Cut, excise, seal; ultimately MUTILE. That is what it is about when we talk about FGM, Female Genital Mutilation. The brutal and dangerous amputation of the female genital organs, either partially or totally for non-medical reasons. FGM is another pretext to mutilate rights. With the genitalia, any possibility of sexual pleasure is removed, while guaranteeing the “proper upbringing of girls” in the communities where it is practiced.
In recent data published by the World Health Organization “more than 200 million women and girls alive today have been subjected to FGM in the 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia where this practice is concentrated.” www.who.int
It is carried out mostly between infancy and 15 years of age motivated by sociocultural conventions. Cultural stereotypes about the role of women in adult life and marriage promote this type of custom, considered today as a violation of the human rights of women and girls. Behind FGM are mixed false religious beliefs, conventions about proper sexual conduct before and after marriage; say virginity and fidelity. As well as cultural models of femininity. In any case, simple excuses to carry out this barbaric and cruel amputation. FGM is a pretext to mutilate rights.
There are four types of FGM described below in the reference article. www.who.int
Type 1: partial or total resection of the clitoral glans (the external and visible part of the clitoris, which is the sensitive part of the female genitalia) and/or the clitoral foreskin/hood (fold of skin that surrounds the clitoral glans) .
Type 2: Partial or total resection of the glans clitoris and labia minora (inner vulva folds), with or without excision of the labia majora (outer vulva skin folds).
Type 3: Often referred to as infibulation; narrowing of the vaginal opening, which is sealed by cutting and repositioning the labia minora or majora, sometimes sewing them together, with or without resection of the foreskin/clitoral hood and glans clitoris (type 1).
Type 4: all other non-medical injurious procedures of the female genitalia, such as puncture, perforation, incision, scraping or cauterization of the genital area.
Deinfibulation refers to the technique of making a cut to open the sealed vaginal opening of a woman previously subjected to infibulation, which is usually necessary to improve her health and well-being and to make intercourse possible or facilitate childbirth.
The practice of female genital mutilation has no health benefits for women. The physical and psychological damage among girls and women translates into immediate complications that can range from intense pain to death. In the long term, it guarantees urinary infections, painful intercourse, scarring keloids, difficulties in childbirth, increased risk of neonatal mortality, depression, post-traumatic stress, among many other complications.
FGM is currently considered a global problem that mostly affects girls. The most recent data ensures that each year more than three million girls are at risk of suffering from FGM. The process is still rudimentary, and is carried out with blades and even glass fragments, mostly without hygienic conditions. Circumcisers are in charge of performing it according to tradition, but in many places health care providers also practice it “moved by the mistaken belief that the procedure is safer if it is performed under medicalized conditions.” This is how the WHO describes it, which “strongly urges health professionals to refrain from performing such interventions.” www.who.int
THE LATEST NEWS
Recently the Spanish and international press announced the approval in Sudan of a law to criminalize female genital mutilation. www.elpais.com referred to the fact and mentioned that “The draft of the law, approved by the Government on April 22, contemplates penalties of up to three years in prison for anyone who practices the circumcision, in addition to the withdrawal of the license of the hospital, health center or private clinic where the operation is carried out.”
The importance of the approval of this law in a country like Sudan is fundamental considering that it is one of the places where it is most practiced with 86.6% of women between 15 and 49 years of age subjected to this practice. The step has been great but the measure has generated numerous opinions and warnings about the need to continue the work and increase measures to guarantee compliance with the law and above all to banish this practice from cultural conventions.
TESTIMONIES ON FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION
“He explained to me that they cut 25 girls using the same knife, with the danger that this entails of transmitting various diseases, including the AIDS virus. He told me the pain was unbearable. It is the story of The journalist who entered a ‘forest school’. Mae Azango committed to the duty to inform and generate debate in the face of human rights violations such as Female Genital Mutilation.
“They cut something on your body and you don’t know why”: the story of a 5-year-old girl subjected to genital mutilation.
Salimata, a girl with Senegalese relatives who grew up in Paris; but still could not escape genital mutilation.
He relates to www.bbc.com his motivations for revealing himself and contributing through activism to eradicate this practice.
The elimination of FGM is among the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. According to epdata.es/Europa Press “UNICEF estimates that female genital mutilation is concentrated in 31 countries in Africa and the Middle East (for which data is available), in addition to Indonesia, although it also persists in Asian countries such as India, Iraq or Pakistan, some indigenous communities in Latin America and in migrant populations from Oceania, America and Europe.
In the countries for which data is available, although this practice has decreased over time, it is still very high. From the 49% of young people between 15 and 19 years old who had suffered it thirty years ago, it has been reduced to 15 percentage points today.” epdata/Europa Press
The international response has been present through plans of the World Health Organization WHO, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), among other organizations, especially since 1997 The results are still insufficient, although in most countries, the decrease in the practice of FGM is registered. “Research reveals that if the affected communities decided to abandon it, FGM could be eliminated very quickly.” www.who.int
Today the World Health Organization opposes all forms of Female Genital Mutilation, however the legislation is insufficient, as in many other issues where prejudice and discrimination against women predominate. While in this part of the world, where we are somewhat freer, it is time to denounce and reveal ourselves to the point of exhaustion. Until one day we talk about the mutilation of a girl’s genitalia as something from the sad past that we have had to live through. Let’s say this absurd present that extirpates and cancels equally.
Photos: Free Use/Wikipedia/Author / pxfuel.com. free use
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