International Day of Zero Tolerance: Recalibrating our framing and approach on Female Genital Mutilation
The 6th of February is International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Approximately 200 million women and girls around the world have suffered the harmful practice while 3 million girls are at risk of FGM in the African continent. The situation in Africa is further exacerbated because female genital mutilation is often a precursor to other harmful and gender-based violence practices such as child, early and forced marriages. These practices, both FGM and Child, early and forced marriages, doom girls, to cycles of poverty by undermining girls’ education, perpetuating gender-based violence and curtailing girls’ participation in social, economic and political life.
According to (WHO there are four common forms of FGM. The first is the partial or total removal of the clitoral glans (the external and visible part of the clitoris, which is a sensitive part of the female genitals — the part that is made for pleasure), and/or the clitoral hood (the fold of skin surrounding the clitoral glans). The second is the partial or total removal of the clitoral glans and the labia minora (the inner folds of the vulva), with or without removing the labia majora (the outer folds of skin of the vulva). The third includes tightening the vaginal opening through the creation of a covering seal. The seal is formed by cutting and moving the labia minora, or labia majora, sometimes using stitches, with or without removing the clitoral prepuce/clitoral hood and glans. The fourth includes all other harmful procedures to the female genitalia for non-medical purposes, e.g. pricking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterising the genital area.
FGM As A Tool Of Patriarchy
To be specific, female genital mutilation is a practice orchestrated by a patriarchal society committed to undermining girls agency and denying them choice over their bodies by controlling their sexuality. While there have been dynamic discussions about female genital mutilation as a rite of passage and cultural practice, it’s important to also contextualize the discourse. This is a critical lens in a society where girls and women’s bodies have been declared sites of warfare and legislation have proven to sometimes be a structural barrier that hinders the realization of girls and women their rights.
In a world committed to policing girls, women and gender-diverse people’s bodies, sexual pleasure and agency are threats to patriarchal power. We are not taught that it is ok or even our right to enjoy sexual pleasure. We are not taught to ask for it either and FGM mirrors the repression of our sexualities and the denial of our right to pleasure by tearing apart our bodies without medical reasons. In addition to being a rite of passage, it is also done to maintain purity/virginity, family honour, cleanliness and health and ensure a young woman’s marriageability. In countries like The Gambia, girls are mutilated from birth up until pre-adolescence. Boys and men are not policied in these ways.
FGM As A Human Right Violaition
The WHO has detailed the various forms of FGM and outrightly condemned the practice as a human rights violation with no medical value. The agency also notes that FGM, besides violating the human rights of girls and women, also violates the security, physical integrity and specifically classifies the practice as torture, cruelty, especially when the procedure results in death.
Sexual reproductive health shows that people can have a satisfying and safe sex life and that they can reproduce and have the freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so. FGM stands in between girls and women having the potential to enjoy this freedom. FGM often creates complications for women during their pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period by increasing the risks of mortality and morbidity. Common consequences of FGM also include keloid formation, dermoid or inclusion cysts, vulval abscesses, menstrual problems, difficult micturition, urinary tract infection, calculus formation, fistulae and incontinence, chronic pelvic infection, infertility, defibulation and refibulation complications and the inability to enjoy sexual pleasure because of the previously named issues and cutting of the clitoris.
Genital Mutilation Through Forced Surgeries
Conversations and literature about FGM often focus on cis-gendered girls and women, and as feminists, we need to have nuanced conversations that include genital mutilation and intersex people. Intersex people, particularly babies, are often subject to forced and unnecessary surgeries. These surgeries undermine their rights to security; bodily and mental integrity and autonomy; freedom from torture, violence, and ill-treatment. These surgeries are also often overlooked as a form of violence and torture because we live in a world where we are forced to fit into binaries. Bodies that do not clearly fit into categories of female and male are policed and surgically “corrected” to fit into one category with little to no consideration of how the surgeries will affect the person in the long run. Forced surgeries often result in psychological trauma, ongoing pain and loss of sexual sensation. These surgeries and the harm done are permanent, the tissue or organs that have been removed can’t be replaced, nerves that are cut can’t be regrown, and scar tissue can limit options for future surgery.
