Aby The Liberal

Aby July 13th, 2007

We often come across news and hear of domestic abuses, sexual harassment and many other kinds of targeted crimes against women and children. There is one kind of abuse quite unheard of in the western world, which surpasses in cruelty and brutality all the abuses mentioned above. It is termed Female Genital Mutilation, FGM for short and is practised often in African Muslim countries either as a religious or cultural practice. The mutilation of the female genitalia, which is carried without an anaesthetic ranges from removing the clitoris to cutting off the entire external female genitalia altogether.

A news channel clip on beliefs and culture which motivate FGM in Africa (Click on video to play)

FGM is considered illegal in most developed countries, yet this does not stop parents flying their daughters to Africa to conduct it or smuggling in quacks to perform FGM in secret rituals. It is often difficult to prevent such incidents which are disturbingly common, performed in a cloak of secrecy so that it does not come to the notice of legal authorities. It has been often suggested in the European Union and United Nations about taking strong initiatives to put an end to this practice in Africa and other regions where it is practised. But it is feared that such strong moves might be considered as cultural imperialism by the practising communities and could create a negative impact against the western world. Of all the crimes against women, FGM with its health and human rights implications is one of the worst.

FGM and Health Concerns
As FGM is most often conducted without anaesthesia and non-surgical conditions, it can result in extreme pain, clinical shock, infections like tetanus and severe bleeding till anaemia. These are the short term implications with 20% of the cases being fatal. The long term implications are cysts, complications during menstruation and childbirth, endangering the life of both the mother and the baby. Women who have suffered genital mutilation are twice as likely to die in childbirth and three times as likely to give birth to a stillborn child. A wide range of psychological and psychosomatic disorders have been attributed to FGM, for example, disordered eating and sleeping habits, changes in mood and symptoms of impaired cognition, according to reports by World Health Organisation

FGM and Human Rights Concern
FGM is often conducted in very young girls below 15 years of age, without their consent and option to refuse. Since FGM involves the deformation of healthy organs, it violates the right to bodily integrity. FGM threatens the life and health of the girls and women violating their right to life and also their right to standard of living adequate for the health and well-being. All these rights violated are a part of Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 10, 1948. The act of FGM violates at least one human right right to bodily integrity explicitly and intentionally and the others indirectly as adverse effects of FGM.

Although FGM is made illegal in most of the developed world including Europe, UK, USA, Canada and Australia in the last few years, it is still practised among migrant African communities in secrecy (where it is illegal) and in abandon (where it is not illegal). Protection of human rights does not imply cultural imperialism, whatever it may look like to the communities concerned. It is a shame that fear of being perceived as cultural imperialists makes the civilised the world reluctant to stop such violation of human rights from continuing in abandon at foreign soil and in secrecy on home soil.

Further Information -

• WHO Section on Female Genital Mutilation

• Internationalism , Crimes , Humanity
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