On 6th February every year, the world takes a moment to commemorate the International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). It is a day of somber contemplation, yet it is also a day of action. Even after decades of activism, legislative prohibitions, and grassroots training, the practice of FGM still lingers over the lives of millions of girls and women the world over. And now we have to ask ourselves how many more years shall we permit the tradition to act as a shroud to a basic violation of human rights?
The Weight of the Numbers
The numbers brought out by organizations such as UNICEF and World Health Organization are alarming. Over 230 million women and girls currently living have experienced FGM in 30 nations in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia where FGM occurs in high concentrations. Nonetheless, FGM is not a far-off issue; because of global migration, it is a reality in Europe, North America and Australia.
Unless trends change, the United Nations is on the alert that by 2030, an estimated 4.6 million girls will be at risk of being cut annually. These are not numbers, but daughters, sisters, and future leaders whose bodies and psychological health are being undermined before they are even old enough to be adults.
Understanding Practice
In order to solve FGM, we need to know its origins, no matter how unpleasant that is. FGM is not often done with ill intentions. It is a highly valued social norm in most communities, which is commonly connected to the concept of purity, marriageability and cultural identity. To most families, it is a matter of ensuring that their daughter is cut so as to guarantee her future position and acceptance in the community.
Cultural sensitivity, however, should not be confused with cultural relativism. No culture or religion, despite the popular misconceptions, can justify the deliberate harm of a child. FGM is a form of dominance over female sexuality and a manifestation of ingrained gender inequality. The practice aims to tame the female body by removing or damaging healthy and normal female genital tissue at the expense of the life or future health of a woman.
The Lifetime of Consequences
There is a consensus among the medical profession that FGM is not beneficial to health. On the contrary, the short- and long-term effects are devastating. Short-term dangers involve intense pain, shock, bleeding, tetanus or sepsis and death. To the survivors of the first procedure, the effects are a lifetime nightmare. They are chronic pain, cyst, frequent infections, high risk of spreading HIV, and mental trauma. Moreover, the health issues in childbirth, such as obstetric fistula and infant mortality, generate a cycle of agony, which then passes down to the next generation. This is not only one moment of trauma, but a lifetime of impaired health and lost potential.
The Shift to Medicalization
The medicalization of FGM is one of the most alarming tendencies of recent years. In a number of countries, trained health care practitioners-doctors, nurses and midwives are increasingly carrying out the procedure in the pretext that it is safer. This is a harmful fallacy which the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has struggled to counter. Medicalized FGM is still FGM. It continues to breach the right to health and physical integrity. The act of medical professionals practicing FGM makes the act appear legitimate, and it compromises the effort to make the practice illegal across the world. The oath of the medical community is “do no harm”; doing FGM is a direct contravention of that divine vow.
The Strength of Grassroots Change
Although international treaties and national laws are a necessity, the victory lay in the heart and mind of the communities themselves. What we are witnessing is a strong movement by survivors and leaders in the community who are not afraid to talk. In the “Grandmothers’ Project” in Senegal or youth-led activism in Kenya and Egypt, communities are settling on some form of alternative transition to womanhood without the blade, an alternative rite of passage. When elders and men are involved in the discussion, the social pressure to conform starts disintegrating. These local voices need to be supported, given the means to teach and the platforms to lead.
An Appeal to the World Community
Zero tolerance implies just that, zero. We cannot believe in less drastic kinds of cutting, and we cannot believe in gradual change. We need to work ten times faster to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal Target 5.3 which directly states that it is necessary to end all harmful practices. This needs a huge influx of political will whereby governments should not only enact laws but also enforce them by making sure that those who carry out or facilitate FGM are brought to justice. It also requires extensive education of girls and boys on body autonomy and the risks of FGM, as well as more investment in women-health services and grassroots advocacy organizations. Lastly, survivor support should be prioritized, and holistic medical, psychological, and social care should be offered to the millions of women living with the effects of FGM.
Conclusion
On this International Day of Zero Tolerance, we should renew our pledge to a world where all girls have a chance to become violence and discrimination free. The abolition of FGM is not a far-fetched dream but a reality, waiting to happen and demands our united effort. We need to support the survivors who have made their pain their power. We should stand with the fathers who refuse to cut their daughters. And we have to insist that our leaders place the rights of girls above unhealthy myths. Complicity is a kind of silence. We are talking today and shall talk until this tradition is removed. We choose zero tolerance. The only way our future as a world can be brightest is by being uncut, empowered and free.
