WUNRN
Website Link includes multiple
additional charts and information.
FEMALE GENITAL CUTTING/MUTILATION -
FACTS & MYTHS - 4 PROGRAM APPROACHES FOR GOOD PRACTICES
Female genital cutting
(FGC) used to be an issue that only feminists and anthropologists discussed.
Over the past decade, however, the issue has been rising in the global agenda.
Just this past month, a new Kurdistani film on FGC
made waves in the international media, a podcast about the issue was broadcast by the
Guardian, and UNICEF held a global conference dedicated to ending the practice.
Even with increased publicity around the issue, many global audiences do not
yet understand the complexities behind FGC, and effective approaches to change
the practice. Below, Dalberg Dakar’s Tania Beard presents an overview of FGC,
with a focus on the situation in
Female genital cutting,
also known as female genital mutilation, is the partial or total removal of a
girl’s external genitalia, often with a rudimentary blade. FGC is believed to
have originated in Eastern Nubia, today’s
Origins of Female Genital Cutting
An estimated 125 million women worldwide are believed to be living with the consequences of FGC, with an additional 30 million girls at risk over the next 10 years.
FGC is practiced globally, in parts of Africa, South East Asia, and the Middle East, as well as in the Diaspora communities of the Global North (and West).
Most often, women conduct
FGC procedures. They are frequently professional community cutters or qualified
doctors.
Communities in parts of
Africa, South East Asia and the
One of the greatest
misconceptions surrounding FGC is that the procedure has a strong link to
Islam, a relationship practitioners often cite as justification for cutting. In
reality, FGC pre-dates the advent of Islam and Christianity, and diverse
religious communities practice it today.
Why do communities
practice FGC?
Often, practicing
communities have multiple justifications for FGC. In one of the most
conservative areas in southern
The social norms theory
suggests that the practice of FGC is driven by a community-wide social
obligation to cut. In
What is the harm of FGC?
In addition to the adverse health effects associated with FGC, the practice is internationally recognized as a violation of the human rights of girls and women. (See website chart.)
What is being done to
stop FGC? - See website chart.
Interventions designed from
a single angle often are not comprehensive enough to elicit large-scale change.
For instance, interventions in
Tostan
is one organization working to end FGC. Their model uses a three-year informal
education program that is holistic, taught in local languages, and based around
a series of discussions facilitated by a trained volunteer – often a member of
the village or wider ethno-linguistic group.
These discussions do not
focus exclusively on FGC, but rather couch the practice within a wider human
rights framework including topics such as health, hygiene, human rights and
responsibilities, problem-solving, literacy, and community management. When Malicounda Bambara was the first
Senegalese village of to stand up to publically abandon the practice of FGC in
1997, it was an unanticipated consequence of the Tostan program rather than one
of its stated objectives.
Social norms approaches,
similar to the Tostan model, rely on social diffusion, or the process of
acquiring critical mass. In
When can we expect FGC
to end?
Foot
binding, another practice driven by social norms, was a
dangerous, debilitating and painful convention practiced in
Over the past 50 years, FGC
has moved from a fringe concern to an issue on the radar of the wider
development community.
As FGC has received more
attention, progress to stop the practice has been growing.
Tostan,
The Orchid
Project, Sister Fa, and Daughters
of Eve have all helped drive the movement to bring FGC out of
the shadows. These four organizations use an array of approaches to change,
from feminist-driven to social norms-influencing, as they work to end the
practice of female genital cutting.