The varied efforts to end female circumcision
“I don’t believe in the death penalty. My mission is to end the violence against women and children. I am not here to condemn people but to condemn the act of mutilation itself.”This is how Soraya Mire’, a movie director who has been exposing the cruelty of female circumcision, comments about President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni ‘s proposal of using death penalty as a means to scare off perpetrators of this practice.
Museveni wants to outlaw female circumcision, a patriarchal legacy, and those who continue to perform it would face the death penalty if a girl dies as a result of the procedure.
This move is in line with other countries and organizations that have sought to decrease the prevalence of female genital mutilation (FGM), a practice that involves partial or total removal of the external female genitalia. It is traditionally thought to protect a girl’s chastity by reducing her urge for sex.
Since Uganda has a mixed track record of enacting laws to protect women, Museveni is hoping the death penalty will be crucial to end this tradition that remains largely popular among many tribes in the country, particularly those who live at the eastern border with Kenya. The World Health Organization estimates that 3 million girls are at risk of being circumcised every year worldwide. According to the United Nations Children’s Funds, the practice is extremely painful and traumatizing, can result in prolonged bleeding, a higher risk of HIV infection, infertility and even death. The United Nations started discussing this issue in 1953. It took the World Health Organization forty years to announce its resolve to end female genital mutilation. On May 11, 1993 it called for the world condemnation and co-operation in ending this practice.
Soraya Mire’, originally from Somalia and now based in the US, was taken by her mother to be circumcised when she was only 13. She dared to speak up against this practice and was since shunned by her own family.
While Mire’ recognizes that the atrocity of FGM must be publicly acknowledged, she also believes in adopting a positive perspective to face the problem: “Our generation recognized the deep wound created by FGM and the consequent private pain that it causes because we live with the anguish of what has been done to us and our loved ones. With the knowledge and understanding of this pain we can certainly make a difference. We will continue to transform our private pain and suffering by exposing this horrendous act of cultural violence and by bringing it to an end.”
Mire’ highlights how this practice violates children’s basic rights: “It doesn’t matter how deep you stick that sharp knife, cut glass or the scissors. It’s an act that tortures the most innocent souls who need protection. The practice of genital mutilation which I call the “ultimate child abuse” is really a psychological wound – a scar of betrayal. This soul wound gives voice to 135 million women worldwide who have suffered circumcision. I dare to speak against child abuse. This, in particular, that is handed down from mother to daughter like a treasured heirloom while being protected under the name of ‘culture’. “
In her documentary “Fire Eyes” (1994,http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/1554/Fire-Eyes), Mire’ interviewed manySomalis including a woman who tells her daughter: "It is shameful that you are not circumcised. No Somali man would marry an uncircumcised woman." Another man likens circumcision to the protection of his property. "You have to have a door on your house . . . you can't leave the door open. The same with women."
Soraya Mire’says: ”Why, given the advances that women have made socially, culturally and economically, they are still treated as if they cannot think for themselves? A woman is believed to not know right from wrong, that she must be subjugated and controlled by all measures and stripped off her most essential body parts. Women face the social pressure to conform and perpetuate the ritual of female genital mutilation. And betrayal occurs at the hands of other women and even the hands of one’s own mother.”
However, there are alternatives to death penalty.
An example comes from Kenya, where circumcision is already illegal. Here the Catholic Church has come up with an alternative rite of passage for girls. In the town of Meru, a group of grandmothers has started to teach the next generation the secrets of womanhood, like their mothers and grandmothers before them did. The modified traditional training, called the Alternative Rite of Passage, is a project of the Catholic Diocese of Meru and Catholic Relief Services. The girls go through traditional training of how to be a good wife, mother and woman, but with a difference: at the end of the process they have a graduation ceremony and receive a certificate rather than undergo circumcision. The girls are taught among the rest how to serve food and which herbs to use to cure specific ailments. They are also explained the truth about many taboos, included that if a woman is not circumcised she will not get married.
Media and public figures can also help to spread awareness about this issue. “At the time of “The Vagina monologues” a few movie stars supported the battle to end FMG”, says Mire’. The V-Day – until the violence stops (www.vday.org), was among the initiatives launched by the production “The Vagina Monologues” and that raised over $50 millions to end several forms of abuse on women.
In 1994 American songwriter Tory Amos released the song “Cornflake girl”, about an African girl going through the ritual of circumcision. The idea of betrayal between women is at the centre of this piece that back then certainly helped in creating at least curiosity around the theme of FMG.
To begin the social changes and break the chain of pain caused by female genital mutilation, it seems most necessary to raise public awareness of the issue and remove the taboos that surround this barbaric practice.
Employing the menace of death penalty to deter practitioners seem naive, not only because they would probably find their ways to carry on with their cruel task, but especially because it’s the cultural mind set that needs first of all to be eradicated to gain lasting social chang
es.
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