Survivors would make great anti- FGM champions

Survivors of FGM practice celebrate in Migori County. [Scophine Otieno, Standard]

Every year, millions of girls and women around the world face the risk of undergoing female genital mutilation (FGM). The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines FGM as comprising “all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other inquiry to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons”.

While the customs and traditions that propagate FGM differ from community to community, the practice is generally carried out between infancy and 15 years, and has severe socio-economic, physical, emotional, sexual and health outcomes, including death.

Kenya is home to more than four million girls and women who have experienced FGM. In 2019, President Uhuru Kenyatta made a firm commitment to end FGM by 2022. The enactment of the Prohibition of FGM Act, 2011 was a key milestone in the campaign to end FGM. Despite the legislative and policy measures put in place to prohibit the practice, it persists in certain communities. This is because the Anti-FGM Act is seen as foreign, propagating the views and opinions of outsiders. 

During the Nairobi Summit on International Conference on Population and Development at 25 (ICPD25) in 2019, the President reiterated his commitment to end FGM by 2022, by bolstering coordination in legislation, policy, communication and advocacy as well as evidence generation.

Communities that practise FGM take it as a way of controlling female sexuality. They believe sexual desire in girls and women needs to be controlled and it is a family’s duty to circumcise daughters ostensibly to provide this control.

FGM in any form is child abuse as it is done on minors in secret and under coercion. It is a dehumanising practice resulting in lessening of the human body as it reduces or eliminates sexual pleasure in adult life. The act makes the victim less than human since she suffers a loss of human dignity and bodily integrity.

UNICEF in its Profile of Female Genital Mutilation report 2020 asserts that the risk of FGM depends on background characteristics. Girls and women from rural areas, living in poor households, with less education or who identify as followers of certain religions are at greater risk.

Health care providers who perform female genital mutilation violate girls’ and women’s right to life, physical integrity and health. They also breach the fundamental medical mandate to “do no harm,” and are a threat to the numerous and concerted efforts to eliminate this harmful practice. FGM can never be safe and there is no medical validation for the practice.

Proper FGM training in medical and nursing schools will ensure healthcare workers stop considering FGM as either harmless or medically meant for women. Regarding FGM and education, USAID believes advocacy should focus on community-based education (CBE).These communities are composed of parents, students, teachers, school administrators and traditional/religious leaders.

Creating awareness among girls and women about the risks of FGM is a formidable tool in changing public opinion. The International Centre for Research on Women says while more research needs to be done, emerging evidence illustrates that basic education can be an effective instrument for abandoning the practice.

Women are less likely to have their daughters cut as their level of education rises. In addition, a higher level of education makes fathers less likely to support FGM.

FGM is now firmly on the global development agenda through its inclusion in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 5.3, which aims to eliminate the practice by 2030. Due to its sensitivity and complexity FGM must be countered through multi-sectoral engagements and the joint efforts of government and civil society organisations.

Effective anti-FGM efforts must be led by survivors and individuals from the affected communities. Driven by their own experiences and motivation to be the voices of reason, these communities are best placed in finding solutions to end FGM. 

-The writer is a communications specialist at ChildFund.  [email protected]