Female Genital Mutilation
Safeguarding victims: Prevention &
Protection in Practice
Dr. Mwenya Chimba
Violence Against Women Director
BAWSO
November 2012
Who We Are and what We Do
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Established in 1995
An All Wales Voluntary organisation, providing
specialist holistic services to Black and Minority Ethnic
people, made homeless through a threat of domestic
abuse or fleeing domestic abuse.
Affiliated to Welsh Women’s Aid organisations
Accredited Support Provider of the Welsh Assembly
Government
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What is FGM
“Female
Genital Mutilation” [also called “female genital
cutting”] comprises all procedures that involve partial or
total removal of the external female genitalia, or other
injury to the female genital organs for non medical
reasons (World Health Organisation, 2008)
FGM
can be performed as early as infancy and as late as
30 years but mostly between 2 and 14 years.
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Classifications of FGM
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Clitoridectomy - Involves the removal of the prepuce with or
without excision of all or part of the clitoris
•
Excision - Excision of the clitoris with partial or total excision
of the labia minora (FGM types I and II constitute 80% of female
genital mutilation performed world-wide)
•
Infibulation -Excision of part or all of the external genitalia
(the clitoris, labia minora and labia majora) with
stitching/narrowing of the vaginal opening. It constitutes 15% of
mutilations performed world-wide
•
Unclassified - all other harmful procedures to the female
genitalia for non-medical purposes, e.g. pricking, piercing,
incising, scraping and cauterizing the genital area.
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Why communities practise FGM
Improve
fertility and prevent mortality
Slipping
of rings through the labia majora of female to
prevent pregnancy( Arab societies)
Preserve
virginity & honour
Initiation
rite -as a form of rite of passage from
childhood to womanhood in some communities
If
it touches the head of a baby during birth the child
will be cursed or die
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Where is FGM Practised?
It
is estimated that approximately 138 million African
women have undergone FGM world wide with a further
2 million at risk annually (WHO)
Up
to 80% have undergone type I or II of FGM
Approximately
over 24,000 girls under the age of 15
are at risk of FGM in England & Wales (FORWARD 2011)
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Where is FGM Practised? Cont.
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FGM is practiced in more than half of the
communities in Sub Saharan Africa- in 28 out of
43 countries
Prevalence varies from 98% in countries like
Somalia, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Guinea to 5% in
the DRC and Uganda.
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Where is FGM Practised? Cont.
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Where is FGM Practised? Cont
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In the Middle East in countries like:
Egypt -96%
Oman in the Southern coastal regions
Iraq-74% among rural Kurdish women in
Northern region
Malaysia- 95% in the Northern region
Pakistan - among the Bohra Muslims in Sindh &
Punjab provinces
Saudi Arabia-among Bedouin tribes and
residents of Heja
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Inside a Female-Circumcision
Ceremony in Indonesia
Instruments used to perform FGM
FGM in the UK & Wales
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Approximately 86,000 women have undergone FGM in
the UK
24,000 girls below the age of 15 remain at high risk of
being forced to undergo the most severe form of FGM
(FORWARD)
Those at risk live in the major cities of UK including
London, Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool, Birmingham
and Cardiff
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FGM in England and Wales
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Women’s voices
•‘FGM
represents a massacre of the perfection that God
has made.’
•‘It
goes against God’s law to hurt any human being like
that.’
•‘If
you don’t choose to be circumcised you can not
become a woman in the whole sense. And we don’t know
any different.’
