FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION (FGM)
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a harmful traditional practice with strong ancestral socio-cultural roots. According to the World Health Organisation, it consists of procedures that, intentionally and for non-medical reasons, alter or injure the female genital organs. Recognised internationally as an extreme violation of human rights, FGM furthers gender inequality and discrimination, seriously affecting the health and well-being of women and girls. UNFPA estimates that over 200 million women and girls alive today have undergone this practice and about 68 million girls face female genital mutilation by 2030 if we don't accelerate our efforts to abandond this harmful practice.
WHY THE PRACTICE ?
FGM is an extremely complex, sensitive and politicized issue, difficult to understand only through normative definitions, classifications and / or geographical delimitations. It is necessary to have an anthropological look at the phenomenon to obtain an understanding of its significance that allows to approach the subject with knowledge and respect.
FGM has great symbolic significance for the communities that practice it. In Africa, it is linked to two basic values of culture: the feeling of belonging to the community and the complementarity between the sexes. In some societies, the practice continues to form part of initiation ceremonies to adulthood, directly influencing the construction of women's roles and status, granting ethnic and gender identity. It transmits a feeling of pride and belonging to the group, and becomes the physical proof that guarantees the girl's femininity and the obtaining of the necessary knowledge to be able to belong to the community and to the secret world of women (Kaplan, 1998; Kaplan , et al., 2013a).
When the reasons for continuing the practice are investigated, various reasons appear:
- "Tradition says so": in order to ensure that girls prepare for adult life and marriage, without being excluded from the community, families continue to exercise this practice as a tradition that is sometimes lived as a rite of passage organized by mothers and grandmothers.
- “Religion says so”: FGM is practiced in Muslim, Coptic Christian and Falasha Jewish communities (in Egypt and Ethiopia, for example). Ignorance of its origins has led to its link with religion, although it is not mentions neither in the Bible nor in the Koran.
- “It's cleaner”: Some practicing communities perceive women's external genitalia as parts of the body that are “dirty” before circumcising them.
- "Preserves virginity, family honor and prevents promiscuity": in some societies, female virginity is a prerequisite and indispensable for marriage on which the honor of the family depends.
- "Increases fertility": Some communities believe that if the baby touches the mother's clitoris with the head at birth, it can cause her death (mortality in primigravidas) or can cause physical deformities or mental.
WHERE IS IT PRACTICE ?
FGM is practised mainly in 30 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and in parts of the Middle East and Asia (Yemen, Oman, northern Iraq, regions of India, Malaysia and Indonesia, among others)
However, due to migratory flows, what was once local has now become global: FGM is kept alive by the diaspora and can be found in Europe, Australia, the United States, etc., wherever migrants have brought their culture.
TYPES OF FGM?
The World Health Organization classifies FGM into four types, based on its anatomical extent and severity: Source of the images: WHO, 2018.
Type I: partial or total removal of the clitoris and/or the prepuce (clitoridectomy);
Type II: partial or total removal of the clitoris and the inner labia, with or without excision of the outer labia (excision);
Type III: narrowing of the vaginal opening by creating a covering seal, formed by cutting and repositioning the inner or outer labia, with or without removal of the clitoris (infibulation);
Type IV: all other harmful procedures to the external genitalia for non-medical purposes, e.g. perforating, incising, scraping or cauterising the area.
WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES
All types of FGM have harmful consequences for the health and well-being of infants, girls and women throughout their lives. The practice negatively impacts maternal and child health, increasing the risk of obstetric complications and neonatal deaths.
Immediate consequences
- Severe pain
- Shock
- Haemorrhage
- Urine retention
- Infections like tetanus or sepsis
Long term consequences
- Chronic pain
- Recurring bladder and urinary tract infections
- Keloids
- Fibrosis
- Sterility
- Psychological trauma
- HIV/AIDS
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