Wendy Bell is co-ordinator for the Awareness Campaign on Female Genital Mutilation/ Circumcision by Soroptimist International Tenby & District, a club in the Wales South Region of the UK.  Although SI Tenby and District is a small club in a rural area unaffected by FGM, they have been at the forefront of Soroptimist campaigning against the practice in the UK for the past 10 years.  After a decade of advocacy and awareness-raising and 28 years since FGM has been a criminal offence, the UK’s Director of Public Prosecutions has reported that the first UK prosecutions for FGM are likely to take place soon.  

Female Genital Mutilation/Circumcision is a very contentious and emotive subject. It conjures up such abhorrence that we prefer to leave it well alone. However, some 12 years ago a small item in a SISTER magazine referring to FGM inspired some members of SI Tenby & District’s Programme Action Committee to look into the subject. In 2003, following nearly eighteen months of research, the desire came to become involved as the practice had become more evident in the UK.

FGM is but one piece in the mosaic of violence against women and girls, and it reinforces the theme in the lives of many that –“You are to obey the wills of others”. Held down forcibly,  being cut in their most intimate body parts, girls learn the lesson – “others own and control you”.  It is not, as many believe, a religious requirement – Mohammed did not circumcise his daughters – it is purely cultural in male dominated societies

A little girl called Fouiza in the documentary film “The Day I Will Never Forget” brought the horror of the practice home to us. To quote Fouiza:

It was a Sunday night when my mother called me and said “Daughter tomorrow is your D Day” I was shocked, but was not expected to say anything. In the morning, I was dragged and pinned down to the floor, I was crying “Mum, where are you?” the only reply was “Quiet girl, quiet”. I will never forget the pain as long as I live! That night I dreamt that three old women were holding me down and cutting me again and again, I screamed.  My loving parent, is this really what I deserve?  I ask you all, is this what I really deserve?!

Fouiza told her mother she would forgive her if she promised not to circumcise her sister. Her mother was reluctant, but her sister was not circumcised! 

Two items in a Channel 5 News report from Sierra Leone added to our resolve. They featured a young father who was so angry that his eighteen month old daughter had been taken by her grandmother to be circumcised without his knowledge and a young woman who was told that she was going to a birthday party, and then went through the horror of being circumcised herself, hearing the screams of her friends.

Initially it was agreed that we write to the women members of the UK Government and the Welsh Assembly drawing their attention to the subject. In Nov 2003 letters were sent but a comment made by a male MP in an amended reading of the 2003 FGM Bill “Please, spare me the gruesome details” prompted letters to be sent to the male members, and also  all the members of the Scottish Parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Dail and the British MEPs. Added to this letters were sent to the Heads of Faiths, Chief Police Officers in Wales, the Headquarters of Women’s & Men’s Organisations.

We produced an exhibit accompanied by a DVD with details of our work, news items and extracts from films on the subject. This was taken to Soroptimist Clubs, and set up at many local events. In 2006, a joint presentation was given with the editor of the SISTER magazine (then SIGBI Federation President Pat Black) at Newcastle, and in 2007, we were awarded the SIGBI Federation “Human Rights and Status of Women “Award.” 

We have written many articles about our work and one written for the SI publication “Giving Girls a Chance” was presented in New York to the UN Commission for the Status of Women.  A petition was launched, but to date we only have only 2500 signatures, an amount we feel is not enough. We continue to lobby, and are on the mailing list of relevant organisations, and are delighted that whereas in 2003 we felt we were “a lone voice in the wilderness” now there are hundreds out there. “Female Genital Mutilation” entered into Google now results in 10 pages or more!

One of our main concerns has been the complete lack of prosecutions, despite the knowledge of the practice taking place, we are delighted to learn that recently for the first time in British legal history, charges are likely to be brought against perpetrators of FGM – 4 new cases and 4 previous, and a further 15 cases have been reported by the NSPCC. The latter have so far received 41 calls on their new helpline.

Part of the Soroptimist code is “to enhance the wellbeing and status of women”. Waris Dirie, UN ambassador for FGM, who herself was circumcised, has stated that FGM has nothing to do with tradition, culture or religion. It is the most cynical form of child abuse. All countries are obliged to take serious and consequent action against those that practice this crime. If Genital mutilation was a problem affecting men, the matter would long be settled.

We are a small club in a rural area unaffected by FGM, but we know that our campaign has made people talk about, and not turn away from this issue. We ask you to add your voices to those of the hundreds of women worldwide in condemning this practice and by making your concerns known to all those in authority, and supporting the many organisations on line asking for signatures to that effect, eg -: Amnesty International, UNIFEM, FORWARD, FIGO and NSPCC  to name a few. We will continue to work against this horrific practice, please join us.

Images – Top: Road sign against FGM in Uganda, credit: Amnon Shavit via Wikimedia Commons. Bottom: SI Tenby members with their FGM information stand.

More information

SI News article June 2013: UN Calls on Egypt to Enforce FGM ban after girls death – Education and Enforcement needed