UTHRT: Female Genital Mutilation: The Journey from Traditions to Women’s Rights in Africa.

   

On August 24, 2017, around 4:45 pm, I took the train to Granville, heading north on the Redline Train to Howard, and transferred to the Purple Line train heading to Evanston.  At Noyes, I exited the train, walked West on Noyes Street and turned South onto Ridge Ave, arriving at the Lorrain H. Morton Civic Center around 5:30 pm. I carried my Power-Point presentation on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Women Rights in Africa, coupled with my desire to collaborate with Kadi Doumba’s survivor of FGM. It was a beautiful day to meet people, share and learn on issues of FGM and Women’ rights in Africa.

At 6:30 pm, I started by thanking the audience for coming, and I outlined the different sections of my presentation. I introduced the topic FGM and Women’ Rights in Africa by emphasizing that circumcision in Africa was not a simple physical act, but a tradition which embodied cultural and educational facets. It was the passage from boyhood to manhood, and from girlhood to womanhood. During this period, both boys and girls go through rituals marked by thousands of years’ traditions. There were rituals to be followed, dancing and singing’ ceremonies, prayers and sacrifices to be made. Further, each was taught the history of their tribe, the secrets of their communities, and values any respectable member of their community must have, such as courage, respect, responsibility, and community. For these reasons, the practice of circumcision has been an indispensable ritual in many African communities and has endured the test of time. After going through circumcision, the status of these boys and girls was elevated to a higher social echelon. They emerged purified and as a full member of their community with all the respect and rights of an adult. As Komo Kenyatta described in his book Facing Mount Kenya, “The initiation of both sexes is the most important custom among the Gikuyu. It is looked upon as deciding factors in giving a boy or a girl the status of manhood or womanhood in the Gikuyu community.”

However, since the 1970’s, many legal advocates, health experts, and religious leaders have agreed, if circumcision has been healthy to boys, it has been harmful to girls.  Therefore, they believe the custom of FGM must stop, clarifying that the practice was a women’s rights violation. Since then, many terms have been used to describe the phenomena (varying from Female Genital Cutting to Female Circumcision, and Female Genital Mutilation), but the chosen term by legal experts has been Female Genital Mutilation. FGM is recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a practice whereby “all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.”

The WHO classified FGM into four different types, which are:

Type I: Also, known as clitoridectomy: this type consists of partial or total removal of the clitoris and/or its prepuce.

Type II: Also, known as excision: the clitoris and labia minora are partially or totally removed, with or without excision of the labia majora.

Type III: Also, known as infibulation or pharaonic: the most severe form, which consists of the narrowing of the vaginal opening by creating a seal.

Type IV: It consists all of the other procedures to the genitalia of women for non-medical purposes, such as pricking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterization.

Before, going further, we must recognize that the practice of FGM has not been exclusive to African customs. The practice has been known in several Middle Eastern countries (i.e., Yemen, Iraq-Kurdistan, etc.)  as well as Asia (i.e., Malaysia, Indonesia), in Europe and the United States. Sarah W. Rodriguez, in her article “Rethinking the History of Female Circumcision and Clitoridectomy: American Medicine and Female Sexuality in the late Nineteenth Century,” published December 9, 2007, found that in the 19th century, in Europe and the U.S., gynecologists believed removing the clitoris could treat insanity and masturbation.  For instance, in 1813, a British Doctor, Robert Thomas, suggested clitoridectomy as a cure for nymphomania. In the U.S., a 1985 paper in the Obstetrical & Gynecological Survey, reported that clitoridectomies were performed in the U.S. clear into the 1960s to treat hysteria, erotomania, and lesbianism. Today, there are cases of FGM among immigrant communities living in the U.S. and Europe. Considering, USA Today article titled Michigan “Genital Mutilation” Case Will Test Our Country’s Political Correctness published June 5, 2017, by Paula Kweskin mentioned Doctors Tahera Shafiq and Farida Attara’s arrests for engaging in FGM procedures; in the United States, 507,000 women are at risk or have undergone the procedures of FGM.

Therefore, it appears clear that FMG is a global problem. On February 2017, the WHO estimated that more than 200 million girls and women alive have been through FGM, crossing some 30 countries in Africa, and around the world. They were young girls between infancy and age 15.

Many legal scholars consider FGM to be a violation of women and children’s human rights.

•    Rights to health.

•    The right of the child.

•    The right to be free from discrimination.

•    The right to sexual and physical integrity.

•    To be free from torture, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.

