote and rural areas. In villages, it is a common practice frequently carried out in unsanitary conditions by women without medical training. They slice the clitoris of a young girl, spreading ashes on the cut to numb the pain.
Through my work with Wadi, an international rights organisation campaigning against the practice in Iraqi Kurdistan, I have travelled to 84 towns and villages to raise awareness about the harmful effects of female genital mutilation.
Wadi estimates that more than 60 per cent of women in Iraqi Kurdistan have been circumcised. The highest rates are in Grmyan, a mostly rural region that runs along the Iranian border.
The practice pre-dates Islam yet is defended as a cultural and religious tradition, a type of Islamic ritual.
But I believe that female genital mutilation is the same as any other type of physical violence against women, and that it leaves lifelong psychological scars.
I visit the villages three times a week to raise awareness about the practice, and constantly hear horror stories from the women I meet.
One 30-year-old woman told me that, at the age of eight, she and her nine friends were lured to a house from where they were told they would be taken clothes shopping.
The woman said the girls were instead grabbed by other women from the village, their mouths stuffed with cloths so their screams could not be heard. She said they were taken to an elderly lady who, her hands shaking, cut them with a dirty razor.
The woman who recounted the story said she refuses to circumcise her girls, but convincing others to stop the practice is not easy.
While younger women are vocal in their opposition to female circumcision, older ones have told us we are spreading immorality and defaming Islam.
Women are circumcised in the name of Islam, even though the practice is not sanctioned by the religion. Village lore says that food prepared by women who are not circumcised is not Halal because they have not followed Islam.
A documentary we show to women in villages includes two mullahs who state that the practice is not Islamic; and a doctor who speaks of the health problems it can cause.
Once taboo to discuss, female genital mutilation is increasingly aired publicly after the local press began covering the issue. In addition to Wadi’s work on the ground in villages, a television advertising campaign has also helped raise awareness.
But lawmakers have been hesitant to debate the issue in parliament, stalling legislation that would make female circumcision a crime.
Under the proposed law, those found guilty of carrying out the practice would face between six to 15 years in prison and a fine. The parents of the victim could also face prosecution.
Foreign organisations such as Wadi are taking the lead against female circumcision, but it is difficult to persuade a majority-Muslim community to stop a practice seen as a religious ritual.
It is important for the parliament to pass legislation punishing those who circumcise women. The proposed law has not moved forward, even though 14,000 people signed a letter supporting a ban on the custom.
The government could also push religious leaders and the ministries of health and education to raise awareness.
Mobilising public opinion against female genital mutilation will have an even bigger impact than legislation. Unless the public’s mindset about the issue changes, a new law will achieve little.
–
Azeez Mahmoud, an IWPR-trained journalist, helps Wadi’s mobile teams educate women about female genital mutilation. She is based in Sulaimaniyah.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
The Myths About Female Genital Mutilation
June 8, 2009
Frontpage Interview's guest is Ines Laufer, founder of the Task Force for Effective Prevention of Female Genital Mutilation, a network of Human-Rights-organisations and activists that is committed to measurable, broad prevention of genital mutilation among migrant girls in the EU. With the Task Force's prevention-programme, for the first time true protection of minor girls from this violence comes into reach.
FP: Ines Laufer, welcome to Frontpage Interview.
I would like to build on our last interview about how European politics give a helping hand to Female Genital Mutilation.
Let’s talk a bit about the myths, lies and errors about FGM.
Laufer: Sure, thanks Jamie.
Today, after 30 years of widely unsuccessful efforts for an end of the torturing mutilations, the time is overripe to identify, name and overcome all the fatal myths, lies and fundamental errors which continue to be spread even by so-called scientists and even most "activists".
To reveal all those myths is about much more than being right or wrong; it’s about explaining WHY most strategies in the fight to end FGM until now are predestined to fail – and to be not much more than a waste of money, time, energy and resources – while millions of little girls continue to be maimed every year.
It’s about going to the roots and finding out the baleful mechanisms that lead to the continuation of this violent practice.
Finally, it’s about reforming the approaches and strategies, it’s about effective investment of resources and it’s about measurable results.
It’s about leaving worn-out paths which do only lead into a dead-end-street.
FP: Indeed, so let’s start with some of the myths. The first one is, obviously, that FGM has nothing to do with Islam, right?
Laufer: Right.
Myth #1: FGM has nothing to do with Islam as it is not mentioned in the Koran.
As soon as it comes to discussions about the influence of religion on the worldwide perpetration of FGM on little girl-children, most "activists," organisations and politicians are very anxious to explain that genital mutilations have nothing to do with Islam, that they are not mentioned in the Koran, and that there are followers of other religions, especially Christians and Animists, who also submit their female members to FGM.
Of course, FGM is prevalent among other religious groups than Islam – but it is mistaken to reason that there would not be a very close and very fatal link between Islam and FGM.
The truth is: Today, the vast majority of FGM-victims are Muslim girls and women. This is not even a surprise – because regardless the fact that FGM is not mentioned in the Koran, Muslim clerics widely propagate FGM and publicly legitimize this violence and instigate it. They do not even need to cite the Koran, because they simply refers to the Hadith of the prophet Mohammed.
It is hard going to argue if the FGM-concerned Hadith are "weak" or "strong".
The only thing that counts is the social reality: In the 21st century, Islam is the only religion that is systematically being exploited by male authorities to make sure that women and their sexuality are brought under male’s control by destroying the most sensitive sexual part of the body, the clitoris.
But until now, the highest Islamic authorities deny their active participation and responsibility in spreading the mutilation-practice all over the world and strictly encourage its continuation – not only in African, Arabian or Asian countries, but also inEurope .[1]
FP: And the places inAfrica that FGM is most prevalent are Muslim.
Laufer: Right. If one has a look at the FGM-practicing countries on the world-map, one can hardly elude from the following cognition: In Africa, the countries where genital mutilations have been adopted, all belong to the "belt of Islamisation". This fact - as well as hints which indicate that in Western-Africa, FGM does not date back more than 500 years - allows the assumption that FGM has been spread to Middle andWestern Africa by Islamization.
From the Middle-East (for instanceIraq Asia (Indonesia Malaysia
And even fromCentral Europe - from Bosnia
As fatal as the fact that Islamic clerics publicly and openly propagate and call for female genital mutilation is the frightened silence of the world public. The incitement to torture, mutilate and harm female children in the name of religion, in fact has no consequences, no penalties for those responsible. I often have the impression that the fear to be called an "Islamophobe" completely stultifies the mind of scientists, politicians and activists and blindfolds them to obvious facts.
FP: Some other myths?
Laufer: There are many more.
Myth #2: There are different reasons why FGM is practiced – and FGM is different in different societies.
When it comes to describe the practice of female genital mutilation, its backgrounds and reasons, permanently and mantra-likely it is repeated that in different ethnic groups there are different reasons for perpetrating FGM. During the last 15 years, as I can speak for the situation in Germany, one scientist or activist or politician copies the mental trash from the other one, without questioning or rethinking. It is no matter if one looks at publications of development-organisations or active FGM-organisations or student papers – they all write the same falsehood: There are different reasons in different societies given for this "traditional custom."
The truth is: There is only one single reason, one objective that can be found in every single ethnic group, inALL regions and societies to be the essential reason for the existence of female genital mutilation: FGM is about the oppression of female sexuality, it’s about control and about women’s manipulation to function in the sense of male’s conceptions. The synonyms of this objective are the following: FGM is being performed to maintain the girl’s virginity, to curb their sexual desire, to maintain chastity and to guarantee sexual faithfulness. This is what it is ALWAYS about and there’s not a single society where this aspect would not appear.
All other reasons given, like aesthetic reasons, purity, initiation, religious reasons or completely insane ones, like the clitoris could kill men and babies, are nothing else than a helpful part of ideological legitimization to
deviate from the true intention,
to create a certain pressure that helps to make the nationwide implementation of this oppressing violence possible and - together with the tabooization -
prevents the victims from asking questions, from getting to the bottom of this practice and from putting it into question-
All these disguising justifications are well suited to justify and to excuse FGM and mask the true nature of what in real a very systematic form of violence.
