Too many of our girls face the oppression of FGM...
Just think of a
young girl going through this, unknowingly or without her permission to,
in essence, change her life forever. It is said that FGM is to preserve
the virginity of the girls and to keep them pure until marriage but it
is really taking their spirit away.
We are an enormously diverse country and we welcome the diversity of
traditions, but we don't welcome oppression or the denial of human
rights. We may always assume that FGM is an African problem. No it's not; its a global problem.
The recent Global summit that happened few months
ago to end sexual violence in London was unique in its ambition; not only in
efforts to bring sexual violence in conflict zones to an end, but also in
attempting to engage the public in a challenging issue about which they had
little prior knowledge and mostly no personal experience or connection. The
public came to learn about the impact of Sexual Gender Based Violence in
conflict, and the work that's being done to stop it; as survivors conveyed
their stories, there was a powerful sense that together, people from around the
world were standing up against the perpetrators of these crimes.
Understanding and fostering this sense of
solidarity is important in opening with a focus on violence against women and
girls and, in particular, female genital mutilation (FGM).
FGM is an issue that provokes strong reactions;
the appearance of an 'us and them' mentality is a risk. People from communities
affected by FGM may feel that other aspects of their culture are being
challenged or degraded while those in unaffected communities may take FGM as
evidence of 'alien' values, feeding negative stereotyping.
It’s more important that we treat FGM as we do
any other human rights violation. It should be stopped, and everybody – every
girl, woman, boy and man in every part of the world – can play a part in making
that happen.
No-one would disagree that the movement to end
FGM should be led from within the 29 countries in which the majority of cases occur. Our focus should always be
to support the work of local communities in identifying the underlying social
norms that underpin FGM and challenging their persistence. But we should be
clear that this doesn't – or shouldn't – mean that people in other parts of the
world can't add their support.
An effective campaign gives a voice to those
affected by a problem and then encourages others to amplify that voice. It
recognises that rights are invalid if they are not respected universally and
fought for across communities, cultures and continents.
A useful comparison here is campaigning on child
marriage. Like FGM, this is an issue that does affect people in a particular
country, but that does not pervade society in the same way as it does elsewhere
in the world. Child marriage will only be brought to an end by campaigns driven
from within the countries of prevalence. Campaigns would help a great deal in
fighting the menace. It goes ahead to achieve two things: First, that people
can and should care about things that don't directly affect them or even their
community. Secondly, it should be clear to decision-makers in that this is an
issue in which every person against the vice wants action.
Rather than, as some might argue, undermining the
indigenous campaigns, these activities should be geared towards addressing the
issues.
The sensitivities around FGM make the public
discussion more charged, but the same logic applies to this issue as to child
marriage. People shouldn't be afraid to raise their voice. Longstanding
campaigners on the issue can draw strength from this support.
So when I'm asked, as I have been, "why
should we' care about FGM?" my answer is clear: because it can make a
difference in ending it. We have to start from home. We have to do something in
our own country before we can tell other countries what to do. We need to alert educators and counsellors on how to look for girls at risk.
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