NoFGM
is Hilary Burrage's website to
- *promote information and opinion from and by campaigners, researchers and writers*
who share her concern to eradicate female genital mutilation (FGM) and other gendered violence and discrimination in the UK and beyond. Potential contributors are invited to email Hilary to discuss proposals for this website.
Most of the articles on female genital mutilation (FGM) below are generously contributed by expert guest contributors with particular professional or personal knowledge and experience.
Hilary Burrage (editor of this website) has also posted many pieces on aspects of FGM, in conjunction with research for her books, Eradicating Female Genital Mutilation: A UK Perspective (a textbook) and Female Mutilation (narratives from survivors and campaigners globally). To read more about FGM, please see here: Hilary Burrage / FGM.
Through the Eyes of Nigerian Artists Confronting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
6th – 16th June, Lady Margaret Hall, Jerwood Room, University of Oxford
Duke Asidere . Wande George . Helen Idehen . Angela Japhet . Imonikebe Manasseh . Alloysius Osagie . Sam Ovraiti . Olubunmi Temitope Oyasanya . Stella Ubigho . Godfrey Williams-Okorodus . Midy Yves Midahuen
It’s International Women’s Day, and the End FGM Guardian Global Media Campaign has a new #EndFGM Facebook page.
New estimates suggest there are 200,000,000 women and girls living with FGM today. This is a truly global epidemic.
Please visit and support this new page at https://www.facebook.com/gdnendfgm/
Thank you all for your support!
Petition to End Female Genital Mutilation in India
January 10, 2016
Mubina Jamdar writes:
Please support our petition to End Female Genital Mutilation in India.
Despite clear guidelines from WHO and international outcry to stop the practice, we face a wall of barriers to even propose the idea of banning FGM to the government of India.
Learning About FGM and Other Harmful Cultural Practices: A Girls’ Camp in Samburu County, Kenya
October 4, 2015
Espila Lucy shares notes from her own website:
Lessons Learnt From the Girls’ Camp in Baragoi, Samburu County
In August 2015, Caritas Maralal in partnership with CORDAID reached a total of 350 girls through a camping activity in Samburu North, in Baragoi primary school. Campers were from Ngilai, Bendera, Baragoi, Nachola, Natiti and Nalingagor primary schools. The sessions were led by 8 facilitators from AMREF, World Vision, Straight talk foundation, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education. During the camp that lasted for a week, the girls were involved in interactive sessions on life skills, the role of girls in peace building, harmful cultural practices, such as FGM (female genital mutilation), early/ forced marriages, beading and human rights.
September 2015, Kenya: The First Guardian #EndFGM Campaign Academy
September 30, 2015
Maggie O’Kane, the award-winning multimedia editor (investigations) at The Guardian, writes:
In September 2015 some 36 young Kenyan women and men attended the first Guardian global media campaign academy for #EndFGM activists, in Nairobi, Kenya. They are now heading back to their homes in places where FGM is widely practiced, armed with a new social media network linking dedicated – and previously isolated – campaigners, and with the media tools to hold new grass roots meetings in their own communities to finally end FGM.
Here’s the Guardian video which gives a flavour of the horrific challenges of FGM, and of how the campaign academy has equipped young activists to rise to these challenges.
@GdnEndFGM ** End FGM Guardian Global Media Campaign ** @NoFGM_Kenya
Franklin Mutumba: Surviving ‘The Cut’ in Kenya
July 17, 2015
Over the decades, clitoridectomy (female genital mutilation – FGM*) has been part and parcel of way of life for some several communities here in Africa and various other parts of the world. Some of the societies are engaged to the affair as a form of control, whilst for others it is for initiation from childhood to adulthood. *See Statement on FGM
My main focus here is Kenya. FGM hotspots in Kenya are mostly within the pastoralist communities. This is due to isolation from civilization and also lack of attention from the authorities. Most notable amongst these communities are the Maasai, Samburu, Turkana and Pokot.
Kameel Ahmady is a British-Iranian social anthropologist who has worked in international development. This Report is the result of a decade-long field study on female genital mutilation (FGM) which he undertook in Iran.
Ahmady’s comprehensive study investigates, explores, and analyses the existence of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) in Iran. FGM is prevalence in four West Azerbaijan, provinces of Kurdistan, Kermanshah, and Hormozgan. FGM is a longstanding ritual which continues to violate aspects of women’s sexual rights. It prevails in societies because of certain beliefs, norms, attitudes, and political and economic systems. While there is some data available on FGM in Iran, it has been limited in scope.
The term ‘female genital mutilation’ was adopted in 1990 by the Inter-African Committee (IAC) on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children, and in 1991 the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended that the United Nations adopt it as well. It has now been confirmed by the United Nations and the World Health Organisation. The turning point in this debate was the Bamako Declaration of 6 April 2005, issued by the sixth General Assembly of the IAC, in Mali.
It is important to acknowledge the Bamako message, an edited (abbreviated) version of which follows:
Karen Ellison: FGM – Can The Law Protect Our Children?
September 1, 2013
What follows is the text of Dr Karen Ellison’s thesis on legal and medical issues around female genital mutilation in Britain, published in September 2013.
This is a very valuable contribution to developments in the field of UK medical-legal aspects of FGM, and is re-published here with Dr Ellison’s permission.
Karen Ellison can be contacted here.
No FGM 