It is quite fascinating to see how this ideology not only perfectly fulfils it’s meaning - in the countries where FGM is practised – but foremost among the ethnologic and anthropologic scientists as well as activists and politicians in the Western world: They, by failing to analyse the justifications of FGM as exchangeable constructs, for a long time refused – and still widely do refuse - to properly tackle FGM as serious phenomenon of specific violence against an exactly defined group within a society.
FP: Another myth?
Laufer: Myth #3: The parents who let their children mutilate only want the best for the girls.
Repeated like a mantra for decades, this myth excuses and trivializes offender’s intention who badly maltreat their children through FGM.
This lie lulls the masses and hinders the indispensable deep understanding of the nature, intention and systematic of female genital mutilations.
It reflects the Western illusion – or devotional wish - that parents always intend to do the best for their children. If one looks at what is really going on in the world, one has to recognize that the familial relationship quite often is a source of grave violence, maltreatment, neglect etc.
The basic cause of this behaviour is disrespect, the psychologist and Children’s Rights-activist Monika Gerstendörfer gets to the point: Disrespect towards children within a disrespectful environment.
FGM needs to be seen as symptom of a social environment dominated by control, oppression and legitimised violence.
Therefore, it is not a secret nor a surprise that in all FGM-practising countries/groups, a very high level of general violence against children is very common, that consists of physical and psychological abuse, beating and severe punishment.
Nevertheless, the dimension of this regular violence is still surrounded by a big taboo and again there are the Western "scientists" who do their best to keep the silence alive.
There is not a single FGM-practising society where FGM is not directly linked to so-called "forced/arranged marriages". The verbal association of this act to "marriage and wedding" obscures its true nature that simply is slavery: If any male human-being would be offered to a future owner for money, gold or material stuff, to be raped and always be in his attendance, it would be clear and apparent that we would have to talk about slave-trading.
As soon as the victims are female children or female adolescents who are sold by their fathers for money, gold, camels or goats to other men, this obvious slave-trade is being named "marriage". What a cynicism!
And because the future owners of the girls refuse to "buy used good", they insist on virginity and genital mutilation, what they see as effective measure to preserve it.
As girls and women in this context are seen, treated and traded like any good, it is of course marginal if they suffer pain and/or trauma, if they are deprived of sexual fulfilment and personal development
So, by letting the own daughters mutilate, every male patriarchs act with regard to their own interests and highest profit that could be achieved by selling the girls later. The health, welfare, wishes and sexuality of the girls are simply subordinated to these interests.
FGM is not an act of love but an act of disrespect, disdain, violence and personal material interests of others than the victims.
FP: So what is the key to end FGM?
Laufer: The key is connected to another myth itself.
Myth #4: The key to end FGM is education and information.
Although it might sound provocative, long-time experiences inAfrica and Europe oblige us to reconsider the meaning of information and education within the process of FGM-abandonment.
While right from the start the main-focus was put on educating and informing the FGM-practicing communities about the harm that FGM causes – hoping that this would lead to accordingly abandon the practice, today’s reality is unmasking this idea as pure illusion.
Many Western-based organisations blindly insist on claiming that "if people understand that there is noting good within this tradition, they will stop" (Marianne Raven, CEO, Plan International Germany e.V[2].).
Others at least admit that this strategy widely failed: Recently, the German GTZ conceded that "education about the health consequences does much more lead to FGM-medicalisation than to its abandonment."[3]
The World Health Organisation (WHO) had to raise the question why women, who are well-aware of the awful consequences of FGM, even those who officially campaign against the practice, continue to mutilate their children in spite of that.[4]
The answer to that question does not only lie in the social pressure.
To find an answer to that question, the still widespread view, that FGM is a "traditional custom that people do for the girl’s best" must be put into question:
This view does not only label the people who perform and propagate FGM as uneducated and "not really knowing what damage they do", but also offers an excuse and trivialises both the perpetrators and the practice itself.
Already in 1977, the Senegalese authoress Awa Thiam was contradicting this shortened perception by pointing out that there’s "an apparent wish to exculpate our elder women by alleging that they don’t have any science-based information about clitoridectomy. This is a bad underestimation."[5]
In 2007, the Egyptian FGM-Activist Riham Shebl vehemently answered back to the wrong image that continues to be created about FGM:
"For a long time FGM was associated with lack of education, a lower socio-economic background. This made it worse for upper- and middle-class women, because it became a double stigma; they were not only circumcised, but are also like the poor and the uneducated…"
Her colleague Vivian Morqos unmasks the active involvement especially of educated Elites in perpetuating the violent practice:
"..75 per cent of those in the medical field are the ones practising it, though it was Ali Ibrahim, a doctor, who first lobbied for banning FGM/ C inEgypt
"Incomplete information, unprofessional opinions and the notion that the practice is limited to grassroots communities are all instances of irresponsible misinformation." [6]
In 2000, a study run by the African Women’s Organisation in Vienna underlines that people, who are well-aware about the consequences of FGM, are far away from the step to abandon it: 75% of the interrogated immigrants who live in Austria now were in favour of FGM-continuation – although the number of those who confirmed to know the devastating effects was not considerably lower!
In the last centuries, Female Genital Mutilation has been spread to countries and populations which cannot be considered "traditional clan-people", but who adopted FGM for the same identical reason that can be found in all FGM-practising communities: to oppress and control women’s sexuality in a society where general discrimination and marginalisation of female human-beings is legitimate. Such countries areIraq Malaysia Indonesia Central Europe - in Bosnia
Yet, it might be more comfortable or more "politically correct" for Western organisations and politicians to hold on the illusion that the cause of FGM can be found in lack of education or knowledge and therefore can be eliminated by education.
But day by day and year by year, the ones who have to pay the price for this obvious error, are thousands of little girls who are submitted to that inhuman treatment in full awareness about its consequences.
The time is overdue to finally recognise the true nature of Female Genital Mutilation as a particular, specific kind of violence against female children.
Once we start to analyse the Systematic of that violence, we can find conclusive and logical answers to the – until now – helplessly asked question:
"Why do people continue to mutilate their children in full awareness of the consequences?"
The psychological mechanisms which take effect can be compared with those appearing in "classical forms of violence" which are passed within families from one generation to the other, for example sexualised violence against children within families.
By understanding Female Genital Mutilation in conjunction with "inter-generational violence," it gets clear that women do not mutilate their daughters although they have been victims themselves – but because of that.
This comprehension leads to a necessary change of priorities: The highest priority must be put on breaking through the fatal circle of violence by consequently stopping girls from becoming victims of FGM.
The responsibility for that clearly lies in each government’s hands. Our European governments have to implement efficient measures that cover all potential FGM-victims and lead to true and measurable protection of the girls.
This includes consequent identification and prosecution of the perpetrators.
There are consequent and efficient strategies that could lead to a measurable end of Female Genital Mutilation inEurope even in three years – they just need to be applied.
These strategies set entirely new standards and will become a criterion, how serious Western governments, politicians and NGOs the problem of FGM honestly take.
FP: What can average people do to help save girls from FGM?
Laufer: Well, generally I think that preventing FGM in a Western society is not the duty of average people – but it’s the responsibility of each government.
Of course, as long as the governments fail to implement effective prevention measures, the girls are fully dependent on help of courageous members of the civil society. In the recent years of our work on concrete cases, we always experienced a very high inhibitions: people are very hesitant to "denounce" potential offenders or families who are supposed to have mutilated their girls. Mostly, they fear to be called "racist" or to "discriminate innocent migrants" – and at least the mass-media reactions in the recent FGM-prevention case inGermany
Anyhow, to say it with the words of Rakieta Poyga, president of the organisation Bangr’Nooma that works for an end of FGM inBurkina Faso
"Please – do not allow that little girls in your country are submitted to genital mutilation"! she called on the audience of the film "Maimouna, la vie devant moi" that was presented in 2008 in several cities inGermany
So,
If you get any information about a girl who is supposed to be brought to a country where FGM is commonly practised – and therefore will be at risk to be submitted to FGM - for instance during summer-holidays, please inform the social service to undertake concrete steps.
