Blog: Health Matters

Hilary Burrage was the guest speaker during a recent Target Team event addressing the Economics of FGM (female genital mutilation). Two attendees asked very important questions: “Except for making donations and talking to people to raise more awareness of what is happening, what is there that people like us – who are not directly impacted by this – can do to contribute and help in the fight against FGM?” and “If you could give every woman living in Western society a suggestion for what she can do in order to contribute to actively stopping FGM, what would that be?” Those questions resulted in me writing this blog in partnership with Hilary. 

There are several actions that you as a FAWCO member can take:  

1. Become familiar with the 2020–2022 FAWCO Target Project Safe Alternatives for FGM Elimination (S.A.F.E.)
2. Subscribe to the Target Bulletin and other FAWCO communications.  
3. Become knowledgeable of what FGM is: there are numerous blogs that provide more information on different aspects of FGM.  
4. Join a screening of the documentary In the Name of Your Daughter, or arrange a screening of the documentary for your club.
5. Arrange a workshop on “What is FGM?” for your club.   
6. Read about the topic; there is an FGM Recommended Book List where you can find a number of books addressing the topic.  
7. Join the FAWCO Facebook groups and participate in discussions where FGM is addressed. 
8. Support the FAWCO Foundation’s fundraising efforts – The FAWCO Virtual Tour and others.         

In a blog, What Can I Do to Stop FGM?, Hilary shared a number of thoughts on actions that individuals can take. Herewith several suggestions: 

1. Stop talking about “how long will it take?” and start asking “what resources / support do we need?” to eradicate FGM in the the world, in your country of residence and your country of origin.  
2. Where possible, lobby for what is needed and encourage others to collaborate. Lobbying needs to be done by everyone – survivors, activists, professionals, members of the public, at every level and across the media and across the spectrum of service delivery.   
3. Recognize that FGM comes in many forms; we need to know about these many different experiences. No one can tell all the stories.
4. Acknowledge, and explain to others, why FGM is an economic crime as well as a human rights and child abuse; it’s not a “cultural” practice, but a cruel historical tradition.  
5. Avoid using euphemisms: the WHO and the UN call it F.G.Mutilation, as this clearly expresses the nature of the practice.    
6. Find ways to ensure that “professionals” and “activists” / “volunteers” are all respected, properly supported and resourced appropriately. None of us can do this without the others; work together.
7. Remember that everyone seeking to eradicate FGM has specific roles and expertise; nobody knows, or can do, everything. 
8. Make sure that information / knowledge about FGM practices is shared widely, so everyone can be more effective. (This requires diversity of experience amongst activists and professionals, but shared development of ideas and objectives.)
9. If you are actively engaged in work around protecting children and vulnerable adults, be sure to look after your collaborators and yourself; none of us is entirely shock- and exhaustion-proof. We can only be effective if we are also in ourselves okay.
10. In the past few years there have been a growing number of clinics which offer treatment and support to FGM survivors in the diaspora (US, UK, France and other parts of Europe, etc.). So sympathetic Westerners might want to draw attention to the work of these clinics and tell others in their “first world” country that these services need support, as they are vital in showing / persuading members of diaspora communities that FGM causes harm (which can sometimes be partially repaired) and is never a “benefit.” To put it rather too simply (of course!), over time, that message will get back to communities in traditionally practicing countries.

The challenges of creating real, practical, on-the-ground strategies for the eradication of female genital mutilation in the world are many.  It is important to ask, Will FGM be eradicated in a decade? Everyone, wherever they are, can do something to keep public attention on ending FGM.

Information on FGM is of very varying quality globally. Countries have many different diasporas, where many different communities have many different practices. In some parts of the world quite a lot is known about how FGM happens, and via which tradition it occurs – age at FGM, type of FGM, sort of ceremony (or not), which people actually do it, and where – but in other locations there is no certainty about any of this. Unless we know these details, we can’t stop FGM.  

Clinicians (physicians and nurses) must be trained to recognize FGM and provide the best support to their patients. Teachers, social workers, police officers and others with social and legal responsibilities need to be trained to manage and support girls and women at risk.  

Ideally, we need to bring together the knowledge of survivors, activists, clinicians, legal professionals, social workers, teachers and youth workers, anthropologists and other researchers to develop a more rounded picture of how and when FGM occurs in the world. There are several groups and organizations globally which share the objective of ending FGM. The more these can collaborate, the better.

And finally, it is important to frame FGM in its real context. However it is presented, it is ultimately harm inflicted at the will of (some) men, for economic reasons, as is increasingly being recognized – and hence patriarchy incarnate. The objective, at least historically, is to “ensure” or “prove” a woman or girl child’s “purity” so she can secure (be sold into) a financially advantageous marriage – though to whom the advantage goes may be a separate issue.

FGM is an abuse of human rights, and we need to make sure that we are empowered with language to argue for the elimination of FGM globally!