The array of blades in the United Nations photo looks like a museum display of historical weapons: dirty and corroded, and none seem sharp. They don't look like surgical instruments -- unfortunately, that's exactly what they are. These dull, rusty knives are used to ritually slice off the genitalia of young girls in Sierra Leone.
The United Nations World Health Organization estimates that 140-million women and girls around the world have experienced female genital mutilation (FGM). In December the UN unanimously passed a resolution banning the practice.
Although FGM is concentrated in 28 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC) says the problem affects women here, too. We spoke with two Canadian experts on FGM -- Dr. Dorothy Shaw and Dr. Victoria Davis -- about FGM, its impact on Canada, and why ending it takes more than outrage and laws.
Girls forced to undergo FGM, sometimes called female genital cutting, have some or all of their external genitalia -- the labia and clitoris -- cut off. In some cases the vaginal opening is also sewn almost closed. FGM is performed on girls anywhere from infancy to puberty, depending on the culture. FGM can result in life-threatening health complications including infections, bleeding, and problems during childbirth.
The communities where FGM is practiced, explains Dr. Shaw, place high value on virginity, so the custom is seen as protection for young girls from premarital sex. Dr. Shaw has worked for decades on the issue of FGM and in 1989 helped produce a documentary film on the issue.
FGM is deeply rooted in some cultures. Dr. Shaw says when she speaks with women who have been cut, many consider their genitalia to be normal and are actually "puzzled" by cultures that do not engage in the practice. They do not see where the harm lies.
We have spent countless hours in communities around the world where FGM is the norm. We've listened to many women who believe that without FGM their daughters won't get a good husband. Others, who have learned about the health risks, have told us they will never let their daughters be cut.
What shocked us in talking to Drs. Shaw and Davis was discovering FGM is a serious issue in Canada, too.
In 2011, almost 29,000 women from Africa and the Middle East became permanent residents of Canada. Dr. Davis, who has worked with hundreds of immigrant women, says a high percentage of these will have undergone FGM.
In places like Kenya, where FGM is part of the culture, we have invariably found open discussion and debate -- mothers talking to mothers, doctors to parents, or women's groups to school classes. That conversation, more than any law, is helping decrease FGM.
Dr. Davis recalls examining a pregnant immigrant who had undergone FGM in Somalia. In order to have the baby, the woman had to be "defibulated" -- her vagina fully reopened. Dr. Davis saw the woman again when she became pregnant a second time. Performing FGM is illegal in Canada, so Dr. Davis was shocked to discover the woman had been reinfibulated -- sewn up again. The woman admitted she had gone back to Somalia to have it done because, to her, it was normal. Women who undergo this form of FGM often get reinfibulated after intercourse and giving birth.
According to Davis some immigrants even take their pubescent daughters back to their original countries to have FGM performed, often against the will of the girls who have become North Americanized and no longer see the practice as normal.
France has made it illegal for immigrant families to take their French-born daughters out of the country for FGM.
In Kenya, where the government has made FGM illegal, we have seen what can happen when FGM is simply banned: many women just head into the woods to have performed done in secret, usually in highly unhealthy conditions.
If we make it illegal for Canadian immigrants to obtain the procedure abroad, will they stop doing it? Or will they simply keep going, but avoid seeking medical attention when they return?
Kenya taught us that, with FGM, laws are necessary but alone they aren't enough. Canada needs to have the open, public -- and above all respectful and culturally sensitive -- conversation that is already happening in the developing world.
The SOGC says female genital mutilation should be included in the medical school curriculum, teaching doctors and nurses not just about the medical aspects of FGM, but about its cultural roots and how to start a respectful conversation with their patients concerning the serious health risks.
It shouldn't stop there. Education and conversation about FGM must happen among community cultural groups and through targeted outreach, especially for young women and mothers who must be empowered with both health information and to know their rights. Issues of culture always are complex, especially when involve rights of children, so these conversations must include parents, doctors, legislators and community leaders, and most importantly they must give voice to young women and girls themselves.
It will take word of mouth, not just word of law, to end female genital mutilation around the world.
Craig and Marc Kielburger are founders of international charity and educational partner, Free The Children. Its youth empowerment event, We Day, is in eight cities across Canada this year, inspiring more than 100,000 attendees. For more information, visit www.weday.com.