If you get information that a girl might have been mutilated already, please inform the police or state attorney: Please always be aware that FGM is a serious crime – and not a "cultural practice" that we should tolerate
Find out if there are organisations in your country who consequently work for true protection of little girls, who do not betray themselves and others by stating that "if the people are informed about the health consequences they will stop to mutilate their children". If there are organisations who put the government and ministries under pressure in order to implement effective strategies to protect girls from FGM, support them.
Express your concern about the area-wide mutilation of the sponsored girls from Plan International, World Vision,CCF Kinderhilfswerk and other organisations. Protest against the continuation of mutilations in Western-financed development projects. If you donate money, make sure that the organisation guarantees the protection of the girls in the concerned community. Please be aware that all organisations could do that quite easily – if only they would be committed.
Help to overcome the lies and myths that are still spread about FGM by naming and putting it in perspective.
FP: Ines Laufer, you are a true hero. Thank you for your brave and noble work on behalf of female children and your effort to protect them from this barbarity.
By Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com
Frontpage Interview's guest is Ines Laufer, founder of the Task Force for Effective Prevention of Female Genital Mutilation, a network of Human-Rights-organisations and activists that is committed to measurable, broad prevention of genital mutilation among migrant girls in the EU. With the Task Force's prevention-programme, for the first time true protection of minor girls from this violence comes into reach.
FP: Ines Laufer, welcome to Frontpage Interview.
I would like to build on our last interview about how European politics give a helping hand to Female Genital Mutilation.
Let’s talk a bit about the myths, lies and errors about FGM.
Laufer: Sure, thanks Jamie.
Today, after 30 years of widely unsuccessful efforts for an end of the torturing mutilations, the time is overripe to identify, name and overcome all the fatal myths, lies and fundamental errors which continue to be spread even by so-called scientists and even most "activists".
To reveal all those myths is about much more than being right or wrong; it’s about explaining WHY most strategies in the fight to end FGM until now are predestined to fail – and to be not much more than a waste of money, time, energy and resources – while millions of little girls continue to be maimed every year.
It’s about going to the roots and finding out the baleful mechanisms that lead to the continuation of this violent practice.
Finally, it’s about reforming the approaches and strategies, it’s about effective investment of resources and it’s about measurable results.
It’s about leaving worn-out paths which do only lead into a dead-end-street.
FP: Indeed, so let’s start with some of the myths. The first one is, obviously, that FGM has nothing to do with Islam, right?
Laufer: Right.
Myth #1: FGM has nothing to do with Islam as it is not mentioned in the Koran.
As soon as it comes to discussions about the influence of religion on the worldwide perpetration of FGM on little girl-children, most "activists," organisations and politicians are very anxious to explain that genital mutilations have nothing to do with Islam, that they are not mentioned in the Koran, and that there are followers of other religions, especially Christians and Animists, who also submit their female members to FGM.
Of course, FGM is prevalent among other religious groups than Islam – but it is mistaken to reason that there would not be a very close and very fatal link between Islam and FGM.
The truth is: Today, the vast majority of FGM-victims are Muslim girls and women. This is not even a surprise – because regardless the fact that FGM is not mentioned in the Koran, Muslim clerics widely propagate FGM and publicly legitimize this violence and instigate it. They do not even need to cite the Koran, because they simply refers to the Hadith of the prophet Mohammed.
It is hard going to argue if the FGM-concerned Hadith are "weak" or "strong".
The only thing that counts is the social reality: In the 21st century, Islam is the only religion that is systematically being exploited by male authorities to make sure that women and their sexuality are brought under male’s control by destroying the most sensitive sexual part of the body, the clitoris.
But until now, the highest Islamic authorities deny their active participation and responsibility in spreading the mutilation-practice all over the world and strictly encourage its continuation – not only in African, Arabian or Asian countries, but also in
FP: And the places in
Laufer: Right. If one has a look at the FGM-practicing countries on the world-map, one can hardly elude from the following cognition: In Africa, the countries where genital mutilations have been adopted, all belong to the "belt of Islamisation". This fact - as well as hints which indicate that in Western-Africa, FGM does not date back more than 500 years - allows the assumption that FGM has been spread to Middle and
From the Middle-East (for instance
And even from
As fatal as the fact that Islamic clerics publicly and openly propagate and call for female genital mutilation is the frightened silence of the world public. The incitement to torture, mutilate and harm female children in the name of religion, in fact has no consequences, no penalties for those responsible. I often have the impression that the fear to be called an "Islamophobe" completely stultifies the mind of scientists, politicians and activists and blindfolds them to obvious facts.
FP: Some other myths?
Laufer: There are many more.
Myth #2: There are different reasons why FGM is practiced – and FGM is different in different societies.
When it comes to describe the practice of female genital mutilation, its backgrounds and reasons, permanently and mantra-likely it is repeated that in different ethnic groups there are different reasons for perpetrating FGM. During the last 15 years, as I can speak for the situation in Germany, one scientist or activist or politician copies the mental trash from the other one, without questioning or rethinking. It is no matter if one looks at publications of development-organisations or active FGM-organisations or student papers – they all write the same falsehood: There are different reasons in different societies given for this "traditional custom."
The truth is: There is only one single reason, one objective that can be found in every single ethnic group, in
All other reasons given, like aesthetic reasons, purity, initiation, religious reasons or completely insane ones, like the clitoris could kill men and babies, are nothing else than a helpful part of ideological legitimization to
deviate from the true intention,
to create a certain pressure that helps to make the nationwide implementation of this oppressing violence possible and - together with the tabooization -
prevents the victims from asking questions, from getting to the bottom of this practice and from putting it into question-
All these disguising justifications are well suited to justify and to excuse FGM and mask the true nature of what in real a very systematic form of violence.
It is quite fascinating to see how this ideology not only perfectly fulfils it’s meaning - in the countries where FGM is practised – but foremost among the ethnologic and anthropologic scientists as well as activists and politicians in the Western world: They, by failing to analyse the justifications of FGM as exchangeable constructs, for a long time refused – and still widely do refuse - to properly tackle FGM as serious phenomenon of specific violence against an exactly defined group within a society.
FP: Another myth?
Laufer: Myth #3: The parents who let their children mutilate only want the best for the girls.
Repeated like a mantra for decades, this myth excuses and trivializes offender’s intention who badly maltreat their children through FGM.
This lie lulls the masses and hinders the indispensable deep understanding of the nature, intention and systematic of female genital mutilations.
It reflects the Western illusion – or devotional wish - that parents always intend to do the best for their children. If one looks at what is really going on in the world, one has to recognize that the familial relationship quite often is a source of grave violence, maltreatment, neglect etc.
The basic cause of this behaviour is disrespect, the psychologist and Children’s Rights-activist Monika Gerstendörfer gets to the point: Disrespect towards children within a disrespectful environment.
FGM needs to be seen as symptom of a social environment dominated by control, oppression and legitimised violence.
Therefore, it is not a secret nor a surprise that in all FGM-practising countries/groups, a very high level of general violence against children is very common, that consists of physical and psychological abuse, beating and severe punishment.
Nevertheless, the dimension of this regular violence is still surrounded by a big taboo and again there are the Western "scientists" who do their best to keep the silence alive.
There is not a single FGM-practising society where FGM is not directly linked to so-called "forced/arranged marriages". The verbal association of this act to "marriage and wedding" obscures its true nature that simply is slavery: If any male human-being would be offered to a future owner for money, gold or material stuff, to be raped and always be in his attendance, it would be clear and apparent that we would have to talk about slave-trading.
As soon as the victims are female children or female adolescents who are sold by their fathers for money, gold, camels or goats to other men, this obvious slave-trade is being named "marriage". What a cynicism!
And because the future owners of the girls refuse to "buy used good", they insist on virginity and genital mutilation, what they see as effective measure to preserve it.