The practice of Female Genital Mutilation is proving to violate certain Human Rights norms.

•    Convention of Elimination All form of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

•    Convention on the Rights of the Child.

•    International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

•    International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

•    Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

•    The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights.

•    Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam.

•    Human Rights Protection Within ECOWAS.

On June 2010, a Human Rights Watch study divided African countries into two categories when it came to dealing with FGM. Countries with laws against FGM; and countries without laws that support FGM eradication.

Countries with laws or regulations against FGM include Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Djibouti, Ghana, Guinea, and Sudan.

Governments that support FGM eradication include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Cote d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Kenya, Niger, Senegal, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, and Uganda.

Legal scholars’ views on the solution to end the practice of FGM in Africa remain divided.  The divisions are not new, as there exists residue of an ongoing battle between universalists and relativists schools when it comes to the applicability of international human rights norms. Universalists believe that human rights norms are universal laws and must apply to all countries, while relativists think human rights norms took their roots from occidental cultures and values, and should therefore not be imposed on the letter without taking in consideration other countries customs and cultures. I believe a balanced approach must be taken to stop FGM, and the African Governments can help by:

•    Providing accurate and accessible information and education about FGM.

•    Developing a legislative and policy framework to eradicate FGM, including a law banning the practice for girls and non-consenting adult women.

•    Mobilizing communities to develop their own FGM eradication strategies.

At 7:05 pm, I concluded by voicing the need on working together to deal with FGM.  I reminded the audience that FGM was not an African problem, but a universal one, and we must unite and push for the FGM death sentence. I cited Khalid Adem’s 2003 case, whereby Khalid was the first person convicted related to the practice of FGM in the U.S.; and the paradox between laws and their applicability in Guinea, where FGM is illegal under article 265 of the Penal code, but 98% of girls are subjected to FGM.

After my Power-Point presentation, we watched a 13-minute 2009 documentary called “Female Genital Cutting in Kenya”.

At 7:20 pm, Khadi shared her story of being an FGM survivor from Mali.  With a serene voice, she admitted that she couldn’t recall the physical pain, but that the memory of the procedure – going through FGM – still haunted her … and would haunt her forever! She acknowledged that she could not redo the past, but she believed that she could help to fight the practice of FGM by being the voice of the voiceless Malians girls today, so they would not go through the same psychological trauma she had been through.  Her first step – she started at home, protecting her two girls from this practice. She returned to Bamako, Mali to work with a group of women advocating for the end of FGM. She ended her testimony thanking people for giving her a platform to express herself and for their support in the fight against this practice.

At 7: 30 pm, in the name of freedom of expression, we opened the floor, the audience grasped the opportunity to ask questions and to share comments. An audience member claimed that the FGM was not a tradition, but a barbaric act, committed by uneducated people. Another member believed that no person has the right to interfere on people cultures. Someone asked about the meaning of love, when women were subjected to such treatment, while another thought the problem was more about a lack of solidarity amongst women, drawing a parallel between the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the practice of FGM.

Both Kadi and I responded to the questions to the best of our combined abilities.  We listened to comments, whether or not we actually agreed with them; but as Julian Baggini said “You should protest about the views of people you disagree with over major moral issues, and argue them down, but you should not try to silence them, however repugnant you find them. That is the bitter pill free speech requires us to swallow.” 

At 8:30 pm, the discussion on FGM and Women’s Rights in Africa came to end. I congratulated Kadi, gave her a hug, and promised to keep in touch. She walked, turning her back to traditions, caring for her two daughters, and saving her future grandchildren from FGM. She accepted what happened to her, and found herself a fight that must be fought, and a voice to end the practice of Female Genital Mutilation.

I know, as a man, when two bodies in love come together, they emerge as one, meet with the gods of love, and give sometimes a light to a new life. The whole journey becomes a joyful experience coming from two hearts.  But, for many women victims of Female Genital Mutilation, the journey of bodies coming together, supposedly of joy and beauty, may turn into pain and sorrow.  It is not Right! Girls victim of FGM often suffer a feeling of stolen sexual pleasures and go through the psychologic trauma which haunts them for the rest of their life.  It must stop!

In Africa, each year 3,000 girls are subjected to FGM, without echoes. I headed home knowing my presentation would not bring an end to FGM; but, my duty was to share.  Now, I hope whoever attended that day of August 24, 2017, and read my writings of October 10, 2017, will join the 3,000 voiceless African girls, and together with the echo of our voices, break the ceilings of 5,000 years of traditional FGM practices.

Sincerely,

Alpha