Q:Consider the different terminologies used for the cutting of female
genitalia, as discussed in the text, "From Outrage to Courage.” Discuss
the implications of using these different terminologies:
• Female Genital Mutilation or FGM, comprises all procedures that
involve
the partial or total removal of external genitalia or other injury to
the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. The term female
genital mutilation is now more widely used both by the World Health
Organisation and by many African groups advocating the
elimination of the practice. The World Health Organisation (WHO), as
part of its core mandate to
provide assistance to Member States in achieving the goal of the highest
attainable standard of health for all, issued in 2008 an inter agency
statement on eliminating FGM. The statement describes, among other
things, the negative implications of the practice for the health and,
very importantly, for the human rights of girls and women, and declared
vigorous support for its abandonment.
The aspiration to alleviate the associated adverse health conditions
and to restore violated human rights constitutes the cornerstone of
these guidelines.
UNICEF estimated in 2016 that 200 million
women had undergone the procedures in 27 countries in Africa, as well as
in Indonesia, Iraqi Kurdistan and Yemen, with a rate of 80–98 percent
within the 15–49 age group in Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Guinea, Mali,
Sierra Leone, Somalia and Sudan. The practice is also found elsewhere in
Asia, the Middle East, and among communities from these areas around
the world. Female Genital Cutting or FGC its a term of reference used by
part of the many organisations working to eradicate the practice. This
is done out of respect for women who have undergone the ritual and do
not wish to consider themselves mutilated. Female Circumcision that has
been used to somewhat create a connection
to the practise. It is needless to say very different and it has been
recognised to be misleading and dangerous to consider the two practises
as similar. The practise enforced on girls is more is a clitoridectomy:
the partial or total removal of the clitoris which is a female sexual
organ"; with male circumcision partial or total removal of
foreskin on the penis, it is also part of religious law among muslims, Coptic Christians, Judaism and Ethiopian Orthodoxy.
https://d3c33hcgiwev3.cloudfront.net/_5fe64dbe20685c710255861ffce53705_3.3_UNICEF_report_news_compil...
https://www.unicef.org/media/files/FGMC_2016_brochure_final_UNICEF_SPREAD.pdf
Based on the experience in Sierra Leone and other countries, explain how
and why you believe different cultural practices are maintained in a
community. Is there any possibility of shifting cultural practices?
According to different sources on FGM in Sierra Leone, a
crucial factor for why there is still no Law against FGM would seem to
be two main reasons:
1. the economic incentive that gives reason
for the practice to exist. It is shocking to read that the policy makers
in ruling political parties are using the FGM as a strategy to be
voted.An
interesting factor is that Sierra Leone a signatory of CEDAW. FGM is in
clear contrast to its core value of the integry of the body of a woman
and the freedom to choose.
2.The intricacies and
complexities of a society and the relations between politics and systems
of traditional law makers -the elders in this case- plays a crucial
role in the health and future of many girls. This transpires from the
statement quoted by IRIN news of Sierra Leone's Minister for Social Welfare, Gender and Child Protection "will do something if the women themselves ask for it". https://d3c33hcgiwev3.cloudfront.net/_ba5dee337eab2570faf843d0ff885498_3.6_IRIN_Sierra_Leone_vote_wi...
Sierra
Leone a signatory of CEDAW. FGM is in clear contrast to its core value
of the integrity of the body of a woman and the freedom to choose. The
2007 Child Rights Act where it states " [...]the child from neglect, discrimination,violence, abuse, exposure to physical and moral hazards and oppression [...]" Although the Child Rights Act protects children from harmful
practices, there is no law that specifically bans Female Genital
Mutilation in Sierra Leone but these communities are giving a great
example of what is possible,” http://www.amnet-online.org/resources/
https://www.amnesty.orgs/en/latest/news/2014/07/communities-sierra-leone-turn-their-backs-female-geni...
It
is encouraging that in Sierra Leone 40% of young men in favour of
stopping FGM. Women are the carriers of the FGM tradition of the Secret
Society Bondu Society, their opposition mainly seems to be based on
belief that women that cut will end up unwanted, unmarried, and ostriced
from society. For women that had no formal education it about status,
the new found power in the community. considering the FGM a
rite of passage to womanhood and given the belief of being a wise woman
and operate under the assumption that " no more education is needed" https://d3c33hcgiwev3.cloudfront.net/_d5e5f299eee5a7bdc91f228c534b0309_FOTC_Chapter_3_Education_Disc...
This reminds me
infact of when the topic came up when I was in High school in Eritrea. I remember consulting my mother and my
grandmother on the FGM and and realising that I had asked a question
that was not to be asked. It is a topic of taboo, just as much as
talking about sexual rituals or menstruation.The topic of FGM was considered something
that its there is happens, it is part of the culture. I am from a
christian Ethiopian Orthodox family, and the violence of FGM is
perpetuated as much as the Muslim communities. It is something that
pre-dates religion but that somehow it has been intertwined with faith
and its concept of purity, chastity and wholeness.
On
March 31st 2007 The Eritrean Government passed a law against FGM.
According to reports mentioned below, more than 90 percent of
women of 5 of the 9 ethnic groups The Tigray
ethnic group (which comprises 30-40 percent of Eritreas population)
performs one of these procedures on girl between the ages of five and
seven years.The procedure is generally not performed in Eritrea after
the age of seven.According to the the survey, educated women living in
Asmara and other large cities and women who are ex soldiers in the war
of independence, are least likely to have their daughters undergo this
procedures and Beliefs:most of those who practice FGM/FGC believe it is a
religious
requirement. The high prevalence is also due to family and social
pressures. Grandmothers are a particular source of pressure for
continuing the practice.There is a widespread belief that women who have
not undergone this procedure will be promiscuous. In some cases in
which a child’s parents have refused to submit their daughter to it, the
grandmother has had it done against the parents’wishes. The
sentence "zeytekenshebt gual aynhadar ay nqumneger" meaning "FGM woman
from being wild, she becomes wiser and gets her married", a very much
alive saying is of most Eritrean tigrinya and other ethnic groups.
https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/eoir/legacy/2013/06/10/eritrea_2.pdf
http://orchidproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Eritrea.pdf
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