As girls and women in this context are seen, treated and traded like any good, it is of course marginal if they suffer pain and/or trauma, if they are deprived of sexual fulfilment and personal development
So, by letting the own daughters mutilate, every male patriarchs act with regard to their own interests and highest profit that could be achieved by selling the girls later. The health, welfare, wishes and sexuality of the girls are simply subordinated to these interests.
FGM is not an act of love but an act of disrespect, disdain, violence and personal material interests of others than the victims.
FP: So what is the key to end FGM?
Laufer: The key is connected to another myth itself.
Myth #4: The key to end FGM is education and information.
Although it might sound provocative, long-time experiences in
While right from the start the main-focus was put on educating and informing the FGM-practicing communities about the harm that FGM causes – hoping that this would lead to accordingly abandon the practice, today’s reality is unmasking this idea as pure illusion.
Many Western-based organisations blindly insist on claiming that "if people understand that there is noting good within this tradition, they will stop" (Marianne Raven, CEO, Plan International Germany e.V[2].).
Others at least admit that this strategy widely failed: Recently, the German GTZ conceded that "education about the health consequences does much more lead to FGM-medicalisation than to its abandonment."[3]
The World Health Organisation (WHO) had to raise the question why women, who are well-aware of the awful consequences of FGM, even those who officially campaign against the practice, continue to mutilate their children in spite of that.[4]
The answer to that question does not only lie in the social pressure.
To find an answer to that question, the still widespread view, that FGM is a "traditional custom that people do for the girl’s best" must be put into question:
This view does not only label the people who perform and propagate FGM as uneducated and "not really knowing what damage they do", but also offers an excuse and trivialises both the perpetrators and the practice itself.
Already in 1977, the Senegalese authoress Awa Thiam was contradicting this shortened perception by pointing out that there’s "an apparent wish to exculpate our elder women by alleging that they don’t have any science-based information about clitoridectomy. This is a bad underestimation."[5]
In 2007, the Egyptian FGM-Activist Riham Shebl vehemently answered back to the wrong image that continues to be created about FGM:
"For a long time FGM was associated with lack of education, a lower socio-economic background. This made it worse for upper- and middle-class women, because it became a double stigma; they were not only circumcised, but are also like the poor and the uneducated…"
Her colleague Vivian Morqos unmasks the active involvement especially of educated Elites in perpetuating the violent practice:
"..75 per cent of those in the medical field are the ones practising it, though it was Ali Ibrahim, a doctor, who first lobbied for banning FGM/ C in
"Incomplete information, unprofessional opinions and the notion that the practice is limited to grassroots communities are all instances of irresponsible misinformation." [6]
In 2000, a study run by the African Women’s Organisation in Vienna underlines that people, who are well-aware about the consequences of FGM, are far away from the step to abandon it: 75% of the interrogated immigrants who live in Austria now were in favour of FGM-continuation – although the number of those who confirmed to know the devastating effects was not considerably lower!
In the last centuries, Female Genital Mutilation has been spread to countries and populations which cannot be considered "traditional clan-people", but who adopted FGM for the same identical reason that can be found in all FGM-practising communities: to oppress and control women’s sexuality in a society where general discrimination and marginalisation of female human-beings is legitimate. Such countries are
Yet, it might be more comfortable or more "politically correct" for Western organisations and politicians to hold on the illusion that the cause of FGM can be found in lack of education or knowledge and therefore can be eliminated by education.
But day by day and year by year, the ones who have to pay the price for this obvious error, are thousands of little girls who are submitted to that inhuman treatment in full awareness about its consequences.
The time is overdue to finally recognise the true nature of Female Genital Mutilation as a particular, specific kind of violence against female children.
Once we start to analyse the Systematic of that violence, we can find conclusive and logical answers to the – until now – helplessly asked question:
"Why do people continue to mutilate their children in full awareness of the consequences?"
The psychological mechanisms which take effect can be compared with those appearing in "classical forms of violence" which are passed within families from one generation to the other, for example sexualised violence against children within families.
By understanding Female Genital Mutilation in conjunction with "inter-generational violence," it gets clear that women do not mutilate their daughters although they have been victims themselves – but because of that.
This comprehension leads to a necessary change of priorities: The highest priority must be put on breaking through the fatal circle of violence by consequently stopping girls from becoming victims of FGM.
The responsibility for that clearly lies in each government’s hands. Our European governments have to implement efficient measures that cover all potential FGM-victims and lead to true and measurable protection of the girls.
This includes consequent identification and prosecution of the perpetrators.
There are consequent and efficient strategies that could lead to a measurable end of Female Genital Mutilation in
These strategies set entirely new standards and will become a criterion, how serious Western governments, politicians and NGOs the problem of FGM honestly take.
FP: What can average people do to help save girls from FGM?
Laufer: Well, generally I think that preventing FGM in a Western society is not the duty of average people – but it’s the responsibility of each government.
Of course, as long as the governments fail to implement effective prevention measures, the girls are fully dependent on help of courageous members of the civil society. In the recent years of our work on concrete cases, we always experienced a very high inhibitions: people are very hesitant to "denounce" potential offenders or families who are supposed to have mutilated their girls. Mostly, they fear to be called "racist" or to "discriminate innocent migrants" – and at least the mass-media reactions in the recent FGM-prevention case in
Anyhow, to say it with the words of Rakieta Poyga, president of the organisation Bangr’Nooma that works for an end of FGM in
"Please – do not allow that little girls in your country are submitted to genital mutilation"! she called on the audience of the film "Maimouna, la vie devant moi" that was presented in 2008 in several cities in
So,
If you get any information about a girl who is supposed to be brought to a country where FGM is commonly practised – and therefore will be at risk to be submitted to FGM - for instance during summer-holidays, please inform the social service to undertake concrete steps.
If you get information that a girl might have been mutilated already, please inform the police or state attorney: Please always be aware that FGM is a serious crime – and not a "cultural practice" that we should tolerate
Find out if there are organisations in your country who consequently work for true protection of little girls, who do not betray themselves and others by stating that "if the people are informed about the health consequences they will stop to mutilate their children". If there are organisations who put the government and ministries under pressure in order to implement effective strategies to protect girls from FGM, support them.
Express your concern about the area-wide mutilation of the sponsored girls from Plan International, World Vision,
Help to overcome the lies and myths that are still spread about FGM by naming and putting it in perspective.
FP: Ines Laufer, you are a true hero. Thank you for your brave and noble work on behalf of female children and your effort to protect them from this barbarity.
By Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com
Friday, June 5, 2009
Burkina Faso: President launches bid to reduce FGM/C
OUAGADOUGOU, 5 June 2009 (IRIN) - Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaoré has launched a campaign to reduce female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) by 30 percent by 2013. Burkina Faso has made more progress on reducing FGM/C than its neighbours, lowering the percentage of girls undergoing the procedure to 50 percent in 2005 from 77 percent in the 1990s. But following a government outlaw of the practice in 1996, some women perfoming excisions are cutting babies, rather than young girls, to escape scrutiny. Marie Rose Sawadogo, permanent secretary of the National Committee against Female Circumcision (CNLPE), told IRIN: "I am calling on the entire population to unite behind this plan to reach zero tolerance to FGM/C by 2015." On 2 June President Compaoré travelled to Kaya, 100km north of the capital Ouagadougou – where resistance to stopping FGM/C has been high – to garner the support of traditional and religious leaders. Some 260 young girls underwent FGM/C in Burkina Faso in 2008, 40 percent of whom required medical treatment following the procedure, according to the CNLPE.
Egypt Passes Law Banning Female Circumcision
June 5, 2009
Egyptian members of Parliament passed a new law that bans female circumcision. The new bill also changed the legal minimum age for marriage to 18 years-old for both genders.
The laws passed on Sunday impose jail time and large fines if caught practicing female circumcision. A maximum jail term of two years or a fine between $200 and $1,000 can be handed down by a judge.
The only means allowed for the process is in cases of “medical necessity.” International rights groups welcomed the decision, saying it is a step in the right direction for Egypt.
The laws are enforceable immediately.
Some members of Parliament argued that the bill goes against Islamic principles and this is another attempt by the “west” to impose “its beliefs on our culture.” However, most Islamic scholars welcomed the decision, saying it was long overdue to outlaw a practice that needed to be ended.