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Men’s perspective
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‘I realized that women’s bodies are fine as they are,
but I also wanted my wife to be virgin. My father told
me that in order to be a virgin the girl must be
circumcised’
‘My own wife had problems during labour because of a
botched circumcision, I had never been against the
practice, but that day something changed. But I’ll tell
my son that women don’t have to be circumcised – that
era is over,’
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FGM & the Law
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13 countries in Africa are implementing
legislation against FGM
16 countries have criminal legislation against
FGM in place
There have been no known prosecutions in
the UK due to lack of hard evidence to
prosecute perpetrators
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FGM & the Law cont
• Very few prosecutions in Europe because of:
• Lack of legislation - 3 countries in Europe have specific
laws prohibiting FGM (Norway, Sweden & UK)
• In France there have been 25 prosecutions since 1978
under the penal code
• In 1993 a medical practitioner was charged with
performing female circumcision, with the full knowledge
that the practice was illegal. He was found guilty and can
no longer practice his profession.
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FGM in the UK
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“The Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003”
makes it illegal to participate in any sort of
arrangement for FGM to be performed on
another, inside or outside of the UK.
The penalty for aiding, abetting, counseling,
procuring or carrying out FGM either inside or
outside of the UK is 14 years of imprisonment or
a fine or both.
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Child protection
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Working Together to Safeguard Children. A guide to
inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the
welfare of children.
May exercise its powers under Section .47 of the
Children Act 1989
A prohibited steps order can be put in place.
UK Parliamentary Hearings on FGM in May 2000
recommended that FGM should be categorised as a
form of abuse on child protection literature and Social
Services departments trained on FGM.
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FGM & Human Rights
•
The UN declaration of Human Rights (1948) &
International covenant on civil & Political Rights (1966)
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‘The right to life and physical integrity including
freedom from violence’
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The Declaration on the Elimination of violence against
women (1993).
Article 2 states that all violence against women shall be
understood to include ‘female genital mutilation &
other traditional practices harmful to women’.
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FGM & Human Rights cont.
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The toleration of these acts by authorities, or the
unwillingness to provide protection against them,
amounts to official acquiescence (UNHCR, 2004)
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What are we doing to safeguard
victims?
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We provide information and advice to women from
practising communities
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Signpost referrals to other relevant services
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Support in accessing health and social care
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What are we doing to safeguard victims?
Cont.
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Support in identifying local support groups
and networks
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Liaise with schools and health professionals
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Support to access counselling services
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Safeguarding victims cont.
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We provide language support to women
victims & others in need
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Ensure access to capacity building training
for the women to build their confidence
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Prevention & protection
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Liaising with social services to ensure that a
plan of action for children at risk of FGM is
put in place and a prohibitive steps order
can be put on the child to stop the family
from taking the child out of the country
Enforcing supervision order
Get other agencies to be educated on
monitoring children at risk of FGM when
they go away for long periods (schools).
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Prevention & protection cont.
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Providing information to practising
communities.
Working with professional practitioners to
identify signs of risk to undergo FGM or
having undergone FGM (GPs, teachers, Social
services, health visitors/midwives).
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Prevention & Protection Campaigns
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March 2011-FGM guidelines for agencies
were produced.
Lobby agencies, Institutions and the
Government to treat FGM in the same way
as forced marriage and develop a tool to
prevent FGM.
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Challenges in Encountered
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Cultural sensitivities
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Lack of awareness
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Focus on Health implications of FGM at the peril of
losing human rights infringements
FGM vs FCGS (Female Cosmetic Genital Surgery) – Is it
not just a case of ‘us and them?’
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What is FCGS?
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Reduction of the labia minora and/or clitoral
hood and/or clitoral body
Reduction or augmentation of the labia majora
Liposuction or augmentation of the mons pubis
Reduction of the introitus
“Revirgination”
Vaginal tightening
G-spot amplification
Further reading
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FORWARD, 2002 Promoting change, wellbeing & Human dignity
FORWARD February 16th 2011 press release
FORWARD 2005, Razor’s Edge The
Controversy of female genital mutilation. IRIN
Web Special
www.fgm.org
www.bbc.co.uk -12/05/2011
www.reproductiverights.org
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Thank you
BAWSO
9 Cathedral Road
Tel:02920 644 633
www.bawso.org.uk
Cardiff
CF11 9HA
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