Follow Craig and Marc Kielburger on Twitter: www.twitter.com/craigkielburger
Change is only going to happen if we insist on having culturally competent and open discussions — a topic that will be featured prominently at CAPWHN’s upcoming national conference. Dialogue is important to educate care providers — nurses, physicians, educators, social workers and others — with objective information. This will in turn enable us to appropriately support women impacted by this harmful traditional practice and protect others. CAPWHN commends the Kielburger brothers for bringing these discussions into the public forum and encourages anyone who plays a role in the health and well-being of Canada’s newcomers to keep these conversations going and take action.
Nancy Watts, RN, PNC(C), MN
CAPWHN President
Another horror story.
This is the first time the Assembly’s Third Committee, which addresses social, humanitarian and human rights issues, has adopted a resolution on FGM – the cutting of a girl’s genitalia often without anaesthetic in conditions that risk potentially fatal infection.
“FGM is an indictment of us all – that a girl or young woman can be held down and mutilated is a violation of her human rights and – shockingly – an estimated three million girls are at risk each year,” said José Luis Díaz, Amnesty International’s UN representative in New York.
Female genital mutilation is a horrible practice and is often forced on little girls to perserve the "honor" of these women. As soon as you hear the honor argument, run for the hills. It's almost always a society that upholds honor over morality. The same idea comes into play with honor killings.
Most of the mutilation is done without anesthetic, with crude tools, by someone without any medical training and many times without their permission. Would you let someone do this to your child, to protect their virginity?
I actually know very little about this procedure or why it's done. It appears it's a widely accepted practice & perfectly safe if done under proper medical conditions.
So why have we classified it as being illegal?
This making it illegal & calling it FGM (a perfect name for fear-mongering), appears to me like nothing more than one culture attempting to dictate & instill their beliefs upon others.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
Note, you better have facts & not beliefs as evidence to support your stance. Saying some get infections is hardly a valid argument for making this practice illegal.
It is not at all safe, regardless of 'proper' medical conditions.
An equivalent to FGM in males would be to have the foreskin and the entire head of the penis removed, and have the remaining shaft sewn shut.
Not even remotely comparable.
Just how many factually verifiable cases of death & illness have resulted from this procedure?
I bet nobody even knows, the only concern is about stopping people from doing something they don't agree with.
There are different levels of FGM, but I will give you the worst.
From Wikipedia:
" Type III (infibulation), removal of all or part of the inner and outer labia, and usually the clitoris, and the fusion of the wound, leaving a small hole for the passage of urine and menstrual blood—the fused wound is opened for intercourse and childbirth."
Obviously, this makes sex painful, childbirth dangerous, and infection much more likely....to say nothing of the act itself.......
As the article notes it's an accepted practice.
People die all the time in Canadian hospitals from infections, many the direct result of our own medical procedures we preform & deem acceptable, shouldn't we be banning those procedures?
It makes sex painful, it that one of the reasons why they do it?
That is the exact problem and why this is allowed to happen. To many cowardly white people who don't have the balls to come and and say your cultural practices aren't different than ours they are inferior, unjust and intolerable in a free society. The message needs to be sent that if you support these archaic traditions and if you wish to live like third world tribesman you are not welcome in Canada period end of story. Same thing goes with pressuring women into wearing hijabs and arranged marriages. The French have the right idea anyone caught performing this surgery on their daughter should be jailed and then deported. Not all cultures and cultural practices deserve our respect.
For "WE" are the chosen one's, all must bow & grovel before our superior all knowing, all seeing massively superior intellect.
I agree with you that "It appears it's a widely accepted practice & perfectly safe if done under proper medical conditions." Any of the studies I have found that claim extreme dangers are dubious at best.
I personally don't feel any culture should have the power to dictate what adults choose to do with their own bodies.
However, I do have a problem when the individual having the procedure done has no say in the matter. If an adult woman wants it done, so be it. But forcing children is a whole other issue.
Male circumcision has many health benefits...........and little or no downside.
To equate the two requires a level of ignorance that boggles the mind.
It is the last sentence of this article that is of the greatest importance.
You can make a whole slew of laws, rules, or regulations. But talking about it and education on the subject can break the cycle of this unnecessary hurt to women.
Cheers all.