Some accounts argue that as many as 97 percent of Egyptian women have been circumcised. The practice is widespread in Upper Egyptian villages, and can often lead to death, infection and psychological trauma, Amnesty International has reported.
Previously Egyptian girls were allowed to legally marry at the age of 16.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Genital Mutilation: Islamic Agony on Women
June 3, 2009
By Lennard James
Female Genital Mutilation that afflict mostly Muslim women today is one of worst horrors suffered by today's women... "Religion: a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs and practices; a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith" — Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.
In today’s world, an estimated 130 million Muslim women, averaging nearly 6,000 a day, have undergone sexual mutilations. This gruesome act is performed in many African countries, including Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Chad.
It is also a tradition among Muslims in Malaysia and Indonesia, in Pakistan, and also in a number of countries in the Middle East, including Egypt, the UAE, and parts of rural Saudi Arabia. Coptic Christians in Egypt and animist tribes in Africa, as well as Muslims, undergo the rituals. Subincision is also practiced by some Amazonian tribes and by the Bohri sects in the Indo-Pak regions.
It appears to be driven originally by man’s desire to have power over woman’s sexuality, to remove fear of paternity uncertainty by keeping women chaste, and uninterested in love affairs, but the lasting practice has become so rooted in those societies that it is now perpetuated even by women upon women all over the world...
Female circumcision is frequently described as an “age-old Muslim ritual”; in fact, it predates Islam, and is even believed to be pre-Judaic. Strabo claimed that “the Egyptians circumcised their boys and girls as do the Jews”. The Virgin Mary was likewise said to have been circumcised (Briffault R76v3 324). Islamic traditions say that it was practiced by Sarah on Hagar, and that afterwards both Sarah and Abraham circumcised themselves by the order of Allah (the Old Testament makes no mention of female circumcision, while making it mandatory for men). There is no evidence that any of Muhammad’s wives or daughters were ever circumcised? While there is no mention of it in the Koran, an authentic hadith states: “A woman used to perform circumcision in Medina. The Prophet said to her: Do not cut severely, as that is better for a woman and more desirable for a husband”. Because of this hadith, some scholars of the Shafi’i school of Islam (found mostly in East Africa) consider female circumcision obligatory. The Hanafi and most other schools of Islamic thoughts maintain, ‘it is merely recommended, not essential’ (Goodwin).
The majority of the rural Egyptian women are still circumcised: they normally undergo removal of the clitoris, not do the more extensive procedures. Even then, there are many complications: infections, bleeding, urinary tract damage, sepsis, and in some cases even death...
More than 90% of the Sudanese women undergo the most severe forms of circumcision, known as “pharaonic” or “infibulations”, done at the age of seven or eight; it removes all of the clitoris, the labia minora and the labia majora. The sides are then sutured together, often with thorns and only a small opening, of the diameter of matchsticks, is left for urine and menstrual flows. The girl's legs are then tied together and liquids are heavily rationed until the incision is healed... During this primitive yet major surgery, it is not uncommon for girls, who are held down by their female relatives, to die from shock or even hemorrhaging of the vagina, urethra, bladder, and rectal areas may also be damaged, and the massive keloid scarring can obstruct walking for life.
After marriage, Muslim women who have been infibulated must be forcibly penetrated by their husbands. This may take up to forty days, and when men are impatient, a knife is used to slit it open… Special honeymoon centers are built outside these communities so that the screams of the brides will not be heard. Sometimes the husband traditionally runs through the streets with a blood-stained dagger to show that he had conquered his maiden.
Waris Dirie had to be operated on as an adult before she could have sexual relations with her husband. Dirie's mother, believing that she was doing the best thing for her daughter, walked her into the brush, held her down and told her to bite on a root. A gypsy woman then cut at the lithe girl's genitalia, using a dirty, broken razor blade. “I heard the sound of the dug blade sawing back and forth through my skin”. The woman used thorns from an acacia tree to puncture holes in her vaginal skin and sew her up, leaving only a tiny hole for the urinal and menstrual flows. “My legs were completely numb, but the pain between them was so intense and excruciating that I wished I would die”! Five-year-old Waris was left in a hut to recuperate her infibulations. Her two cousins died from severe infections.
Uncircumcised Muslim girls in those societies are seen as unclean and treated as outcasts by their family. For more than 20 years, Dirie suffered health problems from her radical circumcision. Menstruation was a long and agonizing process each month, as the menstrual blood backed up in her body. It's when we touch on the subject of sex that Dirie becomes agitated. “Please,” she implores, “let’s not talk about that. Just use your imagination. I will never know the pleasures of sex that have been denied to me. I feel incomplete, crippled and knowing that there's nothing that I can do to change all this, which is the most hopeless feeling of all”.
“When I met Dana (husband), I finally fell in love and wanted to experience the joys of sex with a man. But if you ask me today, ‘Do you enjoy sex?’ I would say not in the traditional way...! I simply enjoy being physically close to Dana, because I love him. It never gets easier. It is emotionally draining to talk about something, which has been locked deep for so long. The hardest part is to start somewhere”... “Everybody is waiting; they don't know what to do. The West is aware of the problems. But they're told to back off, and it's none of your business”…???
Hawa Adan Mohamed was born and raised in Somalia. At the age of 8 she underwent the most radical forms of FGM practiced infibulations performed by her aunt in a small village. The procedure was carried out without anesthetics, using basic cutting tools and thorns. She lost an older sister, who died after the operation. In Somalia, circumcision is such a deeply rooted part of a Muslim girl's life. “From the moment we are crawling, we know about circumcision; we know that our grandmothers and mothers and sisters are circumcised, and we look forward to it being done to us also”…. Back then, no one would have even dreamt of not being circumcised??? “If a mother doesn't get her daughter(s) circumcised, her daughter(s) will be an outcast, no one will marry her, and everyone would think she is a prostitute; so it is a very difficult situation; we can't be angry at anyone, because the mothers' intentions are always good”.
In 1995, Hawa returned home despite ongoing civil turmoil, to help her countries women deal with the menace of circumcision. “I was devastated by what I saw. It seems that we have gone back 40 years. Girls were being infibulated every day with razors and thorns. Two young girls recently died following the procedure, and yet still many don't question it? My dream is that, in my lifetime, there will be young girls living in the heart of Somalia, who can run free and play without pain, without the cruel and devastating effects of FGM circumcisions…. Even just a few, even 10…!!!" (NZ Herald 25 Nov 98).
At the age of 18 Zebebu Tulu, was kidnapped by her future husband, Getachew (Getu) Moneta, and taken to his brother's home. Such forced unions are not uncommon in Ethiopia, where men often have near-total control over Muslim women's lives. Traditions forbade tearful Zenebu from returning to her parents’ house, and the pair was married after negotiations between the two families (NZ Herald).
Nawal el Sadaawi has been a prominent campaigner against female circumcisions, which has earned her the ire of the mullahs.
The Naked Face of Eve contains several commentaries on female circumcision:
My blood was frozen in my veins. It looked to me as though some thieves had broken into my room, and kidnapped me from my bed. They were getting ready to cut my throat, which was always what happened with disobedient girls like myself in the stories that my old rural grandmother was so fond of telling me... I strained my ears trying to catch the rasp of the metallic sound. The moment it ceased, it was as though my heart stopped beating with it. I was unable to see, and somehow my breathing seemed also to have stopped. Yet I imagined the thing that was making the rasping sound coming closer and closer to me. ... At that very moment I realized that my thighs had been pulled wide apart, and that each of my lower limbs was being held as far away from the other as possible, gripped by-steel fingers that never relinquished their pressure. I felt that the rasping knife or blade was heading straight down towards my throat. Then suddenly the sharp metallic edge seemed to drop between my thighs and there cut off a piece of flesh from my body. I screamed with pain despite the tight hand held over my mouth, for the pain was not just a pain, it was like a searing flame that went through my whole body. After a few moments, I saw a red pool of blood around my hips. I did not know what they had cut off from my body, and I did not try to find out. I just wept and wept and I wept, and called out to my mother for help. But the worst shock of all was when I looked around and found her standing by my side. Yes, it was her, I could not be mistaken, in flesh and blood, right in the midst of these strangers, talking to them and smiling at them, as though they had not participated in slaughtering her daughter just a few moments ago.
