It’s the beginning of August, so for school age children everywhere that means the summer holidays are in full swing. For most a hectic family abroad, picnics and childcare awaits.
But, a recent article in The Guardian suggests that this summer more than 2,000 British schoolgirls could be subjected to the most physically and emotionally scarring ordeal of their lives, as the painful and frankly barbaric practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) is on the rise.
Before the recent media attention of FGM, I knew the practice existed but had no idea it was so horrific. Girls as young as five are held down and have their external genitalia removed, sometimes with razor blades or glass, before being ‘stitched up’ completely, apart from a tiny opening for menstrual blood. Aside from the unimaginable pain of undergoing such mutilation without the use of anaesthetic, the complications later in life due to infection or giving birth are agonising and in some cases even life-threatening.
But, despite how terrible the practice seems to me and you, over 140 million women worldwide have been subjected to FGM. Most live in 28 different African countries but it is also practiced in Saudi Arabia, the US, Australia and Canada. Summer is a particular worrying time, as communities see the extended break from school as an opportunity to ‘cut’ young girls while they’re not at school, some parents taking their daughters abroad to undergo the mutilation and some even flying in relatives to hold a ‘cutting party’.
I consider myself a very open minded person, and I always try to empathise with different people, religions and cultures. In such a culturally diverse world, everyone has to learn to be more tolerant of views, opinions and practices that may seem alien. However, FGM is a practice that I cannot even begin to understand.
The reasons for undergoing FGM include stopping promiscuity among young women and demonstrating that a woman is a virgin on her wedding night, both seem to be the kind of rules imposed on women in a patriarchal society. Asha-Kin Duale, a community partnership adviser in Camden, London told The Guardian, “It is a power negotiation mechanism that women use to ensure respect from men.” It saddens me to think that women feel such mutilation can be used as a tool to command respect in a society which marginalises women. By continuing such a tradition, the women are, in effect, becoming less and less empowered, particularly when they are forcing FGM on young girls who do not necessarily share the same views and opinions of the world.
But how do we go about eradicating the practice when it is so steeped in tradition?
There have been numerous acts both worldwide and in the UK to prohibit the act of female genital mutilation, but as yet no prosecutions have been made in the UK. The problem is that as it’s considered a traditional, communal practice many people are too scared to talk about it, fearing for how their families and communities would react to their betrayal.
Hopefully the recent media attention and work by groups such as Forward UK will raise awareness of FGM, help to empower those that feel it’s necessary, provide support for those who have lived through it and prosecute those that continue to practice it on others.