Ahead of "Cutting Season" and Girl Summit 2014, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) last week endorsed a landmark declaration making Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) unlawful and clarifying it is not supported by religious doctrine.
The UK’s most prominent
Muslim organization on June 20 denounced FGM as contrary to Islam, adding that
the traditional practice severely violates the human rights of women and girls.
The first Girl Summit,
to be hosted by the UK and UNICEF on July 22, aims to mobilize domestic and
international efforts to end FGM and child early and forced marriage (CEFM) within
a generation.
Girls and women have the right to live free from violence and
discrimination and achieve their potential, but some are being prevented from
doing so by harmful practices such as FGM and CEFM,
which are illegal in the UK, says a statement on the UK government site.
Child, early and forced marriage occurs in every part of the world, affecting millions of girls every year. One in three girls in developing countries is married by the age of 18, and one in nine by the age of 15. Some are as young as eight.
Girls who marry young have babies while still children, putting
them at risk of death or suffering for the rest of their lives. They are more
likely to be poor and stay poor. In the UK, hundreds of girls risk being forced
into marriage, violating their human rights. Forced marriage victims can suffer
physical, psychological, emotional, financial and sexual abuse.
FGM removes a
girl’s right to have control over her own body. Traditionally considered
essential for marriage and inclusion in the community, it is an extreme and
violent way in which girls and women are controlled and disempowered. It can
result in a lifetime of pain, psychological problems and difficulty in
childbirth. Current trends suggest at least 30 million girls will be at risk
over the next decade -- with more than 20,000 at risk in the United Kingdom
every year, the UK government website adds.
MCB
declaration
The
religious and community leaders that signed the historic declaration condemning
FGM noted, however, there are still barriers to ending the practice in the UK.
The
MCB is one of the UK’s largest and most diverse Muslim umbrella organizations
with over 500 affiliated national, regional and local organizations, mosques,
charities and schools.
The
Church of England and the Muslim Women’s Network UK were two of 160 groups who supported
the announcement denouncing
FGM as a form of violence against women and a denial of women’s human
rights not supported by religious
doctrine. The groups will sign a joint declaration condemning FGM --
currently a criminal offense in the UK -- during the Girl Summit.
The MCB will launch a campaign by distributing leaflets in mosques
and community centers in Britain to support ending the barbaric practice.
It said it was “not true” mutilation was a Muslim requirement noting that one of the “basic principles” of Islam was not to harm oneself or others.
The MCB said FGM was bringing Islam “into disrepute” and could
cause severe pain, bleeding, problems in pregnancy and even death, as well
leaving some victims with lasting psychological problems.
The new leaflet states: “FGM is not an Islamic requirement. There
is no reference to it in the Holy Quran that states girls must be circumcised.
Nor is there any authentic reference to this in the Sunnah, the sayings
or traditions of our Prophet. FGM is bringing the religion of Islam into
disrepute.”
The document also warns there is “an increasingly high risk of
being prosecuted” for carrying out mutilation, which has been illegal in the UK
since 1985, and that perpetrators face up to 14 years in prison.
The MCB announcement follows a Home Office summit on June 19 at which other religious organizations, including the
Shia al-Khoei Foundation and the Muslim Women’s Network UK, announced their
support for a government declaration against FGM to be published at the Girl
Summit.
Three million girls and women are subjected to
FGM worldwide each year. That's 8000 girls per day.
FGM is a harmful practice that is recognized worldwide as a human
rights violation. The practice of FGM violates:
- Right to physical and mental integrity
- Right to highest attainable standard of health
- Right to be free from all forms of discrimination against women (including violence against women)
- Right to freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
- Rights of the child, and
- In extreme cases, right to life
Increasingly
as migration becomes more common, diaspora communities arriving to Western
nations continue the practice. FGM prevalence is therefore rising among migrant
residents of Norway, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, Britain and the
United States. Migrant families, often traveling with their young daughters in
summer vacations to their native countries, have the procedure performed at
grave risk of infection bleeding and death when non-clinicians perform this
procedure. School holidays become “The Cutting Season.”
FGM tradition
Also
known as female circumcision or simply as “cutting,” FGM/C involves removing
all or part of the clitoris, the surrounding labia (the outer part of the
vagina) and sometimes the sewing up of the vagina, leaving only a small opening
for urine and menstrual blood.
There
are no medical benefits to this tradition. It is carried out for cultural
reasons, often because it demonstrates a girl's virginity on her wedding night.
It seems the practice predates Christianity and Islam. There
is mention made of Egyptian mummies that display characteristics of FGM/C. The
historian Herodotus claims that in the fifth century BC the Phoenicians,
Hittites and Ethiopians practiced circumcision. It is also reported
circumcision rites were practiced in tropical zones of Africa, in the
Philippines, by certain tribes in the Upper Amazon, and in Australia by women
of the Arunta tribe. It also occurred among the early Romans and Arabs.
Many different peoples and societies have followed the FGM/C
practice. It cuts across ages, continents, religions and is performed by
Muslims, Christians, Ethiopian Jews and Copts among others.
The
World Health Organization (WHO)
estimates between 100 and 140 million girls and women worldwide have been
subjected to one of three types of female genital mutilation. Estimates based
on the most recent prevalence data indicate that 91.5 million girls and women
above the age of nine in Africa are currently living with the consequences of FGM.
There are an estimated three million girls in Africa at risk of undergoing FGM
every year.
Type 1: Excision of
the prepuce, with or without excision of part or the entire clitoris.
Type 2: Excision of
the clitoris with partial or total excision of the labia minora.
Type 3: Excision of
part or all of the external genitalia and stitching/narrowing of the vaginal
opening (infibulation) -- sometimes referred to as pharaonic circumcision.
Type 4: Others, such
as pricking, piercing or incising, stretching, burning of the clitoris,
scraping of tissue surrounding the vaginal orifice, cutting of the vagina,
introduction of corrosive substances or herbs into the vagina to cause bleeding
or to tighten the opening.
The
removal of, or damage to, healthy, normal genital tissue interferes with the
natural functioning of the body and causes several immediate and long-term
health consequences. For example, babies born to women who have undergone
female genital mutilation suffer a higher rate of neonatal death; end in
stillbirth or spontaneous abortion; and in a further 25%, the newborn has a low
birth weight or serious infection, both of which are associated with an
increased risk of perinatal death.
In
Egypt, 94% of women arrange for their daughters to undergo this “medicalized”
form of FGM/C, 76% in Yemen, 65% in Mauritania, 48% in Côte d’Ivoire, and 46%
in Kenya. This approach may reduce some of the immediate consequences of the
procedure -- such as pain and bleeding -- but, WHO and UNICEF point out, it
also tends to obscure its human rights aspect and could hinder the development
of long-term solutions for ending the practice.
How
many more generations will it take to eradicate FGM/C? Is the magic word
“education”? Is FGM/C a practice too deep-rooted to overcome? Maybe only time
will tell…
In the meantime, you can take a stand with me against FGM/C and
child and forced marriage by signing
the pledge to
show your support in ending these harmful practices forever. Our voices will be
heard at the Girl Summit.
Related
articles and references:
Female Genital
Mutilation must stop -- February 13, 2012
How many more Child
Brides must die?
-- June 11, 2012
UK Religious Groups Unite to
Condemn Female Genital Mutilation -- June 20, 2014
