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JUNE 1999 |
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JUNE 1999 |
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Female
Genital Mutilation (FGM):
Concerned with the fact that in the case of Female Genital Mutilation (as with many other violations of the human rights of women and girls), generally those responsible for the violations of the rights remain with impunity; and also concerned about the fact that it is usually the victims who are prosecuted, last April 1999 FIRE interviewed Marie Antoinette Soussa from Ghana. In 1994, her country became the first in Africa to criminalize the practice of FGM. FIRE wanted to try to understand the complexity of the issue. A social worker doing her Doctoral Degree at the University of Denver, Marie Antoinette is clear about the gender dimension in the practice and even in the criminalization of Female Genital Mutilation.
Marie Antoinette talked to FIRE about the ban in her country, and also about the practice throughout Africa and in other parts of the world. She believes its eradication won't be easily achieved, even where it has been banned.
FIRE asked Marie Antoinette with whom she would begin working, if she
were to address the complexity of the issue in her country. She believes
that initial efforts should focus first on the victims, since "women have
to take themselves seriously" because if we don't, no one else will.
She also believes that women's media helps women to be taken more seriously,
and also helps women know that they do not stand alone on these issues.
What is FGM?
Although the origin of this practice remains unclear, it is widely practiced among followers of three religions: Islam, Christianity and Judaism, especially in African and Asian countries, but now occurs worldwide through migrant populations. According to a Fact Sheet produced in 1993 by the Global Campaign, "Women’s Rights Are Human Rights," presented in Vienna at the UN World Conference on Human Rights:
National & international efforts to ban FGM
However, despite resistance, international and national efforts to ban such practices account for the fact that several African countries have already taken steps to eliminate the practice in their countries. According to the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy in the US, "Eight countries – Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Djibouti, Ghana, Guinea, Senegal, Tanzania, and Togo – out of the 28 (countries where it is practiced) have enacted laws criminalizing Female Genital Mutilation. In Egypt, the Ministry of Health issued a decree declaring Female Genital Mutilation unlawful. As of January 1999 there have been prosecutions in Burkina Faso, Egypt and Ghana. Seven industrialized countries that receive immigrants from countries where Female Gential Mutilation is practiced – Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States – have passed laws criminalizing the practice. There have been no known prosecutions in any of these countries." Besides the complexity of the cultural and religious argument justifying such practices, another part of the complexity of the issue is the fact that it is mostly practiced by women, and sometimes even seems that girls "look for it" voluntarily even without their parent´s knowledge. Unless the "power" dimension of this practice is understood profoundly, criminalization will take to court and imprison those who practice it, but the ones who order and benefit from it will remain with impunity. It is men who order it, and benefit from a practice that devalues the autonomy and sexuality of women, and structurally, "women have less social and economic power than men. Most women see few options to perpetuating male power if they are to remain alive and safe." The devastating dimension, and the complexity of Female Genital Mutilation is best expressed in the testimonies of girls and women who have suffered the consequences. Dr. Nahid Tubia, founder of the Research Action Information Network
for Bodily Integrity, a physician, surgeon, and reproductive rights activist,
and also author of the book, Female Genital Mutilation: A Call To Global
Action, has brought to the forefront the testimonies of some
of those women. In 1993, in Vienna at the Global Tribunal on Violations
of Women´s Human Rights she testified about the health repercussions
of Female Genital Mutilation, bringing out the voices of women subject
to gross violations of their human rights.
FIRE asked her to address the motives of selecting social work as a profession, and why she chose to bring a gender perspective to her work. It seems that complex issues become quite clear when there is no fragmentation of women's rights, from the context in which those rights are denied or violated. Marie Antoinette also spoke about violence against women in her country and worldwide. FIRE asked her to also address the relationship between this type of violence and women's health. Read another FIRE feature about FGM entitled, "New, More Sophisticated And Extended Forms Of Female Genital Mutilation Reported in Africa and Sweden By Local Journalists." |
Marie Antoinette Soussa, social worker from Ghana is doing her Doctoral
Degree at the University of Denver. 
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