Female Genital Mutilation

DARF baseline study in Glasgow and Edinburgh on beliefs, views and experiences

of female genital mutilationApril 2010

What is FGM?

“FGM comprises all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.”

(A joint WHO/UNICEF/UNFPA statement 1997)

How common is FGM?

WHO estimates the number of girls who have undergone genital mutilation globally at between 100 and 140 million, with a further 3 million girls at risk annually.

FGM is practiced in 28 African countries. Instances have also occurred worldwide.

FGM is an issue for Scotland as immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers from Africa have began to settle here.

It is estimated there are around 74,000 women in the UK who have gone through the procedure.

To date there are no definitive statistics on FGM in the UK

It is estimated that about 7000 girls are at risk (Home Office, 2003)

Legislation

Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation (Scotland) Act 2005

An offence for UK nationals or permanent residents to carry out, or aid and abet, female genital mutilation in the UK and abroad. Maximum penalty 14 years imprisonment.

It is important to have an understanding of the socio-cultural significance of FGM to ensure the issue is dealt with sensitively and appropriately.

Many participants said that they would be unwilling to disclose information regarding FGM to health workers and to the general public – fear of being regarded as “uncivilised” by non FGM practicing communities, and of being excluded from their own community.

Male beliefs and views

• 50% view FGM as an obsolete tradition• 17% says FGM violates the rights and dignity

of the women subjected to the procedure• 13% FGM aids penetration• 12% felt FGM makes women ‘more

respectable’• 8% viewed FGM as a bad practice

Female beliefs and views

• 32% believed FGM is a bad practice• 23% FGM is traditional and part of cultural heritage• 11% FGM ‘helps to stop promiscuity’• 9% FGM degrades women’s dignity and is

unacceptable• 9% FGM is a good practice• 5% believed that women who have had FGM did it

voluntary• 4% FGM acceptable as ‘rite of passage for marriage’

provided it is carried out in a hospital

The survey showed that the overriding factor for carrying out FGM was it’s perceived role in the prevention of promiscuity. Other reasons include:

• Hygiene• A rite of passage to womanhood. A cause for

celebration• Necessary to prepare for marriage. More

value may be placed on a woman who has undergone FGM

• Religious reasons (although the practice is not mandatory for either Christians or Muslims)

Implications of FGM on women’s lives

• Childbirth complications• Self stigmatisation• Problems passing urine• Cysts• Bleeding• Loss of libido / painful sexual experience• Infections• Bitterness / resentment towards family members

DARF

Dignity Alert and Research Forum30 Westburn Grove

EdinburghEH14 2AS

0131 453 4249mailto:E-Dignityalert@hotmail.co.uk

http://www.dark.org.uk