Female Genital Cutting (FGC) is not, thankfully, a form of GBV that is practiced in South Sudan. However, FGC is a practice that is forced upon millions of girls and women in Africa as well as other regions. Any act that does not obtain the consent of a girl or woman is a violation of her human rights. Consent can only be given freely, willingly and voluntarily. Consent is not given through coercion or threats like “You will do this. If you do not, you will bring shame to our family.” FGC is perpetuated by families and communities who feel they must conform to social and cultural norms and beliefs governing girls/women’s sexuality and marital fidelity.
Female genital cutting (FGC) refers to all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. Many in the international community refer to it as female genital mutilation. However, I find the term mutilation is inherently judgmental of the culture and social norms that perpetuate the practice. Do any of us in the United States call women who have had their breasts augmented as being mutilated? Yet, the social pressure on women to conform to an idea of beauty that will make her sexually appealing and thus more marriageable, is the same social pressure that girls/women feel in developing nations where they undergo FGC. But more importantly, in my human rights work promoting women's rights and advocating for the end of GBV, the more accusatory and judgmental we are as advocates, the more defensive proponents of a practice become pushing them to continue the very practice I and others are advocating should end.
It is a centuries old practice that has been found in many countries and cultures around the world. For example, the article “How Did Female Genital Mutilation Begin,” (2012) by Rosella Lorenzi points to the practice having origins in ancient Greece and/or in Egypt. The article also highlights that FGC was practiced by gynecologists in 19th century United States and England “to treat various psychological symptom as well as ‘masturbation and nymphomania,’ based on a now discarded theory called 'reflex neurosis,' which held that many disorders like depression originated in genital inflammation.”
But what is FGC, exactly? FGC is classified into four major types:
• Clitoridectomy: partial or total removal of the clitoris (a small, sensitive and erectile part of the female genitals) and in very rare cases, only the prepuce (the fold of skin surrounding the clitoris).
• Excision: partial or total removal of the clitoris and the labia minora, with or without excision of the labia majora (the labia are "the lips" that surround the vagina).
• Infibulation: narrowing of the vaginal opening through the creation of a covering seal. The seal is formed by cutting and repositioning the inner, or outer, labia, with or without removal of the clitoris.
• Other: all other harmful procedures to the female genitalia for non-medical purposes, e.g. pricking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterizing the genital area.
Is there a health benefit to FGC? FGC has no health benefits, and it can harm girls and women in many ways. Immediate complications can include severe pain, shock, hemorrhage (bleeding), tetanus or sepsis (bacterial infection), urine retention, open sores in the genital region and injury to nearby genital tissue.
Long-term consequences can include:
• recurrent bladder and urinary tract infections;
• cysts;
• infertility;
• an increased risk of childbirth complications and newborn deaths;
• the need for later surgeries. For example, the FGC procedure that seals or narrows a vaginal opening (type 3 above) needs to be cut open later to allow for sexual intercourse and childbirth. Sometimes it is stitched again several times, including after childbirth, hence the woman goes through repeated opening and closing procedures, further increasing and repeating both immediate and long-term risks.
The specific causes include a mix of cultural, religious and social factors within families and communities.
• FGC is often considered a necessary part of raising a girl properly, and a way to prepare her for adulthood and marriage. By enduring the pain without screaming or crying, a girl demonstrates that she has the maturity to endure the hardships of being a wife and mother.
• One of the strongest factors pushing families and communities to continue the practice is the idea of sexuality purity and modesty (the idea of being clean, the removal of the clitoris, an unclean “male” part) and/or marital fidelity. FGC is in many communities believed to reduce a woman's libido and therefore believed to help her resist "forbidden" sexual acts. When a vaginal opening is covered or narrowed (type 3 above), the fear of the pain of opening it, and the fear that this will be found out, is expected to further discourage sexual intercourse among Type 3 FGC women before or outside of marriage.
• No religious texts advocate the practice. FGC is practiced as much in predominantly Christian countries as it is in predominantly Muslim countries. Thus, religious leaders take varying positions with regard to FGC: some promote it, some consider it irrelevant to religion, and others contribute to eradicating it.
• Structures of power and authority, such as community leaders, religious leaders, circumcizers, and even some medical personnel can contribute to upholding the practice.
• The practice is mostly carried out by traditional circumcizers, who often play other central roles in communities, such as midwife or birth attendant. However, more than 18% of all FGC is performed by health care providers, and the trend towards medicalization is increasing (UNICEF).
On a positive note, an adolescent girl today is about a third less likely to undergo FGC than 30 years ago. Kenya and Tanzania have seen rates drop to a third of their levels compared to three decades ago through a combination of community activism and legislation. In the Central African Republic, Iraq, Liberia and Nigeria, prevalence has dropped by as much as half. (UNICEF)
What can I do?
“The most common way people give up their power is thinking they don’t have any.” –Alice Walker, African American Author
If this is an issue you are passionate about use your personal power to support advocates, organizations and campaigns that are working to end the practice:
Globalizing Gender, founded by my friend Natasha Johnson, a longtime and passionate advocate for GBV survivors.
End FGM European Network
Stop FGM Now.com
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