Elizabeth Lloyds in making a case that ‘female orgasm is just for women to have fun with and no reproductive values’, has claimed that FGM has little effect on fertility:
1. “Women who have had FGM do suffer a significantly increased fertility risks. Women who have had the procedure are more likely to need Caesareans and the death rate among their babies is up to 50% higher” WHO said in a new report. The study, reported in the Lancet, involved 30,000 African women (BBC “Female circumcision 'birth risk' 2 June 2006).
2. A study by Jones et al. in Burkina Faso also found that women who have been cut are more likely to experience obstetric complications, a 1998-1999 NHRC study found that women who were circumcised and married off earlier than uncircumcised women, and that circumcised women had greater total fertility than the uncircumcised women (Reason 2004).
3. Another study based on DHS surveys in the Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, and Tanzania found that, “when controlling for confounding socioeconomic, demographic and cultural variables, circumcised Muslim women, grouped by age at circumcision, did not have significantly different odds of infertility nor of childbearing than uncut women” (emphasis added, Larsen and Yan).
4. "The Relationship between Female Genital Cutting and Fertility in Kassena-Nankana District of Northern Ghana", noted a Paper presented by Elizabeth F. Jackson, Philip B. Adongo, Ayaga A. Bawah, Ellie Feinglass, and James F. Phillips at the Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America, Philadelphia, March 31 - April 2, 2005)
It is clear that, patriarchal societies that diminish or eliminate the Muslim women’s capacity for orgasms, by genital cutting or any other means, also have an agenda to make the Muslim women bear more children—i.e. more ‘reproductively successful’. FGM also occurs because men fear, not without good reason, that female arousal does influence reproductive choice. See also the Dogons, the Shipibo and the Sunnah.
In 2004, an international conference on FGM—female genital mutilation—has ended in Kenya with a fresh call to ban these inhumane practices amongst Muslims. The campaigners urged more Muslim countries to ratify the ‘Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa’ adopted in July 2003. It has so far been ratified by just three states, Rwanda, Libya and Comoros. Although, female circumcision is banned in 14 Islamic African countries, including Ethiopia, Uganda, Ghana and Togo, the practice is still widespread.
By Lennard James
Female Genital Mutilation that afflict mostly Muslim women today is one of worst horrors suffered by today's women... "Religion: a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs and practices; a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith" — Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.
In today’s world, an estimated 130 million Muslim women, averaging nearly 6,000 a day, have undergone sexual mutilations. This gruesome act is performed in many African countries, including Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Chad.
It is also a tradition among Muslims in Malaysia and Indonesia, in Pakistan, and also in a number of countries in the Middle East, including Egypt, the UAE, and parts of rural Saudi Arabia. Coptic Christians in Egypt and animist tribes in Africa, as well as Muslims, undergo the rituals. Subincision is also practiced by some Amazonian tribes and by the Bohri sects in the Indo-Pak regions.
It appears to be driven originally by man’s desire to have power over woman’s sexuality, to remove fear of paternity uncertainty by keeping women chaste, and uninterested in love affairs, but the lasting practice has become so rooted in those societies that it is now perpetuated even by women upon women all over the world...
Female circumcision is frequently described as an “age-old Muslim ritual”; in fact, it predates Islam, and is even believed to be pre-Judaic. Strabo claimed that “the Egyptians circumcised their boys and girls as do the Jews”. The Virgin Mary was likewise said to have been circumcised (Briffault R76v3 324). Islamic traditions say that it was practiced by Sarah on Hagar, and that afterwards both Sarah and Abraham circumcised themselves by the order of Allah (the Old Testament makes no mention of female circumcision, while making it mandatory for men). There is no evidence that any of Muhammad’s wives or daughters were ever circumcised? While there is no mention of it in the Koran, an authentic hadith states: “A woman used to perform circumcision in Medina. The Prophet said to her: Do not cut severely, as that is better for a woman and more desirable for a husband”. Because of this hadith, some scholars of the Shafi’i school of Islam (found mostly in East Africa) consider female circumcision obligatory. The Hanafi and most other schools of Islamic thoughts maintain, ‘it is merely recommended, not essential’ (Goodwin).
The majority of the rural Egyptian women are still circumcised: they normally undergo removal of the clitoris, not do the more extensive procedures. Even then, there are many complications: infections, bleeding, urinary tract damage, sepsis, and in some cases even death...
More than 90% of the Sudanese women undergo the most severe forms of circumcision, known as “pharaonic” or “infibulations”, done at the age of seven or eight; it removes all of the clitoris, the labia minora and the labia majora. The sides are then sutured together, often with thorns and only a small opening, of the diameter of matchsticks, is left for urine and menstrual flows. The girl's legs are then tied together and liquids are heavily rationed until the incision is healed... During this primitive yet major surgery, it is not uncommon for girls, who are held down by their female relatives, to die from shock or even hemorrhaging of the vagina, urethra, bladder, and rectal areas may also be damaged, and the massive keloid scarring can obstruct walking for life.
After marriage, Muslim women who have been infibulated must be forcibly penetrated by their husbands. This may take up to forty days, and when men are impatient, a knife is used to slit it open… Special honeymoon centers are built outside these communities so that the screams of the brides will not be heard. Sometimes the husband traditionally runs through the streets with a blood-stained dagger to show that he had conquered his maiden.
Waris Dirie had to be operated on as an adult before she could have sexual relations with her husband. Dirie's mother, believing that she was doing the best thing for her daughter, walked her into the brush, held her down and told her to bite on a root. A gypsy woman then cut at the lithe girl's genitalia, using a dirty, broken razor blade. “I heard the sound of the dug blade sawing back and forth through my skin”. The woman used thorns from an acacia tree to puncture holes in her vaginal skin and sew her up, leaving only a tiny hole for the urinal and menstrual flows. “My legs were completely numb, but the pain between them was so intense and excruciating that I wished I would die”! Five-year-old Waris was left in a hut to recuperate her infibulations. Her two cousins died from severe infections.
Uncircumcised Muslim girls in those societies are seen as unclean and treated as outcasts by their family. For more than 20 years, Dirie suffered health problems from her radical circumcision. Menstruation was a long and agonizing process each month, as the menstrual blood backed up in her body. It's when we touch on the subject of sex that Dirie becomes agitated. “Please,” she implores, “let’s not talk about that. Just use your imagination. I will never know the pleasures of sex that have been denied to me. I feel incomplete, crippled and knowing that there's nothing that I can do to change all this, which is the most hopeless feeling of all”.
“When I met Dana (husband), I finally fell in love and wanted to experience the joys of sex with a man. But if you ask me today, ‘Do you enjoy sex?’ I would say not in the traditional way...! I simply enjoy being physically close to Dana, because I love him. It never gets easier. It is emotionally draining to talk about something, which has been locked deep for so long. The hardest part is to start somewhere”... “Everybody is waiting; they don't know what to do. The West is aware of the problems. But they're told to back off, and it's none of your business”…???
Hawa Adan Mohamed was born and raised in Somalia. At the age of 8 she underwent the most radical forms of FGM practiced infibulations performed by her aunt in a small village. The procedure was carried out without anesthetics, using basic cutting tools and thorns. She lost an older sister, who died after the operation. In Somalia, circumcision is such a deeply rooted part of a Muslim girl's life. “From the moment we are crawling, we know about circumcision; we know that our grandmothers and mothers and sisters are circumcised, and we look forward to it being done to us also”…. Back then, no one would have even dreamt of not being circumcised??? “If a mother doesn't get her daughter(s) circumcised, her daughter(s) will be an outcast, no one will marry her, and everyone would think she is a prostitute; so it is a very difficult situation; we can't be angry at anyone, because the mothers' intentions are always good”.
