It was a long time ago that I read “Desert Flower” by Waris Dirie, a Somalian model and anti-FGM activist which was essentially all about the custom of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). It was shocking and I remember wondering then how I could help. Throughout July, ActionAid is highlighting the urgent need to end FGM because apparently we are currently in the “cutting season”. This is the time when girls and young women here in the UK are sent to countries they have often never been to in order to have a procedure that is frankly horrifying and just wrong. FGM is the partial or full cutting of a girl’s clitoris and labia, for non-medical reasons, usually on minors as young as four and no older than twelve years old. The procedure can cause severe bleeding, infection, infertility and even death.
This is happening to girls who live in the same cities as we do. They could be your children’s classmates, and there are incredible organisations like Forward and FGM Aware amongst many others who campaign about this issue in the UK, but it also goes on in many countries that ActionAid works in around the world too. Which is why ActionAid, as an international charity, is putting the spotlight on this again. Because it must end – now.
In 2014 ActionAid has supported 483 community-led projects to protect women and girls from harmful traditional practices as FGM. They have also mobilised 151,000 women to challenge violence and harmful traditional practices. What does this mean? ActionAid enables women and girls to stand up for their rights by teaching about this in schools, creating women’s groups where women share their experiences and watch out for each other and they learn coping mechanisms to so that they can progress with their lives as independent women.
Here’s Pauline’s story:
Pauline’s story
“Pauline’s, 15 has a daughter who is just over a year old, Faith. Pauline is currently pregnant. She had the cut at 10 as her parents were alcoholics so couldn’t afford for her to be in school. She didn’t know what having the cut would lead to – she says:
“I didn’t even know which part of the body was going to be cut. I didn’t know that the cut meant that I would then be forced to be married. I only realised that when I was in the group of girls who I underwent the cut with.”
Pauline was woken at 4am and taken away. She was told not to cry. She was sat on a stone facing east and then the first girl was cut and then the next and then the next one after another. After they were cut they had their legs tied with lace both beneath the knees and upwards to their thighs. They stayed there for three months. In this room, first suffering from shock was when Pauline discovered what the cut actually meant – that she was now ready for marriage.
Pauline’s husband is much older than her and she’s his second wife. He’s often absent which means she has to be incredibly independent and fend for herself by finding food for herself.
Below is a photograph of the implements that have been used to perform the cutting. Sorry. I know. I hope you’re not drinking a cup of tea. It is a brutal and shocking image that brings home the horror or what these girls have to go through.
The scalpel-like tool is an older method that was reportedly used, while the razor is more modern. Sometimes girls arrive with their own razors. The ash is used by the cutter to ‘get a good grip.’ And the stone is where the girl sits during the process; each girl will have her own stone which is not to be touched again after the ceremony.
How does ActionAid help?
Pauline is now a member of a women’s group who educate both young girls and women about the dangers and repercussions of issues such as FGM. As far as she’s concerned no daughter of hers or any other daughters she may have will ever go through the cut.
Pauline barely makes ends meet by selling charcoal at the local market when she can find it and dreams of a better life where she will run her own business.
Action Air urgently want us to help them to spread the word about this appeal because they need money to help to provide safe houses and education for girls to inform them before they are cut.
If you want to know more – there is further information on their website: actionaid.org.uk/endfgm