In 1995, Hawa returned home despite ongoing civil turmoil, to help her countries women deal with the menace of circumcision. “I was devastated by what I saw. It seems that we have gone back 40 years. Girls were being infibulated every day with razors and thorns. Two young girls recently died following the procedure, and yet still many don't question it? My dream is that, in my lifetime, there will be young girls living in the heart of Somalia, who can run free and play without pain, without the cruel and devastating effects of FGM circumcisions…. Even just a few, even 10…!!!" (NZ Herald 25 Nov 98).
At the age of 18 Zebebu Tulu, was kidnapped by her future husband, Getachew (Getu) Moneta, and taken to his brother's home. Such forced unions are not uncommon in Ethiopia, where men often have near-total control over Muslim women's lives. Traditions forbade tearful Zenebu from returning to her parents’ house, and the pair was married after negotiations between the two families (NZ Herald).
Nawal el Sadaawi has been a prominent campaigner against female circumcisions, which has earned her the ire of the mullahs.
The Naked Face of Eve contains several commentaries on female circumcision:
My blood was frozen in my veins. It looked to me as though some thieves had broken into my room, and kidnapped me from my bed. They were getting ready to cut my throat, which was always what happened with disobedient girls like myself in the stories that my old rural grandmother was so fond of telling me... I strained my ears trying to catch the rasp of the metallic sound. The moment it ceased, it was as though my heart stopped beating with it. I was unable to see, and somehow my breathing seemed also to have stopped. Yet I imagined the thing that was making the rasping sound coming closer and closer to me. ... At that very moment I realized that my thighs had been pulled wide apart, and that each of my lower limbs was being held as far away from the other as possible, gripped by-steel fingers that never relinquished their pressure. I felt that the rasping knife or blade was heading straight down towards my throat. Then suddenly the sharp metallic edge seemed to drop between my thighs and there cut off a piece of flesh from my body. I screamed with pain despite the tight hand held over my mouth, for the pain was not just a pain, it was like a searing flame that went through my whole body. After a few moments, I saw a red pool of blood around my hips. I did not know what they had cut off from my body, and I did not try to find out. I just wept and wept and I wept, and called out to my mother for help. But the worst shock of all was when I looked around and found her standing by my side. Yes, it was her, I could not be mistaken, in flesh and blood, right in the midst of these strangers, talking to them and smiling at them, as though they had not participated in slaughtering her daughter just a few moments ago.
Elizabeth Lloyds in making a case that ‘female orgasm is just for women to have fun with and no reproductive values’, has claimed that FGM has little effect on fertility:
1. “Women who have had FGM do suffer a significantly increased fertility risks. Women who have had the procedure are more likely to need Caesareans and the death rate among their babies is up to 50% higher” WHO said in a new report. The study, reported in the Lancet, involved 30,000 African women (BBC “Female circumcision 'birth risk' 2 June 2006).
2. A study by Jones et al. in Burkina Faso also found that women who have been cut are more likely to experience obstetric complications, a 1998-1999 NHRC study found that women who were circumcised and married off earlier than uncircumcised women, and that circumcised women had greater total fertility than the uncircumcised women (Reason 2004).
3. Another study based on DHS surveys in the Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, and Tanzania found that, “when controlling for confounding socioeconomic, demographic and cultural variables, circumcised Muslim women, grouped by age at circumcision, did not have significantly different odds of infertility nor of childbearing than uncut women” (emphasis added, Larsen and Yan).
4. "The Relationship between Female Genital Cutting and Fertility in Kassena-Nankana District of Northern Ghana", noted a Paper presented by Elizabeth F. Jackson, Philip B. Adongo, Ayaga A. Bawah, Ellie Feinglass, and James F. Phillips at the Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America, Philadelphia, March 31 - April 2, 2005)
It is clear that, patriarchal societies that diminish or eliminate the Muslim women’s capacity for orgasms, by genital cutting or any other means, also have an agenda to make the Muslim women bear more children—i.e. more ‘reproductively successful’. FGM also occurs because men fear, not without good reason, that female arousal does influence reproductive choice. See also the Dogons, the Shipibo and the Sunnah.
In 2004, an international conference on FGM—female genital mutilation—has ended in Kenya with a fresh call to ban these inhumane practices amongst Muslims. The campaigners urged more Muslim countries to ratify the ‘Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa’ adopted in July 2003. It has so far been ratified by just three states, Rwanda, Libya and Comoros. Although, female circumcision is banned in 14 Islamic African countries, including Ethiopia, Uganda, Ghana and Togo, the practice is still widespread.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Europe Pushes Back Against Female Genital Mutilation
June 2, 2009
By David J. Rusin
In a recent interview, activist Ines Laufer explains how female genital mutilation (FGM), which aims to destroy the ability to experience sexual pleasure, threatens thousands of Muslim girls in Europe. "The number of FGM victims and minor girls at risk and the prevalence of FGM in the EU are much higher than assumed," she reports. Some families send their daughters overseas for the procedure; others utilize practitioners who travel from those countries to the West.
Yet several positive developments are of note. Last week a woman in Sweden was awarded compensation from her mother, who had subjected her to FGM during a "holiday" to Somalia in 2001 when she was eleven. "Torture" is how an administrative body describes her ordeal:
She was held down by her mother and two other women while her clitoris and inner labia were removed by a man in return for payment.
The girl's vagina was then sewn up down to the opening of her urethra. The whole procedure was conducted without anesthetic.
A similar case from Denmark resulted in a mother being sentenced earlier this year for allowing a pair of daughters to undergo the operation, which has been illegal there since 2003.
Other nations also are taking notice, as demonstrated by the following actions:
* In France, where genital mutilation continues despite a relatively vigorous record of prosecution, "the government is handing out 100,000 leaflets to schools, doctors, and other public services explaining the health and legal risks and providing information on support services for victims."
* In Britain, which outlawed the procedure in 1985 but where hundreds of girls still are mutilated each year, some schools are instituting programs by which "teachers there would soon be trained to detect victims of female circumcision and pupils at risk." This is an important safety valve; an alert teacher played a key role in the Danish case.
* In Italy, the president of the Association of Moroccan Women, who also is an MP, has spoken out against FGM "because unfortunately we have noticed that the practice has anything but ceased" since such operations were prohibited in 2006.
* In the Netherlands, a government minister has proposed that parents planning to take at-risk children to their countries of origin be made to sign a statement acknowledging that FGM is criminal, thus enabling prosecution if they do not comply.
The campaign to protect the human rights of Muslim girls in the West will be a long and difficult one. To paraphrase Churchill, this is not the beginning of the end. But with rising awareness, we are, perhaps, moving toward the end of the beginning.
By David J. Rusin
In a recent interview, activist Ines Laufer explains how female genital mutilation (FGM), which aims to destroy the ability to experience sexual pleasure, threatens thousands of Muslim girls in Europe. "The number of FGM victims and minor girls at risk and the prevalence of FGM in the EU are much higher than assumed," she reports. Some families send their daughters overseas for the procedure; others utilize practitioners who travel from those countries to the West.
Yet several positive developments are of note. Last week a woman in Sweden was awarded compensation from her mother, who had subjected her to FGM during a "holiday" to Somalia in 2001 when she was eleven. "Torture" is how an administrative body describes her ordeal:
She was held down by her mother and two other women while her clitoris and inner labia were removed by a man in return for payment.
The girl's vagina was then sewn up down to the opening of her urethra. The whole procedure was conducted without anesthetic.
A similar case from Denmark resulted in a mother being sentenced earlier this year for allowing a pair of daughters to undergo the operation, which has been illegal there since 2003.
Other nations also are taking notice, as demonstrated by the following actions:
* In France, where genital mutilation continues despite a relatively vigorous record of prosecution, "the government is handing out 100,000 leaflets to schools, doctors, and other public services explaining the health and legal risks and providing information on support services for victims."
* In Britain, which outlawed the procedure in 1985 but where hundreds of girls still are mutilated each year, some schools are instituting programs by which "teachers there would soon be trained to detect victims of female circumcision and pupils at risk." This is an important safety valve; an alert teacher played a key role in the Danish case.
* In Italy, the president of the Association of Moroccan Women, who also is an MP, has spoken out against FGM "because unfortunately we have noticed that the practice has anything but ceased" since such operations were prohibited in 2006.
* In the Netherlands, a government minister has proposed that parents planning to take at-risk children to their countries of origin be made to sign a statement acknowledging that FGM is criminal, thus enabling prosecution if they do not comply.
The campaign to protect the human rights of Muslim girls in the West will be a long and difficult one. To paraphrase Churchill, this is not the beginning of the end. But with rising awareness, we are, perhaps, moving toward the end of the beginning.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Ugandan Physician-Lawmaker Moves to Criminalize FGM
May 31, 2009
A physician in Uganda moves to outlaw FGM and find alternate income for traditional surgeons.
KAMPALA, Uganda --Earlier this month a member of Uganda's parliament introduced a bill to criminalize female genital mutilation, a traditional coming-of-age practice of cutting off all or part of a girl's clitoris. Though relatively rare in Uganda, the mutilation is still practiced by two ethnic communities in the eastern part of the country.
Chris Baryomunsi, a doctor elected to Parliament three years ago, says he has gained overwhelming support so far from male and female legislators throughout the country for the bill, receiving endorsements from members of many different backgrounds.
A key backer is the Parliament's deputy speaker Rebecca Kadaga, who has dedicated 2009 as the year to end female genital mutilation, also known as FGM, in Uganda.
Rukia Nadama, the state minister for gender and cultural affairs, has also endorsed the bill. She is working with leaders of the Sabiny and Pokot communities--where the majority of these rites are carried out--to educate them about the health risks associated with the cuttings, such as high rates of maternal and child mortality during childbirth, HIV transmission and the potential for these mutilations to cause fatal bleeding.
Baryomunsi expects the bill to win the two-thirds support needed for its passage and for it to become law by September or October of this year.
Awareness Campaign
The Ugandan government launched an anti-FGM awareness campaign with the United Nations Population Fund in the mid-1990s, which used billboards, radio and school curricula to disseminate information about the practice.
But the country did not outlaw the practice.
"We haven't received any resistance so far or had anyone portray this in a negative light," said Baryomunsi in a recent interview with Women's eNews. "I am aware that if you don't do adequate mobilization it might go underground and people might do it in dark corners. But we'll intensify our education campaigns in the communities."
Although female mutilation appeared to be on the decline in Uganda, there was a sharp spike in 2008--among the Sabiny community in particular--that alarmed medical groups and women's advocates. The Sabiny community performs the mutilations in December during even-number years. Its practice is among the most extreme, involving the removal of the entire labia.
Sharp Increase in 2008
Last December, 500 young women in the community were put through the mutilation, a sharp increase from 90 women in 2006. The Pokot, a pastoral community in northeastern Uganda and western Kenya that straddle the two country's borders, also perform mutilations. In initiation rituals, they practice infibulation, in which most or all of the external genitalia is removed and the vaginal opening is stitched up, leaving a small opening for urine and menstrual blood.
Although the origin of the practice is unknown, some cultural historians, Baryomunsi says, have linked it to the community's hunting culture. This theory holds that the Sabiny community wanted to prevent women from experiencing sexual pleasure to inhibit infidelity during hunting expeditions. The practice eventually developed as a way to initiate girls into womanhood.
"In December, I felt such pain and sadness that women, some unwillingly and others willingly, were subjected to crude methods of having their bodies cut when there is no medical benefit," said Baryomunsi. "I've talked to women who are maimed and crippled because of FGM. As a leader and member of parliament, I wanted to do something to stop the abuse of women's human rights in Uganda."
The bill would make it illegal to perform genital mutilations on girls.
Traditional practitioners could be imprisoned for up to 10 years.
The bill imposes harsher penalties on medical doctors and parents. If either attempts a mutilation, they could face prison sentences as high as 15 years. If a girl dies during the procedure, the surgeon administering it could be imprisoned for life. The bill also says that the consent of the girl or young woman will not be a valid defense in court, given the health risks of the practice.
Baryomunsi hopes the bill will offer financial and cultural support to women who currently work as surgeons for the Sabiny and Pokot communities during the season when these mutilations occur.
The surgeons, traditionally elderly women who help perform the initiation rites, make between $25 and $50 per mutilation and rely on the ritual for their livelihoods.
Baryomunsi plans to coordinate with the Ugandan government to set up alternative livelihood programs for the former surgeons.
A physician in Uganda moves to outlaw FGM and find alternate income for traditional surgeons.
KAMPALA, Uganda --Earlier this month a member of Uganda's parliament introduced a bill to criminalize female genital mutilation, a traditional coming-of-age practice of cutting off all or part of a girl's clitoris. Though relatively rare in Uganda, the mutilation is still practiced by two ethnic communities in the eastern part of the country.
Chris Baryomunsi, a doctor elected to Parliament three years ago, says he has gained overwhelming support so far from male and female legislators throughout the country for the bill, receiving endorsements from members of many different backgrounds.
A key backer is the Parliament's deputy speaker Rebecca Kadaga, who has dedicated 2009 as the year to end female genital mutilation, also known as FGM, in Uganda.
Rukia Nadama, the state minister for gender and cultural affairs, has also endorsed the bill. She is working with leaders of the Sabiny and Pokot communities--where the majority of these rites are carried out--to educate them about the health risks associated with the cuttings, such as high rates of maternal and child mortality during childbirth, HIV transmission and the potential for these mutilations to cause fatal bleeding.
Baryomunsi expects the bill to win the two-thirds support needed for its passage and for it to become law by September or October of this year.
Awareness Campaign
The Ugandan government launched an anti-FGM awareness campaign with the United Nations Population Fund in the mid-1990s, which used billboards, radio and school curricula to disseminate information about the practice.
But the country did not outlaw the practice.
"We haven't received any resistance so far or had anyone portray this in a negative light," said Baryomunsi in a recent interview with Women's eNews. "I am aware that if you don't do adequate mobilization it might go underground and people might do it in dark corners. But we'll intensify our education campaigns in the communities."
Although female mutilation appeared to be on the decline in Uganda, there was a sharp spike in 2008--among the Sabiny community in particular--that alarmed medical groups and women's advocates. The Sabiny community performs the mutilations in December during even-number years. Its practice is among the most extreme, involving the removal of the entire labia.
Sharp Increase in 2008
Last December, 500 young women in the community were put through the mutilation, a sharp increase from 90 women in 2006. The Pokot, a pastoral community in northeastern Uganda and western Kenya that straddle the two country's borders, also perform mutilations. In initiation rituals, they practice infibulation, in which most or all of the external genitalia is removed and the vaginal opening is stitched up, leaving a small opening for urine and menstrual blood.
Although the origin of the practice is unknown, some cultural historians, Baryomunsi says, have linked it to the community's hunting culture. This theory holds that the Sabiny community wanted to prevent women from experiencing sexual pleasure to inhibit infidelity during hunting expeditions. The practice eventually developed as a way to initiate girls into womanhood.
"In December, I felt such pain and sadness that women, some unwillingly and others willingly, were subjected to crude methods of having their bodies cut when there is no medical benefit," said Baryomunsi. "I've talked to women who are maimed and crippled because of FGM. As a leader and member of parliament, I wanted to do something to stop the abuse of women's human rights in Uganda."
The bill would make it illegal to perform genital mutilations on girls.
Traditional practitioners could be imprisoned for up to 10 years.
The bill imposes harsher penalties on medical doctors and parents. If either attempts a mutilation, they could face prison sentences as high as 15 years. If a girl dies during the procedure, the surgeon administering it could be imprisoned for life. The bill also says that the consent of the girl or young woman will not be a valid defense in court, given the health risks of the practice.
Baryomunsi hopes the bill will offer financial and cultural support to women who currently work as surgeons for the Sabiny and Pokot communities during the season when these mutilations occur.
The surgeons, traditionally elderly women who help perform the initiation rites, make between $25 and $50 per mutilation and rely on the ritual for their livelihoods.
Baryomunsi plans to coordinate with the Ugandan government to set up alternative livelihood programs for the former surgeons.
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